THE POLISH FAMILY: ALWAYS AN INSTITUTION?

Abstract

In the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century, the role and character of the Polish family was prescribed by specific political conditions. Because of the repressions against Poles (especially in the parts of Poland which were under Prussian and Russian occupation) and the lack of a national education system and other specific social institutions, the family took over some functions that, under normal conditions, would have been fulfilled by these institutions (Bojar, 1991). This occurred over the past 120 years, after the loss of nationhood in 1795. It is assumed that next to the Church, the family played the deciding role in the transmission of many values and skills that are necessary for sustaining national identity. “Poland became a family” (Łoziński, 1958) not only because “occupants did not manage to control the Polish home” but also because, after 1945, the family was the basic reference group for Polish society.

Citation

Titkow, A. and Duch, D. (2004), "THE POLISH FAMILY: ALWAYS AN INSTITUTION?", Robila, M. (Ed.) Families in Eastern Europe (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 5), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 69-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1530-3535(04)05005-8