THE POLISH COMMITTEE’S OF NATIONAL LIBERATION POLICY TOWARDS MUSEUMS

After World War II museums in Poland werebound to serve political purposes. The aim of new governmentwas to shape citizens’ awareness according to theStalinist ideology. 21 July 1944, the Polish Committee ofNational Liberation (further PKWN) was created in Moscowunder the patronage of Joseph Stalin. From 1 August 1944,it was located in Lublin together with its Arts and CultureDepartment. The period from 21 July 1944 to the end ofDecember 1944 on the so-called liberated territories is discussedherein in the context of museums’ formation. It wasthe time when new institutions were created (e.g. Museumof Majdanek Concentration Camp) and those existing priorto WWII were re-established, such as the Lublin Museumor the National Museum of Przemyśl. In 1944, museumswere facing many problems, inter alia, war damages, plunderby the People’s Army that quartered here, financialdifficulties, personnel shortage. The lack of professionalsin museums was the result of the PKWN strategy at thetime, which first of all required propaganda specialists inculture institutions. The land reform initiated in 1944 affectedmuseums to some extent; they were receiving worksof art which had been confiscated from parcelled out landedproperties. The only reason for it was the ideological one,however – from the historical point of view – they are regardedas unjust and immoral persecution and harassmentagainst groups of society held by the communists in contempt,i.e. landowners.Sources on which the article has been based: reports ofthe PKWN and Culture Divisions of Regional Offices (Lublin,Rzeszów, Białystok, and Warsaw), which are in the possessionof the Archives of Modern History Records (ArchiwumAkt Nowych) in Warsaw.