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RIVALRY IN NATIONALISM. DISPUTE BETWEEN THE PARTY AND THE CHURCH IN 1966 (Wspólzawodnictwo w nacjonalizmie. Spór miedzy partia i Kosciolem w roku 1966)
One of the factors that made the eruption of anti-Semitism in March 1968 possible was the turn toward nationalism in the public discourse in the mid-1960s. The most important element of that process turns out to be a dispute over symbolic rule and the definition of national identity in connection with the celebrations of the Millennium of Polish Statehood, celebrated simultaneously by the State and the Roman Catholic Church (Millennium of Poland's Baptism). Despite the fact that the positions of the Church and the Party were seen as opposite ones, the areas of the dispute and its profound categories were shared by them. A nation exists outside history and its interest do not change with the passage of years. Each side wishes to portray itself as the sole advocate of the strivings of the people. A deviation from some mythical centre line is regarded as treason and the image of the nation is based on its juxtaposition to its implied enemies. Although the Communist Party and the Church define them differently, it turns out that the Jews become part of the equation either way.