COLLECTIVE MEMORY AS A PROP OF LEMKO IDENTITY (Pamiec zbiorowa jako wspornik tozsamosci lemkowskiej)

All minority groups seek to create their own forms of memory. In the case of the Lemko people past events are among factors that shape their ethnic awareness - memory of those events legitimates the group's existence. However, history is also subjected to various alterations and interpretations. What enters and is recorded in collective memory may therefore be a 'contaminated' version of history. For this reason, the presented analyses do not focus on strictly historical events but are an attempt to diagnose mechanisms of the recording and recalling in memory of certain images or clichés relevant to the experiences of the group as a whole. Among the elements that build the picture of the historical memory of the Lemko people, the author gives priority to territory: mythisized abandoned mountains, monuments and cemeteries; the drama of displacement or the beginning of life in a strange land. The article also deals with the issue of the Lemkos' reflection on their tradition and its role in the life of representatives of different generations.