Oldal 40 [40]
OCR
38 Dagnostaw Demski ence of the secretary in the region. Below, I present two examples: the secretary’s visit to Silesia in 1946” and the celebration of Sports Day in Warsaw in 1952. In the photograph, on the parade stand, we see President Bolestaw Bierut (Fig. 4), Polish generals, and a general of the Soviet Army (Figs 2, 3). The stand is decorated with the Polish flag and national emblem. At the foot of the stand, there is a single Soviet soldier, ready for intervention. The other photographs from the series show a stage separated from the crowd of listeners who are holding banners that support the new government. ‘The aim was to testify to the presence of the highest authorities at these celebrations. At the same time, an account by the participant reinforces something other than credibility. Here is confirmed the reality of the fact of accession of Opolian Silesia, actually creating a territorial oneness, but also of Polish-Soviet cooperation. It is, in a way, a stamp on and a legitimization of the act. The year is 1946 and the fact that such a ceremony is taking place is confirmed. The mediator showed the moment when all the participants of the ceremony stood side by side, yet what was going on behind the scenes we do not know and will not learn from these photographs. We encounter the real participants of the event, and the photograph was taken as the event was happening. The participants might have arrived at the event not entirely of their own free will. Some attributes—for instance, propaganda slogans—were probably held by common workers or activists. The process of merging the territory of the state is reflected in the symbolic ceremony. In the photos (Fig. 2), the boundary between the authorities and the people, representing both sides, is visible. They are divided by a wide stretch of sidewalk, and looking closely, we will notice soldiers armed with guns on both sides of the gathering. The differentiating criterion is power, power of foundation, and the photographs’ message suggests the inclusion of a diverse group into the whole, integration, building a new community. The distance between the observer and the observed is presented as two halves of the same entity. We do not know the author of these photographs, but in this particular case it is of no importance. The photos, as the medium, serve an idea and they have a documentary character, as they confirm the fact of the event and of party leaders’ participation in it. Neither does the quality of the photographs matter; what matters is that they were placed in the album—that is, representing a new order of things, a new political deal, and bearing witness of the making of history. Following Van Alphen we can state that their original order is lost; they no longer cling to the spatial context that linked them with an original event out of which the memory image was selected. But if the remnants of nature are not oriented toward Tn the album we can find this dedication: “To commemorate the historical act of uniting Opolian Silesia with the Slasko-Dabrowskie Voivodeship, the act which is a military achievement of the allied Red Army, Polish Army and the only right policy of the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic. To the President of the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic, cit. Bierut.”
