The revaluation of family in the people's republic of Poland in the seventies

This article examines intersections between Polish official, dissident and Catholic attitudes towards the family during communism in the seventies. The discourse concerning the failed educational reform of 1973 led to a rapprochement in this field. The failure of official welfare politics was compensated by a revaluation of the family. Several legislative acts were intended to transfer educational duties from governmental responsibility to the responsibility of mothers, using conservative maternal ideals. These seemingly new ideals were in fact inspired by the Polish national cultural discourse during the Partition Era, when the family was viewed as a basic cell of society that resisted governmental influence. This corresponded with the specific national Catholic definition of a Pole as a Catholic, born and educated by a Polish mother. This constellation illegitimated previous governmental policies as bad, communist, and above all "foreign", and strengthened the Catholic position. The social and educational costs to the child due to the overburdening of the mother, as well as reduced educational opportunities in times of a supply crisis were not addressed during these discussions.