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Greek “Heroes” in the Polish People's Republic and the Geopolitics of the Cold War, 1948–1956*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Michael Fleming
Michael Fleming*
Affiliation:
Academy of Humanities and Economics, ul. Rewolucji 1905 r. Nr 64, 90–222 Łódź, Poland, and the Polish University Abroad, 240 King Street, London W6, UK. Email: fleming_m11@hotmail.com
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Extract

Over the last decade or so there has been renewed interest in the Greek civil war, with a number of important publications shifting the focus of research from the high plane of international relations and Cold War polemics to a critical history of the period, allowing unheard voices and perspectives to be heard and revealed. The volume edited by Mark Mazower, for example, places the experiences of the 1940s in the longue durée of Greek nation-state formation as well as in the wider context of war and post-war violence and resistance—the social character of which is emphasized. Yet the importance of the Greek civil war in the emergence of the Cold War cannot be underestimated as Gerolymatos makes clear. This paper, therefore, aims to demonstrate how the refugees from Greece who arrived in Poland constitute an important part of Cold War history and to show how their experience in Poland can shed light upon both the wider international context and the dynamics of nationality policy in Poland itself. I contend that the arrival of Greek refugees weakened the Polish state's drive to national homogeneity.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , July 2008 , pp. 375 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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