Legal regulations in the field of cultural heritage protection in Poland in the years 1944-1989 in terms of cultural security of the country

The article attempts to analyze the meaning of legal regulations developed in the field of cultural heritage protection in the years 1944-1989. It has been argued that these years were markedly different in terms of law in the sphere of cultural heritage protection than the period between 1918 and 1939 analyzed by the author in another article. The author decided to refer to legal acts and literature in the form of elaborations and magazines in the field of monuments protection. The specificity of the chosen subject and problem required the choice of a scientific method in the form of legal acts analysis, supported by literature review. The presented information shows that the period between 1944 and 1989 was characterized by a different approach of the Polish authorities towards the issue of cultural heritage protection in comparison to the years 1918-1939. The mentioned protection had an instrumental character and was one of the political-ideological tools influencing the society. Furthermore, the growth of legal protection of cultural assets in the age of the PRL took place in the conditions of centralized administration that adopted the idea of social distribution of many such assets, which led to devastation of numerous immovable monuments and sometimes also the antique furnishings. All the introduced legal regulations required a thorough change and redefinition of the legal status after the political-structural transformation of 1989.