Peasants and Landlords: Memory of the Post-War Gentry's Expropriation in Poland

Abstract

The article attempts to present the memory of the expropriation of the gentry that was carried out in the Polish countryside by the Communist authorities in 1944-45 as part of the agrarian reform, and the current approach of the countryside toward the legacy of landowners. The article presents two case studies of neighbouring villages on the border of the historical Kielce and Krakow regions: Pławowice and Paśmiechy. It draws on memories from the period under research and presently-conducted field studies to investigate the memory of landowners and their expropriation and, to a lesser extent, the division of land and social transformations that followed. The analysis then focuses on the inclusion (or exclusion) of the memory of the past associated with landowners into local group identity-building, and the relationship between biographical and collective memory, as well as the behaviour of mnemonic actors.