We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The policy of the communist authorities towards writers and artists in the 1945 to 1989 period can be divided into several stages. The first lasted from the end of 1944 to November 1947. The second stage lasted from November 1947 until the end of 1949, when socialist realism was forcibly introduced into all areas of cultural life. The third stage ended at the beginning of 1955, when one could observe a weakening of the authorities (accused of violations of the socialist rule of law). The whole year 1955 and the turn of 1956/1957 is referred to as the “thaw” period. During Władysław Gomułka’s era (October 1956 – December 1970), the attitude adopted by the authorities towards artists remained mostly unchanged. It manifested itself as an ideological offensive and repression of any emerging signs of resistance in that community. When Edward Gierek was in power as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (1970–1980), the policy towards writers and artists evolved in two stages. The first (1971–1976) was characterized by liberalism and pragmatism, as part of a regime’s legitimization strategy. During the second stage, lasting from February 1976 to August 1980, preventive and repressive elements began to prevail in the position taken towards artists, who increasingly voiced opposition towards the authorities. Opposition was to be quashed by more stringent censorship, numerous searches, interrogationof artists and harassment. In 1980 and 1981, the authorities concentrated on ensuring that the managing bodies of the artist/writer associations had the right political credentials, although with no effect. They supported artists with communist party affiliations and unsuccessfully tried to attract the neutral centre and to exploit it. During the martial law period, the authorities adopted a repressive policy towards artists, but they failed to put an end to their boycott of public institutions. The attempt to use artists to legitimize the activities of the authorities in the perestroika period was only partially successful. Finally, the cultural policy of the authorities was put aside altogether after the political changes of 1989.
More...
In the People’s Republic of Poland, Warsaw experienced two periods of accelerated urbandevelopment. The first one was the time of reconstruction, which lasted until 1955. The second occurred in the first half of the 1970s . Wisłostrada and Trasa Łazienkowska were built, the Central Railway Station was erected, and design works on the underground railway line were resumed. These activities, completely different from the stagnant investment policies implemented by Władysław Gomułka, owed a lot to the communist party patronage, although it would be difficult to point to specific names. The reconstruction years were inextricably linked with Bolesław Bierut. The article analyses the maintenance of Warsaw’s capital city status, the political and private involvement of Bierut in the process of rebuilding and redevelopment of the city, his relationships with architects, and his propagandist image of the “builder of the capital”. Reference has been made to the Soviet models for city redevelopment, serving as a basis for the “6-Year Capital Reconstruction Plan” of 1949. The cited architectural and party documents reveal an image of Bolesław Bierut as a person particularly engaged in the post-war reconstruction of Warsaw. From 1949 onwards, Warsaw was being designed in line with the postulates of socialist realism, imposed on Poland along with the advances of Stalinism. During Bierut’s reign, the reconstructed districts in Warsaw included the Old Town destroyed by Germans, Krakowskie Przedmieście, and numerous monuments. At the same time, the capital of Poland was supposed to become an industrial city with a totally different social tissue. It was all in line with the general plans of Stalin, Bierut being their executioner.
More...
The Polish Journalists’ Association was one of many industrial vocational organizations set up in Poland at the beginning of the 1950s. Based on the Soviet model, Polish authoritiescreated a network of creative organizations which were something between a trade union and a social club where every member would monitor another. What is so special about the Polish Journalists’ Association? First of all, the fact that its members were the propagandists most active in the building of foundations of the totalitarian communist system. Their situation was quite particular in the break-through year of 1956. The year 1956 and the deep political and economic changes it brought along were both an opportunity and a threat to them. It was an opportunity because they could flourish and write without a gag in the mouth. It was a threat because the careers of the most committed stalinism champions would break one after another. The article analyzes the changeable political commitment of PJA in 1956. An important role is played by considerations on differences between journalists from the peripheral regions and those active in the centre of Polish reality, presented against a broader backdrop of the political situation in the People’s Republic of Poland. Finally, the text answers this question: what was the actual role of PJA in 1956? It also outlines the problems the Association had to face over the following years.
More...
