“Solidarity” and the Martial Law in the Collective Memory of Polish History

Author analyze the processes of development of the collective memory of “Solidarity” and the martial law and try to determine their place in collective memory of Polish history. The analyze is based on data from five sociological surveys made in two periods divided by sixteenth years in which communist regime has collapsed and a new political regime emerged. The analyzes shows the ambivalent evaluation of this two events which diminish with time and “Solidarity” is more univocally seen as the positive event of Polish history and martial law as the negative one. In spite of this, the author suggest that there is no reason to think that ambivalence towards “Solidarity” and martial law will disappear completely.