Slavic Conspiracy Theories as Non-scientific Historical Narratives

Contemporary popular perception of distant times deviates substantially from what was actually specific to them. M. Karas (ed.), Historia filozofii. Meandry kultury. Teksty i studia ofiarowane Jackowi Widomskiemu z okazji 65. urodzin, Kraków 2014, pp. 121–137; I. Kowalczyk, I. Kiec (eds.), Historia w wersji popularnej, Gdańsk 2015.] Historical narratives on the subject of the past life of one’s own community (for example, of Poles) are often built on the basis of national myths or an idealized, great power image of military and political history. Gaps in historical sources and a lack of familiarity within the greater society with the current consensus among academic scholars result in amateur efforts to replace the lacunae in our historical knowledge with the creation of stories about the nation’s or our ethnic group’s history that depart from the “official” scholarly record. The “non-scientific” nature of these historical narratives relates to the lack of a consensus as to their correctness (meaning: accuracy) inside academic circles.