Abstract: In most of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, oral history was initiated in the circles of dissidents in the 1980s. Memories of the politically marginalised or persecuted citizens were the source of insights into uncensored versions of recent past. Therefore the term “a witness to history” is central to the “civic historiography”, which has been developed in Poland. After the fall of communism, the civic participation in the archiving, educating and researching has been institutionalised and identifies itself as oral history. ...
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