The previous chapter raised the issue of the fictional characters’ attitudes toward Catholicism in Communist Poland. The role of the Church in an ostensibly atheist state was a significant one and deserves further contextualization and analysis. Before venturing to explore the literary reflections of the last communist generation's religiosity, a brief historical overview of the symbiotic relationship between Church/religion and state/nation in Poland, particularly during the forty-five years of Communist rule and the transitional period, is useful.

Historical Overview

Asserted by Polish nationalists and the Catholic Church alike, the myth of Poland's intrinsic Catholicity has been convincingly challenged by a number of American and British scholars. Brian Porter and Genevieve Zubrzycki point out that before the third partition of Poland in 1795, the Polish nation was defined in civic rather than ethnic terms: it consisted of all members of the nobility inhabiting the Polish-Lithuanian lands, regardless of economic status, ethnic origins, or religious affiliation. Catholicism, although present and influential, did not play a defining role in the Polish nobility's sense of national identity. In fact, during the Renaissance and Reformation, Calvinism spread rapidly among the nobility, and by the mid-sixteenth century Protestants formed the majority in the senate. The peaceful coexistence of diverse ethnicities and religions gained the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth a reputation as a pluralistic and tolerant state, a desirable refuge in times of violent religious persecution in Europe.

The subsequent Counter-Reformation reestablished the authority of Roman Catholicism and secured its monopoly in the Polish kingdom, but not without compulsion and political restrictions. Around that time, a powerful national myth was created, the myth of Poland as Antemurale Christianaties (bulwark of Christendom), which highlighted the Poles’ devotion to Christianity/Catholicism and strengthened the interdependence of nation and religion.

The Polish-Lithuanian Democracy of Nobles, based on an elective monarchy and governed by a common parliament, stood in stark contrast to other European countries, most of which were absolute monarchies in the seventeenth century. Particularism eventually trumped patriotism (loyalty to the dynasty) when the Polish deputies began to abuse the unique liberum veto, which guaranteed every nobleman the right to oppose a decision made by the majority in the Parliament.