Changes and Continuity in Remembrance of the Past and Process of Local Community Rooting. The Case of Olsztyn

The article deals with the settling down process of the newcomers to post-war Olsztyn, i. e. their effortsto develop their own relationship with the environment of the place of residence they arrived in fromother territories. The author believes that the “national” (Polish) version of reading of the past of the citythat took root in the Soviet years and that neglected the regional specificities of Warmia and Masuriaserved as one of the major stimuli accounting for the settlers’ formation of meaningful relationshipswith Olsztyn. By comparing the meanings used in the formation of relationships in the periods beforeand after 1989, the author demonstrates that the said “national” version of reading the past of the citypresently co-exists with the efforts to to popularize regional history and the multiculturalism of the pastof Warmia and Masuria.KEY WORDS: Olsztyn, Warmia, East Prussian cultural heritage, collective memory, symbolic appropriation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/ahuk.v24i0.29