Drogi i bezdroża życia „prawdziwego komunisty”. Kilka uwag na marginesie książki Piotra Lipińskiego

Abstrakt

Piotr Lipiński’s work entitled Bierut. Kiedy partia była bogiem (Bierut. When the Party Was God) is an interested contribution to capturing the history of Stalinism in Poland. Bolesław Bierut is one of the key figures of the period when Poland was subjected to Stalinisation (1944/1945–1956). This biography is characterised by its inconsistence and variedness while at the same time the topicality of the historical process and experience shared by millions of citizens of the Polish People’s Republic. It is no typical historical biography but a multifaceted biographical reportage, written lightly yet drawing on solid research techniques used by historians as well as correctly anchored in source material. The novelty here consists in original interviews with Bierut’s former collaborators as well as persons who have come into contact withhim. This has allowed the Author to offer Bierut’s both microscale – referring to his personallife – and macroscale picture (the latter by sketching his figure against broader constituent partsof a historical process).