Municipalities and the search for the local past: Fragmented memory of the red army in Upper Silesia

In administratively decentralized Poland it is the self-governing and revived municipality that is in charge of historical memory. While urban centers need to respond to a historical heritage that impacts their socioeconomic future, local authorities emerge as active constructors of commemorative practices. To connect with their electorate and define the relationship between the municipality and its citizens, not only in terms of citizens' rights, but also with reference to their responsibilities, they need to draw on a communal past to legitimize their activities and to forge a shared local identity that would promote communal solidarity. Moreover, municipal authorities, while operating in distinct urban landscapes and responding to specific challenges and needs, conduct divergent politics of memory. It is this fragmentation and diversification of commemorative practices at local level that has the most potential to challenge a nationalizing version of historical past propagated by the state. © 2009 Sage Publications.