Books by Zuzanna Bogumil
Peter Lang, 2019
This book shows how vernacular communities commemorate their traumatic experiences of the Second ... more This book shows how vernacular communities commemorate their traumatic experiences of the Second World War. Despite having access to many diverse memory frameworks typical of late modernity, these communities primarily function within religious memory frameworks. The book also traces how they reacted when their local histories were incorporated into the remembrance practices of the state. The authors draw on case studies of four vernacular communities, notably Kałków-Godów, Michniów, Jedwabne and Markowa, to argue that it is still possible in the Polish countryside to discover milieux de mémoire. At the same time, they show that the state not only uses local histories to bolster its moral capital in the international arena, but also in matters of domestic policy.
Berghahn Books, 2018
Gulag Memories shows how the Soviet repressions were commemorated in Russia from the late 1980s o... more Gulag Memories shows how the Soviet repressions were commemorated in Russia from the late 1980s onwards, a liminal period when the state no longer made memory of the repressions a taboo topic but had not yet introduced an official state policy on their remembrance. This book investigates the first Gulag memory projects, which usually took the form of memorials or exhibitions, and what social functions they performed. It also provides a thick description of these projects, which examines the cultural and social background to these projects and the discussions that revolved around them in some depth. This should help the reader to understand why, despite the Memorial Society’s attempts to transform Gulag memory into an important unifying agent binding together a nascent democratic community, its secular interpretation of the past never met with full social acceptance. Instead, it is the New Martyrdom interpretation offered by the Russian Orthodox Church that ultimately received state support and is currently being used to create an identity for a new national community grounded in Russian Orthodoxy. Gulag Memory therefore not only explains the process whereby a conceptual framework for Gulag memory was formed, but also elucidates the social function of this memory within contemporary Russia. This should enable the meanings of today’s projects and memorialization activities to be better comprehended.
Wydawnictwo Scholar, 2018
W kulturze współczesnej, w kulturze później nowoczesności, jesteśmy świadkami i uczestnikami prze... more W kulturze współczesnej, w kulturze później nowoczesności, jesteśmy świadkami i uczestnikami przełomu w obszarze pamięci społecznej. Z jednej strony wciąż mamy do czynienia z upamiętnieniami charakterystycznymi dla przednowoczesności i nowoczesności, czego wyrazem jest ciągłe wykorzystywanie symboliki religijnej jako nośnika pamięci, wznoszenie pomników, czy odtwarzanie rytuałów obchodów rocznicowych. Z drugiej strony coraz częściej pamięć społeczna wyraża się w szeregu nowych form pamięci, stymulowanych nowymi technikami komunikacji, archiwizacji itp., ale też działaniach wskazujących na nowe sposoby przeżywania przeszłości, oparte na zmysłowym (estetycznym) i emocjonalnym zaangażowaniu w performans odtwarzający to, co było. Mając na uwadze ciągłości i zmiany widoczne w obszarze pamięci społecznej autorzy niniejszej monografii podjęli się dyskusji wokół starych i nowych form manifestacji pamięci. Czytelnik znajdzie tu zarówno teksty teoretyczne jak i szczegółowe studia przypadku. Niewątpliwą wartością publikacji jest to, że pokazuje ona całe spektrum starych i nowych form upamiętniania, od pomników, przez muzea i rytuały upamiętniające po rekonstrukcje historycznych. Ponadto, czyni to odwołując się do upamiętnień różnych wydarzeń historycznych, Holocaustu, zbrodni katyńskiej, rzezi Wołynia, Powstania Warszawskiego, rzezi Woli, czy bitwy warszawskiej 1920 roku. Książka ta jest obowiązkową lekturą dla wszystkich zainteresowanych problematyką pamięci i przemianami upamiętniania we współczesnej Polsce.
Eastern European museums represent traumatic events of World War II, such as the Siege of Leningr... more Eastern European museums represent traumatic events of World War II, such as the Siege of Leningrad, the Warsaw Uprisings, and the Bombardment of Dresden, in ways that depict the enemy in particular ways. This image results from the interweaving of historical representations, cultural stereotypes and beliefs, political discourses, and the dynamics of exhibition narratives. This book presents a useful methodology for examining museum images and provides a critical analysis of the role historical museums play in the contemporary world. As the catastrophes of World War II still exert an enormous influence on the national identities of Russians, Poles, and Germans, museum exhibits can thus play an important role in this process.
