Conference "Taming the Revolution: The Experiences of the Societies of Poland and Central Europe in the Years 1945–1989" | CALL FOR PAPERS - Instytut Pileckiego

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the academic conference “Taming the Revolution: The Experiences of the Societies of Poland and Central Europe in the Years 1945–1989”, which will be held on October 17–18, 2025, in Warsaw.

The Pilecki Institute, acting in cooperation with the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, will hold a scholarly conference entitled Taming the Revolution: The Experiences of the Societies of Poland and Central Europe in the Years 1945–1989 in Warsaw on 17 and 18 October 2025. The conference will mark a continuation of last year’s congress entitled The Future of Central and East European Studies, while its subject matter will be developed upon in successive years during annual, cyclical international scholarly events.

Its premise is to complement the picture of the history of Communist Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, dominated as it is by political history, with the perspective of social history. Expanding this vision to include a deeper reflection on social and cultural phenomena, based on a broadened, more modern catalog of research queries and theoretical approaches, can help make the picture not only more panoramic, but also multifaceted. Such a perspective will also allow for a better understanding of the similarities and differences, observed post-1989, that characterized the states and societies of the former Eastern Bloc.

The conference will provide an opportunity to bring together researchers representing various scholarly disciplines (such as history, anthropology, sociology, memory studies and others), who are engaged in the analysis of social changes taking place in each of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, thus contributing to a better understanding of historical processes in the post-war history of Poland and the region.

The following issues will be addressed, among others:

• Old and new social and professional structures;
• One nation? Ethnic diversity and national minorities;
• The city and the countryside: new spaces and social relations and processes;
• Women, family, age groups;
• The Communist Party, authority, society;
• Internal and external migrations;

The organizers remain open to other submissions, which may exceed the above-mentioned topical areas.

Proposed texts (with a brief elaboration, not exceeding approximately 1,000 characters with spaces), each accompanied by a biographical note (200 characters with spaces), should be sent in by 30 June 2025 to konferencja2025@instytutpileckiego.pl.

Feedback as to the acceptance or rejection of proposals will be sent by 11 July 2025. The organizers will provide board and lodging.

The anticipated effect of the conference – both the present and subsequent editions – will be the preparation and publication of high-scoring works which will not only summarize the conference debates, but also constitute a proposal for a synthetic presentation of the social history of Communist Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The result, therefore, will be a publication summarizing the most important scholarly findings in the field.