Od chłopa do rolnika. Socjalistyczne opowieści awansu na polskiej wsi w latach sześćdziesiątych
From peasant to farmer. Socialist upward mobility stories in 1960s polish countryside

Summary/Abstract: The article examines texts submitted by inhabitants of rural areas to two diary competitions (“The Young Rural Generation in People’s Poland” [“Młode pokolenie wsi Polski Ludowej”] and “A Month of My Life” [“Jeden miesiąc mojego życia”]) organised in the 1960s. The author views them as examples of socialist upward mobility stories. Although cities and modern urban institutions (universities, factories, Party structures) constituted the most common backdrop of upward mobility in socialist Poland, the dominant socialist ideology—based on a belief in a “worker-peasant alliance”—had to establish trajectories of upward mobility available to those who stayed in rural areas and devoted themselves to agricultural labour. “Peasants”, burdened by the feudal past, were supposed to become “farmers”. This new social class was supposed to comprise people with modern agricultural skills and tools, leading a modern lifestyle. Through analysing the autobiographical writings of the inhabitants of rural areas, the author examines ways in which this new class identity emerged and the how this specific trajectory of upward mobility was experienced.

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