Nation and Empire: Dilemmas of Legitimacy during Stalinism in Poland (1941-1956).

The article examines the ways in which Polish communists made use of national rhetoric and ritual during the first ten years of communist party rule in Poland after the end of World War II. Particular attention is paid to placing this issue within a wider context of Russian-Polish relations in the 19th and 20th centuries. Polish communists faced the dilemma of being viewed by many as the agents of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. The reinvention of Polish patriotism in 1944 is discussed. The founding of the Polska Partia Robotnicza (Polish Workers' Party) is described. The events of the year 1956 are said to mark the end of the "great friendship" between the Soviet Union and Poland.