Myths Pertaining to Polish Americans in the Press of Communist Poland

Abstract

This article is based on an analysis of about 400 articles published in the Polish press under the communist regime. It shows how communist propaganda addressed existing myths about the Polish diaspora in the United States and created new ones that corresponded with its needs. The following elements of the “Polish American myth” are discussed: the importance and strength of the Polish‑American ethnic group, Polish Americans as descendants of the peasant emigration of the turn of the 20th century, American prosperity and the American dream, Polish Americans as Americanized Poles and “Polonia” as “the fourth partition” of Poland, and the myth of the Polish‑American left.