The sociology of fields explains how various configurations of the relations between the scientific field and the bureaucratic field have had constraining effects on the former, and contributes to a better understanding of the changes in these relations. This perspective is illustrated through the case of historical policy in Poland, defined as the space of struggles for the legitimate production of an official historical narrative. Both authoritarian and democratic periods question the autonomy of the scientific field towards the bureaucratic field. A socio-historical perspective on the structure of relations between these fields reveals a continuity between the Polish People’s Republic (1945-1989) and the Third Republic (after 1989). Both before and after 1989, a pole of official history contributes to restrict the autonomy of historical scholarship. The sociology of fields approach demonstrates that the issue of the relations between the bureaucratic field and the scientific field is not reducible to the action of the former on the latter. The logics of competition within the scientific field also consist in taking stances regarding external constraints, which are imported and accommodated according to the specific logics of this field. As a result, external constraints can also become internal resources.