The article discusses the place of the Polish People’s Republic in contemporary projects for writing a people’s history of Poland, both as a historical period or subject of research, and as a “manufacturer” of sources or material for research and scientific studies. It draws attention to the fact that authors of popularizing works in particular use these materials selectively, which does not mean without a specific intention. It analyses contemporary strategies for “dealing” with the voices of the popular classes—the subject of people’s histories —in the Polish People’s Republic. In the second part, the article analyses women’s post-war competition diaries and proposes an interpretation that goes beyond the traditionally distrustful approach to texts written in the reality of communist Poland. It sees them not so much as a chronicle of social and moral changes, but as a tool for shaping the writers’ subjectivity and expressing their agency; a kind of “acting with words”. It thereby points to the untapped potential of this source, created after the war by the popular classes.
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