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Despite their long tradition, stimulating research methods and insights, Polish approaches to “memory studies” are not well-known abroad. This discussion of the work of sociologists (such as Stefan Czarnowski, Nina Assorodobraj-Kula, and Barbara Szacka) and historians (in particular those interested in “social imaginaries” and collective identities) challenges the well-established assumption that memory studies emerged in the 1970s. Exploration of the collective/ social memory has a much longer tradition than is usually advanced. Furthermore, the range of research tools and analytical categories is much broader than suggested in dominant narratives about the history of memory studies. A short summary of the latest developments in this field completes this overview of the genealogy and history of memory studies in Poland during the twentieth century.