O N T H E N E E D T O T A L K A B O U T H I S T O R Y , A L S O T H A T O F T H E P O L I S H N A V Y

Abstract

We want to see the history as a kind of "vitae magistra", so let's put the question of whether we are prepared for it? This is a fundamental issue that provokes the author of this article to pose a number of questions about the condition of our history as a field of knowledge and the object of research. The requested need to debate seems obvious, but the social reality suggests that history is more and more often a subject of the political game, a kind of race to conquer the next areas of history and to interpret them according to the criteria that have little to do with research methodology or the available sources. It is not with-out reason, these considerations came to include also the Polish navy which – detached from the socio – economic reality – gets bogged down in the myths of the Polish presence at sea. Only open discussion, free from political passions can lead to a better understanding of our national history, and cure us from the complexes which we tend to co-develop.