The revolutionary social and political changes initiated in the summer of 1980, related to the birth of and activities conducted by the Solidarity movement, took place mainly because of the social mobilization of workers. The direction and nature of these changes were also determined – albeit not necessarily in an active manner – by the attitude of other social structures, particularly the creative circles. Opole, the city regarded since 1963 in terms of an informal capital of the Polish song – is a good example. The 19th National Contest of the Polish Song, held from 25 until 28 June 1981, became a legend. The song “Let Poland be Poland”, performed to the general public at this festival, became an unofficial anthem of the Solidarity revolution. For political reasons, the festival organizers could not interfere in the course of the festival. The censorship intervention proved unsuccessful, as well. The activity of TSA, a rock group set up in Opole, was also a major phenomenon on a national scale. The group’s songs constituted a certain attempt at escaping from the greyness and hopelessness of everyday life in communist Poland. Somehow shadowed by these phenomena were local facts connected with individual attitudes of representatives of the Opole creative circles towards the revolutionary changes taking place in Poland’s social and political life. These facts, however, are also significant in the context of illustrating the social realities of the 1980s. A vast majority of artists from Opole was not actively engaged in the endeavours of the opposition forces, but – at the same time – they would neither attack the opposition nor side with the authorities. Cases of active involvement in the activities undertaken by one or the other side of the political barricade were quite rare. The longstanding opposition activity of the Opole actor Tadeusz Żyliński calls for special attention. This man is an example through which one can see quite clearly how much could be done by politically active artists after August 1980. Unfortunately, only a small part of the Opole creative circles was interested in such opportunities. Political passivity, coupled with efforts aimed at fulfilling one’s own personal and professional ambitions, were definitely more prevailing. Everyday social and political reality of the 1980s in Poland was a far cry from the idealistic views on the social mission of our intelligentsia.
More...
The article describes diplomatic operations carried out by Poland’s MP and executiveminister in Sofia Adam Tarnowski, one of the leading representatives of Polish diplomacyin the Second Republic of Poland. He was the longest serving Polish diplomat in the Kingdom of Bulgaria (1930–1941). Later he emigrated to London to hold prominent functions: a general secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an MP in the Czechoslovakiangovernment in exile, Minister of Foreign Affairs during and after the war in the governments of Tomasz Arciszewski and Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski. Chronological dividinglines of the study are: the fall of Poland in September 1939 and Bulgaria breaking off itsdiplomatic relations with Poland in March 1941. At that time, the Polish diplomatic post in Sofia was one of the very few legations which dealt with diplomatic issues despite the German seizure of Poland. When the war had broken out, Tarnowski began conductinga serious diplomatic campaign towards establishing contacts with his occupied motherland,helping people threatened by Nazi repressions, and informing foreign governments of crimes and destruction taking place in Poland. Tarnowski was supported by a group of Bulgarian diplomats sympathising with Poland. They stayed in Berlin and occupied Warsaw and provided priceless services to our country by carrying money, letters, and information about the Nazi crimes in the occupied Poland in their diplomatic bags. Our MP in Sofia would give shelter to Polish refugees, protect valuable objects belonging to the national heritage, and organize redeployment of Polish troops from Bulgaria into Turkey. The most spectacular operation managed by Tarnowski was the evacuation of a group of several dozen Polish airmen (in September 1940) by sea from the Black Sea coast to Turkey. A very important element of Tarnowski’s operations was the intervention with the Bulgarian government to help Polish scientists from the Jagiellonian University and the AGH University of Science and Technology arrested by Germans in November 1939. Tarnowski talked to Professor Bogdan Fiłow, President of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, a world famous archaeologist, who was about to become Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The sources of the article include: unknown historical documents from AAN, published diplomatic and intelligence documents, journals and recollections. Bulgarian sources and analyses, including video footage, were also used.
More...
The August Agreement of 1980 and the creation of free trade unions in Poland caused anxiety among leaders of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The development in the neighbouring People’s Republic of Poland had significant impact on the geopolitical environment of the communist German Democratic Republic. The leader of the SED and the GDR head of state, Erich Honecker, strongly supported the idea of a Warsaw Pact invasion of Poland. However, other East European communist rulers were not willing to go that far, at least in the short term. Under these circumstances, East German authorities tried to influence the leaders of the Polish United Worker’s Party (PZPR), Poland’s ruling communist party, and urged them to impose countrywide martial law. They pinned their hopes on general Wojciech Jaruzelski, who was designated prime minister in February 1981. However, Honecker soon became disappointed and came to the conclusion that new leadership in Poland was necessary. At that time, SED apparatchiks and East German diplomats held many talks with their PZPR colleagues, including local leaders, members of the Central Committee and even the Political Bureau. Following on from this, those among the Polish communists unhappy with the hesitant policy of their leader Stanisław Kania were encouraged to seek for a new leadership. Honecker hoped that, at its eleventh plenary session in June 1981, the PZPR Central Committee would overthrow Kania and bring about political change in Poland. This calculation failed and in July, Kania was even re-elected party leader at the ninth PZPR congress. No change in the politics of Poland seemed possible without Jaruzelski, the head of the army and still a popular figure. In the early Autumn of 1981, GDR authorities received hints that Jaruzelski no longer supported Kania and had become more willing to impose martial law. Kania’s opponents among the Central Committee, strongly supported by the SED and the Soviets, finally managed to oust him from power in October 1981. The Committee appointed Jaruzelski its new First Secretary. Less than two months later, martial law was imposed in Poland. From Honecker’s perspective, his minimum goal was reached.
