The aim of the programme is to deepen and disseminate knowledge about the situation of peasants and the rural policy in the years 1944-1989. The research will concentrate on the following topics:

• inhabitants of the rural areas vis-a-vis the creation of the totalitarian regime in Poland;

• peasants vis-a-vis the Sovietisation of Poland in the years 1948-1956; 

• attitudes of the inhabitants of rural areas towards the state-Church conflict in the years 1956-1970; 

• the role of peasants in the anti-Communist opposition of the 1970s and 1980s. 

The envisioned results of the projects include a series of exhibitions, conferences, educational materials and publications concerning the situation of the peasants in the years 1944-1989. In December 2002 a conference concerning the 1944-1956 period will initiate the realization of the project. In some branch offices (Rzesz󷠡nd Pozna񩠲esearch on the repression against the Polish People's Alliance in the years 1944-1947 is already conducted.

Project co-ordinator: Tomasz Bereza, Branch Public Education Office in Rzeszow