Dreaming of Changes in the National Imaginary: Remarks on Andrzej Leder’s Book

In connection with Andrzej Leder’s book Prześniona rewolucja. Ćwiczenie z logiki historycznej [The Missed Revolution: Exercise in Historical Logic] (2014), the author of the article considers the question of examining difficult areas of the past, which he believes has still not been accomplished in Poland. The issue has been addressed in regard to the Holocaust only to become a major point in the public dispute between the conservative right and leftist and liberal camps. The author decidedly supports the need for historical and moral reflection in this regard, yet he also expresses reservations about excessive concentration on the economic consequences of the Holocaust and on the postwar agricultural reforms and nationalization (which largely form the subject of Leder’s reflections). He points out that all settling of accounts in regard to history are extraordinarily complicated. In his opinion, the equally — if not more — important sphere of “unconscious and denied guilt” in Polish society is its general and conformist engagement on the side of the Polish communist party (PZPR)