When and why is the forgotten past recovered? The Battle of Warsaw, 1920 and the role of local actors in the production of memory
Memory scholars mostly agree that although social memory is culturally constructed, political and institutional actors encounter various constraints when adapting the past to their group’s needs and values. The aim of this article is to revisit this old question of the malleability and persistence of the past but in the context of the intensive memory production that emerged during a period of rapid change in post-communist transitional states. First, the article probes the question why some collective memories re-emerge after a long period of suppression while others do not. And second, it examines the conditions under which local rather than national actors become more successful in recovering the forgotten past. The focus is on Poland; its distinct history of frequent ruptures in the continuity of commemorative tradition not only opens up opportunities for less constrained work of remembrance but also for repositioning the standing of national and local agents of memory production.