Waldemar Chorążyczewski - Archives and memory. From the history of Polish archives


The need of satisfying memory as a reason for accumulation and storage of archival materials emerged in Poland at the turn of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I particular magnates families were concerned about due a protection of their archives as a prestige determinant. It came together with a common process of emergence of central archives in European countries, appearance of first archival treatises, as well as educational revolution, which resulted in familiarity of social elite with every-day work with text from early age. Eighteenth century brought increased of the science society in the archives in whole Europe. In Poland to even larger extent they were designed for construction of ancestral memory. Apart from the however they were added a virtue of national memory guard. The archives would deliver an argument for thesis of eternity and invariability of the best from among worlds, in which lived Poles in declining years of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They became a sign of durability of the state and Polish style of life, a period of the nobility as a political nation, in other words a treasure house of collective memory of Poles. Engagement of the archives into a duty of national memory deepened in nineteenth century, when official archives laid most often in hands of invasive countries. A great significance gained private archives, which collected also numerous public archival materials. Archival materials were to guard an identity of the nation, reminding its great past. Today, when domestic archives got under protection of Polish state, a national issue became to extend this tutelage onto archives that are scattered all over the world. In contemporary world the correlation between archives and memory is being reshaped but not weakening. Emergence of new superstate continental communities, where Europe is leading, challenges the archives. Official political agenda requires seeking in the past of particular countries indications of supranational cultural unity in order to build European identity. As for the opponents continental unification the archives will yet remain a treasure house of proofs of distinction and greatness of countries histories, thus a guard of memory, the use of archives is of manipulative character. Finally, there appeared a conception of a world memory. In the long run however, the thing that guarantees public consent to existence of archives is not the need of memory, yet it is a satisfaction of human curiosity.