The Warsaw Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a place where the Polish heroic narrative is particularly visible. The Tomb has always been used to legitimise state authority and current politics. After 1990, the monument and the space around it have changed with increasing frequency. An analysis of the Tomb’s symbolic, architectural, and urban levels allows us to reconstruct how a contemporary political cult of the dead has been created and to answer questions about the motifs that are included and those that are excluded from the Polish heroic narrative. An analysis of press materials and of the theoretical framework grounded in memory studies allows a precise definition of the contemporary Polish figure of a national hero to be formulated. Over the last three decades, this category has significantly expanded and now includes not only soldiers but also civilians who are Catholic and Polish. Still, certain social groups or military formations remain excluded.
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