Contents:
List of Illustrations
Preface: Project's History (Zuzanna Bogumił)
Acknowledgements (Zuzanna Bogumił)
Introduction: The Enemy on Display
Chapter 1. Temple of Heroic Community: Soviet people, Leningraders and German-Fascists in the State Museum of the History of St Petersburg
Chapter 2. Temple of Romantic Martyrdom: Poles, Germans and Jews in the Historical Museum of Warsaw
Chapter 3. Forum Revising National Myths: Second World War in the Dresden City Museum
Conclusions
Appendix: Museum descriptions: The Second War World and City History
Notes on Contributors
Papers by Zuzanna Bogumil
Kultura i Społeczeństwo, Nov 22, 2011
MIEJSCE PAMIĘCI VERSUS SYMULACJA PRZESZŁOŚCI-DRUGA WOJNA ŚWIATOWA NA WYSTAWACH HISTORYCZNYCH "Muz... more MIEJSCE PAMIĘCI VERSUS SYMULACJA PRZESZŁOŚCI-DRUGA WOJNA ŚWIATOWA NA WYSTAWACH HISTORYCZNYCH "Muzea nie są już miastami-państwami dzierżącymi specjalistyczną wiedzę dostępną jedynie na wystawach i nigdzie więcej na ziemi. Nie. Dzisiaj […] propozycja tego, co powinno znaleźć się za drzwiami muzeum, musi być na nowo przemyślana".
Laboratorium, Aug 10, 2018
In this article we consider the importance of the Solovetskie Islands for understanding of the me... more In this article we consider the importance of the Solovetskie Islands for understanding of the memory of the Gulag in Russia. To better explain our argumentation we take a program we have developed for the Center for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding, which in July 2017 organized a summer school for PhD students from Poland and Russia on the Solovetskie Islands. By showing the assumptions and goals of the course we explain the complexity of the memory of Soviet repressions on Solovki in particular and in Russia in general. We describe the different memory narratives of Solovki's repressive past that are present on the islands. We show that to understand the memory of Soviet repressions, it is important to recognize these diverse narratives produced by different memory actors, such as activists with the nonprofit Memorial Society and the staff of the local museum, but also various representatives of the local community. It is important not only to grasp what these narratives are about but also the interrelationships between them.
East European Politics and Societies, Jun 25, 2018
In the year 2000, during the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, more than one tho... more In the year 2000, during the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, more than one thousand victims of Soviet repressions-people persecuted and murdered by the Soviet regime-were glorified and named the New Russian Martyrs. By presenting the origin and background of the phenomenon, authors demonstrate that the New Martyrdom is a kind of invented tradition. They focus on analysis of the tension that occurs when history becomes religion by highlighting some problematic issues with regard to the New Martyrdom and showing how the Russian Orthodox Church is addressing them. The analysis sheds new light on the political use of religion for the creation of narrative about the past in contemporary Russia.
Material Religion, Mar 15, 2023
Routledge eBooks, Feb 2, 2023
Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research
In this article we consider the importance of the Solovetskie Islands for understanding of the me... more In this article we consider the importance of the Solovetskie Islands for understanding of the memory of the Gulag in Russia. To better explain our argumentation we take a program we have developed for the Center for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding, which in July 2017 organized a summer school for PhD students from Poland and Russia on the Solovetskie Islands. By showing the assumptions and goals of the course we explain the complexity of the memory of Soviet repressions on Solovki in particular and in Russia in general. We describe the different memory narratives of Solovki's repressive past that are present on the islands. We show that to understand the memory of Soviet repressions, it is important to recognize these diverse narratives produced by different memory actors, such as activists with the nonprofit Memorial Society and the staff of the local museum, but also various representatives of the local community. It is important not only to grasp what these narratives are about but also the interrelationships between them.
関西学院大学（日本学術振興会・課題設定による先導的人文学・社会科学研究推進事業（グローバル展開プログラム）「グローバル社会におけるデモクラシーと国民史・集合的記憶の機能に関する学際的研究」プロジ... more 関西学院大学（日本学術振興会・課題設定による先導的人文学・社会科学研究推進事業（グローバル展開プログラム）「グローバル社会におけるデモクラシーと国民史・集合的記憶の機能に関する学際的研究」プロジェクト）vii, 54 p
Kultura i Społeczeństwo, 2017
This article looks on Jedwabne and the debate on Polish involvement in the Holocaust from the per... more This article looks on Jedwabne and the debate on Polish involvement in the Holocaust from the perspective of the Jedwabians. The author shows that until the erection of the national monument to the murdered Jews in Jedwabne in 2001, the Jedwabians’ memory of their Jewish neighbors was a part of local memory. Jedwabians commemorated the Jews in accordance with their frames of memory. The point is that the people in Jedwabne are first of all a members of parish community, so their memory is religious in nature. This has a profound effect on their relationship to the past and their perception of the role of monuments and memorials. By reconstructing the history of the erection of selected monuments in Jedwabne, the author shows which events of the past Jedwabians want to commemorate and what social function is played by memory of the commemorated events. She also considers to what degree memory of the group’s past lies at the base of the Jedwabians’ contemporary identity.
