Paper short abstract:

The issues of the so called difficult past require us very often to submerge in sensitive sphere of memory conflicts and cultural intimacy. How to use the archive responsibly in this situation? The case of contemporary memories of anti-communist partisans in Poland also shows this problem well.

Paper long abstract:

The issues of the difficult past, especially experience of violence and domestic conflicts require us to submerge in the world of local disputes, taboo topics, the norms, regulations and practices that usually remain within the sphere of cultural intimacy inaccessible for external observers. While collecting accounts of this topics during field studies, we gather research material that is scientifically fascinating. At the same time, we feel the burden of personal responsibility towards those who permit us to access it. Especially, when the results of archival queries give us knowledge that our interlocutors do not have. How can we act in order not to be epistemologically and morally paralyzed? Is it possible to reach Eriksen's "small world of large issues" and describe it without leaving behind scorched earth and causing the residents to be even more conflicted? The issues discussed in the presentation will be illustrated by examples derived from the research on the contemporary memory conflicts in Poland related to an fight of anti-communist partisans in the post-war period. Their activity evokes until now intense emotions, generates new forms of memory practices and provokes heated debates, in which former secret police archives (collected in the Institute of National Remebrance) play the crucial role nowadays.