Dawna Rzeczpospolita była jednym z najbardziej ludnych i zróżnicowanych etnicznie i kulturowo państw w Europie. Kto zamieszkiwał jej ziemie i dzięki czemu możliwa była koegzystencja różnych grup narodowo-językowych i wyznaniowych?

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, also known as the Commonwealth of Both Nations, was one of Europe's most highly populated and ethnically diverse countries. Who inhabited her lands? What made this extraordinary coexistence of different nations, languages, and religions possible?

The article tackles the question of the decline and revival of statehoods in Europe, in a broad historical context. This analysis is based on the history of political systems, philosophy and politics of memory across Europe, rather than on the politological concept of ‘failed states’. The phenomenon of consecutive diminishment and rebirth of states remains a constant feature of European politics and history, beginning with the collapse of the Roman Empire, through to the Partition of Poland in the eighteenth century (as an exemplary event), to the Soviet Union, and the civil war in former Yugoslavia. Kąkolewski points out the parallel phenomena of integrative and disintegrative processes taking place after many decades and having a potential of shaking state structures that initially seemed to be solidly integrated – as, for example, in Scotland or Catalonia. The European Union is the most recent example of this pattern: founded upon voluntary limitation of its Member States’ sovereignties, its has encountered disintegrative nationalist movements occurring in many parts of Europe.

In the tumultuous period known as the “Age of Extremes”, span-ning from the aftermath of WWII to the early 21st century, several pivotal dynamics shaped the historical landscape in Europe. This era bore witness to contrasting forces: the profound violence of two world wars, genocides, a multitude of regional military conflicts, and coerced mass migrations, alongside the emergence of peace movements that played a critical role in the success of the “peaceful revolutions” in countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and other Eastern Bloc countries in 1989. This epoch also saw the rise of influential institutions, non-governmental organizations, and grassroots initiatives, all dedicated to fostering dialogue and reconciliation among peo-ples who had been bitterly divided by the horrors of war.

Within this context, both international textbook dialogues and binational history textbook projects assumed significant roles in the pursuit of reconciliation. Notable examples of the latter include the Franco-German Histoire/Geschichte and the German-Polish Europa – Unsere Geschichte / Europa. Nasza historia, two transnational history textbook series published at the beginning of the 21st century. These initiatives can be viewed not only as vital milestones in bilateral textbook dialogue but also as key waypoints in the broader European reconciliation efforts following WWII.