Working out Socialism "Labor and Politics in Socialist Autobiography in Twentieth-Century Poland"

Abstract

The concept of socialism has been, from its very beginning, fairly ambiguous. Two meanings have been in constant competition. Socialism was at once a political movement as well as the state of society that this movement attempted to put into practice. How were these two dimensions interwoven into the writings of those who had lived socialist lives to eventually live in socialism, at least according to the official declarations?¹ Because of a different sequence of events, Polish working-class socialists, unlike Russian/Soviet ones, often had years of experience as socialist militants behind them when they finally faced actually existing socialism (exceptions are discussed in Zelnik, “On the Eve”). Polish working-class socialists passed through several formative stages before they were encouraged to write their testimonies.