While the Western Front of the Great (or First World) War is deeply engrained in the European historical consciousness, memories of the Eastern Front are less prominent. Here, events have been repressed, obscured by the subsequent experience of the Second World War and by heritage policy in the region. The authors present the results of archaeological investigations of a battlefield in central Poland, where static trench warfare was fought between December 1914 and July 1915. A unique landscape palimpsest was formed, the present neglected state of which is a material expression of contemporary attitudes to the legacy of the forgotten Eastern Front. The study illustrates the wider intersection of warfare, identity and memory.

In the article we consider the relationship between the poor condition of material remains of the Great War on one of the former Eastern Front’s battlefield’s in the Rawka and Bzura region with the long term attitudes of the local population towards the soldiers of Russian and German armies, fighting and killed there. For this purpose, we have analyzed written sources and witnesses accounts, as well asartifacts from archaeological research. We assume that recognizing situation of the local population during the events of 1914–1915 and after the war may bring us closer to answering the questions posed herein. Thus, we suppose, that loss of property, extremely difficult conditions of everyday life, illnesses and suffering, fear of military authorities and soldiers, of epidemic factors and infectious diseases, death of lovedones also those enlisted in the armies of the occupiers – these types of traumatic experiences – conditioned the attitude of the local population towards soldiers of the Great War. Some lasting consequences of this can be observed till today – in the form of fading traces of the material heritage of the Great War. Focusing on the material and discursive dimensions, we analyze the relationships between the primary (res gestae) and consequential/secondary processes (rerum gestarum histories and narrations) and observe a kind of causative “breaking the continuity” between them. Using the methods of historical archaeology, archaeology of recent past, memory studies, history etc., creates interesting, but so far poorly used, research possibilities. Most importantly, it can contribute to shaping attitudes characterized by historical and archaeological sensitivity and the will to understand the value of a difficult heritage (including resting places of fallen soldiers) and to prompt active care for it.

The main aim of the article is to show the importance of material remains and the contribution of Katyn archaeology in disseminating knowledge about the Katyn lie and the truth about the Katyn massacre between 1943 and 2023. The authors present: 1) the nature and conditions of the Katyn lie and the significance of material evidence indisproving it; 2) individual and public expectations and reactions to material remains and towards archaeological research; 3) the contribution to making the resting placesand the material evidence from the death pits vibrant and causative for the victims’ families, for the community of remembrance and the human community of suffering,and for the broad public of today and the future. The paper is based on data and analyses rooted in archaeology, history and cultural anthropology.

The reason for this article was the 90th birthday of Professor Stanisław Tabaczyński (born on April 1, 1930). However, at the last stage of editorial work, the sad news of his death reached us (November 28, 2020). All the more we would like to commemorate the Professor, recalling his achievements and merits, which place him among the most outstanding Polish archaeologists, including actual members of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He made a great contribution to the development of Polish and world archaeology in the area of theoretical and field archaeological research. Many of his scientific initiatives concerned the theory and anthropology of culture as well as the methodology of archaeological research and the syntheses of prehistory and the early Middle Ages. His achievements and influence on shaping the minds of archaeologists of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century cannot be overestimated.

Niepoliczone i niepoliczalne (?) ofiary broni chemicznej, maj 1915 r.