Between the Brown and the Red

Between the Brown and the lied probes the trajectories of the modern nationalist movement and political continuities in Poland and East Central Europe from the inter-war period to the end of the Cold War. Tracing the evolution of the Marxist party-state into a nationalist-populist regime, it also captures the multifaceted nature of church-state relations in communist Poland, relations that oscillated between mutual confrontation, accommodation, and dialogue. Ironically, under communism the bond between religion and nation in Poland grew stronger. This happened in spite of the fact that the government deployed nationalist themes in order to portray itself as more Polish than communist. Between the Brown and the Red also introduces to the reader one of the most fascinating figures in the history of twentieth-century Poland and the communist world.

Mikolaj Stanislaw Kunicki is an assistant professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.