The Un-Polish Poland, 1989 and the Illusion of Regained Historical Continuity

This text discusses historical continuities and discontinuities between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, interwar Poland, the Polish People's Republic, and contemporary Poland. The year 1989 is seen as a clear pointbreak that allowed the Poles and their country to regain a 'natural historical continuity' with the 'Second Republic,' as interwar Poland is commonly referred to in the current Polish national master narrative. In this pattern of thinking about the past, Poland-Lithuania (nowadays roughly coterminous with Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia's Kaliningrad Region and Ukraine) is seen as the 'First Republic.' However, in spite of this 'politics of memory' (Geschichtspolitik) - regarding its borders, institutions, law, language, or ethnic and social makeup - present-day Poland, in reality, is the direct successor to and the continuation of communist Poland.--