Integrating the past: regional integration and historical reckoning in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This article considers how regional integration in Europe has informed processes of collective remembrance and transitional justice in Central and Eastern Europe. By taking the cases of Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic, two claims are made. First, although European institutions have not initiated top-down projects of historical reckoning, activists who have an interest in promoting engagement with the recent past have been able to draw the political, financial and/or judicial weight of European institutions behind particular reckoning initiatives, on an ad hoc basis. Second, the nature of the projects that have been realized with the assistance of European resources has varied across the region, according to the extent of prior efforts to promote collective remembrance and transitional justice at the national level. Where there have previously been constraints on historical reckoning, activists have drawn “Europe” behind efforts to promote national-level confrontations with particularly national experiences of communist rule. By contrast, where there has previously been extensive state sponsorship of collective remembrance projects and/or processes of transitional justice, European resources have been used in support of efforts to raise awareness of the repressions of communist rule, and transitions from that system of rule, among a wider, international audience.

Keywords:

• collective remembrance
• transitional justice
• European regional integration
• Poland
• Romania
• Czech Republic

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Piotr Filipkowski, Denisa Kostovicova, Mary Martin, Nadya Nedelsky, Melanie Ram, Lavinia Stan and two anonymous reviewers for their readings of earlier drafts of this paper. Of course, I bear sole responsibility for any errors, omissions, or misrepresentations.

Notes

Institute of National Remembrance. “About the Institute.” n.d. Web. 3 Aug. 2010.

See details on the website of OFICC. n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2010.

Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. “Chronology: Coming to Terms with the Totalitarian Past.” n.d. Web. 30 Jul. 2010.

I am grateful to Lavinia Stan for her input here.

Departamentul de Comunicare Publică, Preşedintele României. “Comunicat de presă.” 5 Apr. 2006. Web. 12 Oct. 2010.

Based on comments made by a representative of the Arts Institute-Theatre Institute, Czech Republic. Personal communication. 27 Apr. 2010.

Further details provided by the “Europe for Citizens” Division of DG Communication, European Commission. Personal communication. 22 Sept. 2010.

See details on the website of Fundaţia Culturală ‘Negru Vodă’, Făgăraş. “Remember: Keep Alive the Past Memory For the Future.” n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2010.

Data supplied by the IICCMER. Personal communication. 28 Apr. 2010.

Six Polish MEPs contributed. By way of comparison, only one Romanian and one Czech MEP spoke.

Seven Polish MEPs contributed. By way of comparison, three Romanian MEPs spoke, as did two Czechs.

Jan Kossakowski, director of Foundation KOS. Personal communication. 4 Mar. 2011.

See details on the website of Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej. “Let's Talk About Freedom: About the Program.” Warsaw, 21 Oct. 2008. Web. 7 Aug. 2010.

While the program was primarily focused on deportations conducted under Nazi rule, the terms of the European Commission's grant also allowed for attention to be given to Stalinist deportations (European Commission, “Programme ‘Europe for Citizens’”).

See details on the website of Herstoria – pamięć kobiet. “Herstory – Women's Memory of the Past.” n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2010.

Piotr Filipkowski, researcher at the KARTA Foundation. Personal communication. 1 Mar. 2011.

Jan Vytopil, formerly spokesman and Presidency events coordinator for the Czech Permanent Representation to the European Union, Brussels. Personal communication. 5 May 2010.

Jan Vytopil. Personal communication. 11 Aug. 2010.

I am thankful to officers from DG Communication for their assistance in providing these details.

See details on the website of the Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. “Activities During the Period of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU.” 2009. Web. 21 Nov. 2009.

See details on the website of DG Education and Culture. “DG EAC – European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008) – Enemy's Daughters.” n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. <interculturaldialogue2008.eu>.

See details on the website of Opona. “Futurama: About.” 2010. Web.7 Aug. 2010.

See details on the website of the Czech ISTR. “Twenty Years After: Central and Eastern European Communist Regimes as a Shared Legacy – Programme.” n.d. Web. 25 Jul. 2010.

See the full text of the Prague Declaration. n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2009.

See all ECHR judgements related to restitution in Poland, 2001–2010. ECHR HUDOC Portal. N.d. Web. 2 Aug. 2010.

See all ECHR judgements related to restitution in the Czech Republic, 2000–2010. ECHR HUDOC Portal. n.d. Web. 2 Aug. 2010.