Kultura i Spoleczenstwo, Mar 21, 2016
Kolekcja zdjęć Feliksa Łukowskiego 1 przez znawców tematyki uważana jest za cenny dokument epoki,... more Kolekcja zdjęć Feliksa Łukowskiego 1 przez znawców tematyki uważana jest za cenny dokument epoki, zapis życia zamojskich wsi w latach trzydziestych-pięćdziesiątych XX wieku. Jak pisał przyjaciel Łukowskiego, Jerzy Lewczyński (2005, s. 12), który poddał konserwacji negatywy fotografa-amatora, fotografie oddają pełniej prawdę o wyglądzie "tamtego czasu" i "tamtych dni". Czy jednak rzeczywiście tak jest? Czy przyglądając się tym fotografiom możemy zrekonstruować i zrozumieć realia życia ówczesnej wsi zamojskiej? Lewczyński twierdził, że fotografia ma "zdolność przekazywania pamięci o przeszłości". Czy zatem widoki uchwycone na negatywach Łukowskiego pokrywają się z tym, co zostało zapisane w pamięci świadków tamtych wydarzeń? Czy zdjęcia przybliżają nas do tamtego świata, tak dalekiego od rzeczywistości, w której obecnie żyjemy? Odwołam się tu do wybranych fotografii z kolekcji Łukowskiego i wyników badań terenowych przeprowadzonych w ramach projektu "Z kolekcji zdjęć Feliksa Łukowskiego-rekonstrukcja życia wsi w latach 40. XX wieku na Zamojszczyźnie" 2 , pokażę, jak dalece to, co zostało uchwycone na negatywie,
What happens when the Church engages in public negotiations of history by hosting and funding a m... more What happens when the Church engages in public negotiations of history by hosting and funding a museum? "The Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko Museum in Warsaw" poses this question as it is located in a church and presents the life of Jerzy Popiełuszko, a Catholic priest who fought against the communist regime and was murdered in 1984. Today he is perceived both as a national hero and a Catholic martyr. The article critically reviews the current exhibition and how it combines questions of history and religion.
Kultura i Społeczeństwo, 2010
The authors analyse the presentation of WWII in the city museums of St Petersburg, Warsaw and Dre... more The authors analyse the presentation of WWII in the city museums of St Petersburg, Warsaw and Dresden. These narratives, they argue, are the effect of merging and interconnection of themes and elements coming from various types of discourse, shaped respectively by the local communities and by the state’s historical policy. Having characterised the most important elements of these two discourses, the authors indicate that to this day, the exhibitions contain interpretation patterns characteristic for the Cold War era. The dominant state discourse strongly influences the presentation of the city’s destruction and its inhabitants’ trauma. The exhibitions in both Warsaw and St Petersburg emphasize the image of an innocent victim attacked by the enemy, and present the city’s destruction in terms of lost but heroic struggle. In Dresden, there are visible references to the discourses of German guilt and German suffering. The exhibitions cannot detach themselves from the context of national...
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Books by Zuzanna Bogumil
Contents:
List of Illustrations
Preface: Project's History (Zuzanna Bogumił)
Acknowledgements (Zuzanna Bogumił)
Introduction: The Enemy on Display
Chapter 1. Temple of Heroic Community: Soviet people, Leningraders and German-Fascists in the State Museum of the History of St Petersburg
Chapter 2. Temple of Romantic Martyrdom: Poles, Germans and Jews in the Historical Museum of Warsaw
Chapter 3. Forum Revising National Myths: Second World War in the Dresden City Museum
Conclusions
Appendix: Museum descriptions: The Second War World and City History
Notes on Contributors
Papers by Zuzanna Bogumil
Contents:
List of Illustrations
Preface: Project's History (Zuzanna Bogumił)
Acknowledgements (Zuzanna Bogumił)
Introduction: The Enemy on Display
Chapter 1. Temple of Heroic Community: Soviet people, Leningraders and German-Fascists in the State Museum of the History of St Petersburg
Chapter 2. Temple of Romantic Martyrdom: Poles, Germans and Jews in the Historical Museum of Warsaw
Chapter 3. Forum Revising National Myths: Second World War in the Dresden City Museum
Conclusions
Appendix: Museum descriptions: The Second War World and City History
Notes on Contributors