In order to apply, please:
- fill in the application form
- specify the subject of the submission
- prepare an abstract (500 words)
and send the above to: adam.szpotanski@ipn.gov.pl and grzegorz.waligora@ipn.gov.pl.
Should you have any queries, please call +48 71 326 97 36.
The organisers reserve the right to select papers from among the submitted proposals (this is due to the limited number of places). Selected speakers will be informed of the acceptance of their papers by 30 July 2023 (by e-mail). The conference is free of charge, the organisers provide catering and accommodation (23/24 October), transport costs for speakers from Poland remain with the speaker or the scientific unit delegating him/her. For foreign speakers, there is an optional possibility to cover travel costs.
The security apparatus in all Eastern Bloc countries was constantly on the lookout for enemies who threatened the stability of the communist system. The communists' conviction that there were anti-revolutionary circles in a given country which should be subjugated or destroyed can be seen in many elements of socialist ideology. However, were the same circles considered enemies of the system in each country? How was the fight against them conducted? Did the history, culture and traditions of the nation in question influence the method of operational work against these groups, and were there any Soviet guidelines or models on which the security apparatus modelled its work?
The chronological framework of the conference is set by political events which had a wide-ranging impact on the thinking and initiatives of an oppositional and anti-systemic nature throughout the Eastern Bloc. On the one hand, it was the bloody suppression of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956, and on the other, the rise and activity of the Solidarity Trade Union in Poland in 1980.
Conference language: Polish, English, (simultaneous translation)
Presentations: 20 minutes (a laptop and projector with screen will be available, please send your presentation before the conference to adam.szpotanski@ipn.gov.pl)
Monograph: Articles should be submitted by 30 November 2023 in either Polish or English. The texts will be published in the form of a multi-author monograph after a positive peer-review.
Thematic blocks:
Block 1 – Church and religious associations
Block 2 – Veterans and independent political circles (pre- and post-war), emigration
Block 3 – Scientific and artistic communities
Block 4 – Social resistance and activities of opposition groups
Block 5 – Opposition within the party and in officially operating organisations
Block 6 – Subcultures
Issues:
- policy towards particular circles perceived as hostile
- methods and means of surveillance
- principles and criteria for recruiting agents
- political processes
- propaganda against “enemies of the system”
- reaction of the clergy hierarchy of the respective denominations to the repressive activity of the security forces (bishop, episcopate of the country concerned, patriarch, pope, parish, church)
A prerequisite for accepting the paper's proposal would be to respect the principle that it is the system and not the people that should be the object of reflection, since the point is not to dwell excessively on individual cases of people – unless their example, e.g. of surveillance or repression, can be considered exemplary and repeated time after time.