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A rare and politically significant wall map documenting the distribution of Izby Pamięci Narodowej (National Memory Rooms) across the People's Republic of Poland as of February 1, 1977. Published under the auspices of the Rada Ochrony Pomników Walki i Męczeństwa (Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Monuments), the map served both didactic and ideological functions in the late communist period, commemorating sites dedicated to resistance, suffering, and state-sanctioned patriotic remembrance.
The map details the location and density of memory rooms within six categories of institutions, identified via a symbol key at lower left:
Elementary schools
Secondary schools
Workplaces
Social organizations
Cultural and educational institutions
Dedicated museums with memory exhibitions
Each site is marked with a numbered square indicating the quantity of rooms in each locality, with an especially dense concentration visible in the industrial and urban centers of southern and central Poland (e.g., Kraków, Rzeszów, and Katowice). The base map includes provincial borders, major road and rail networks, and cities marked by administrative rank.
The title banner at top, along with the stylized memorial flame and stele logo, aligns with the graphic vocabulary of postwar Polish state propaganda. At bottom right, editorial and production credits are listed, including cartographers Urszula Cichowska and Sylwia Mikulska, with base data drawn from the Ministry of Education and valid as of early 1977.
Izby Pamięci Narodowej (Rooms of National Memory) were a distinctive feature of memory culture in the Polish People's Republic (PRL), especially from the 1960s through the 1980s. They were small museum-like exhibits, often improvised in schools, factories, cultural centers, or local government buildings, designed to commemorate Polish resistance, martyrdom, and heroism, primarily in World War II, but also in relation to broader anti-fascist and class-struggle narratives promoted by the communist state.
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