Cultural Heritage of Lemkos as a Research Problem in the Humanities and the Topic of Discourse in Poland

Abstract

The cultural heritage of Lemkos is today one of those European values that have found themselves in danger. The reason for this is not only the project of political and economic unification of Europe, which will inevitably trigger far-reaching cultural unification and violate ethnic and national traditions in its area, but also an event from over 80 years ago – the displacement of Lemkos from their homeland and the dispersion and assimilation in a different ethnic environment, as well as the destruction of material and spiritual heritage on the territory of this homeland and its resettlement by newcomers inheriting an alien culture. Among the many issues that come with it, two are the subject of this review. The first are the attitudes of Poles towards the Lemko heritage, which are reflected in the public discourse understood here not only as statements, but also as initiatives. The importance of this issue stems from the fact that the fate of the Lemko heritage is decided primarily within the context of contemporary Polish culture, although it is justified to disagree with the common identification of Poland with the communist authors and performers of the action of 1947, which destroyed the Lemko region as a homogeneous cultural area. The second issue is the way of analyzing the fate of this heritage in the humanities, wchich is devoid of a comparative perspective. It dominates today, narrowing research horizons as well as exerting a tangible influence on the choice of strategies for rescuing and transmitting endangered cultural content. In this regard, attention should be paid to the need to learn about and compare analogous cultural catastrophes caused by communist totalitarianism, as well as the strategies of survival and rebirth of the destroyed cultures.