Post-communist truth-revelation procedures as a means of political legitimation and de-legitimation: The case of Lech Wałęsa in Poland

This paper examines the way that issues of lustration and file access have become embroiled in what might be termed the ‘politics of history’. This concept, linked originally with strengthening Poland’s national unity and cohesion by helping to ensure that its interpretation of history on issues was widely accepted in international circles, is applied to the way that contemporary history, particularly the communist past, has been used to legitimate certain political actors and de-legitimate their opponents. As a case study of the way in which this process became entwined in post-communist debates about truth-revelation procedures and how to deal with the communist past, the paper examines divisions within the post-Solidarity elite over whether or not Lech Wałęsa collaborated with the communist secret services as an informer in the early 1970s.