SLAVC 90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Golden Liberty, National Epic, Vistula
Document Summary
Lecture 6: polish catholicism (cont. from lecture 5: myth of polish gentry) Weakened and divided commonwealth kept in place by prussia, russia, habsburgs as buffer between three kingdoms until they decided it would be more viable to split up. God, honor, fatherland -- motto of polish army; unofficial motto of poland itself. Epiphany holiday-- also called three kings (also big in hispanic countries); shows that. Poland conflated with catholicism constitution-- moment of clarity for gentry; first real constitution in europe, may 3 1791. Solidarity would not have been possible without support of church. Workers" uprising 1976-- for the first time polish workers and intellectuals got together and created committee for defense of intellectuals, patron was catholic church. Solidarity era poland unique among soviet bloc in that there were two centers of loyalty-- Lech wa sa signed papers that made solidarity an official trade union with pen a gift from john paul ii)