More...
Illegal emigrations of football players from the People’s Republic of Poland were quitefrequent, but in most cases they were not treated as high profile in the mass media. The only exception was the 1988 escape of Andrzej Rudy, a player in Poland’s national football team. The examples of emigrating athletes discussed in the text have been divided into two categories: defectors per se (those who left their teams’ foreign training camps), and peoplewho refused to go back to Poland after legally obtaining a consent to travel to a Western country (or Yugoslavia). The first case of an athlete illegally leaving Poland took place inthe 1950s, while the last one in the last months of the break-through year of 1989. It wasusually footballers playing for Silesian clubs who opted for illegal emigration to West Germany. Family reasons were often quoted as a basis for making such a decision – numerousdefectors were able to prove their German roots. The 1980s saw a particular intensificationof escapes, which was related both to deteriorating economic conditions in Poland and more liberal passport policies at the end of the decade. It is worth noting that the communistauthorities changed their attitude towards the phenomenon. While in the 1960s the secret police would keep the defectors and their families under surveillance, 20 years later the government would simply register anyone “refusing to return to Poland”.
More...
Social movements emerge from established networks, and movement participationstrengthens existing solidarities and alters identities. How do these solidarities survive the disruption of emigration? This paper focuses on the activities of Solidarity refugees in Chicago during the 1980s, and, in particular, the organizations Freedom for Poland andSolidarnosc Wspolnota Rozproszonych /Brotherhood of Dispersed Solidarity Members,as well as organizations formed around the 1989 elections and the economic and politicalchanges in its aftermath. Data were collected through participant observation, interviews,organizational archives, and surveys. This case study shows that there were strong concrete and ideological ties between Solidarity refugees in Chicago and the opposition in Poland. In sum, while emigration dispersed refugees, commitment (to the movement), pre-existing networks (to Poland), and renewed networks (in the U.S.) helped Solidarity refugees reconstitute on foreign soil and continue “to fight the good fight” from abroad.
More...
The author undertakes the attempt to analyse an increasingly popular in Polandphenomenon of historical reconstruction. She refers to such terminological issues as historical reconstruction, historical recreation, staging, mistakenly regarded as homogenous. In order to distinguish between the above mentioned definitions, she additionally specifies the reconstruction levels as represented in a particularenvironment. The article contains a review of main problems connected with reconstructionand its perception, issues of ethics and morality included. Moreover, she presents an outline of the history of the reconstruction movement both in the world and in Poland. The author tries to reveal, step by step, the mechanism of the formation of historical reconstruction groups and similar associations, beginning with a gathering of the people interested in forming the group through the selection of its name and the vision of its activities, up to collecting the equipment. This process results in the emergence and development of a separate reconstruction environment where those who share the common passion have a chance to exchange experience and knowledge. The text also describes the forms of activities practiced by the performers (apart from specific recreations) and their tasks. It is connected with the presentation of objectives, the historical reconstruction tries to achieveand which stand behind the reconstruction performers’ motivations. The article shows merits of the phenomenon, not ignoring, at the same time, its deficiencies and potential threats. The author also tries to answer the question: what the historical education provided by historical reconstruction should be based upon?
More...
After knocking down communism in 1989, Poland and other countries of Eastern Europe were burdened with a task of settling accounts with their totalitarian past both in institutional dimension – through legal compensation for the victims of crimes and persecutions, trying their perpetrators and developing institutional standards preventing functionaries of the former communist secret services and their co-workers from having an impact on public life (lustration) and also enabling the victims to have an insight into the documents collected in the past on them. Since, in the centre of the lustration debate an issue of exploring, developing and settling accounts with one of fundamental pillars of the totalitarian system i.e. former security forces was placed, one of the elements of settling accounts with the communist past was the creation of institutions responsible for taking over the archives of the communist special forces and revealing the network of agents of thepolitical secret service, as well, as conducting research and educational activities in that area. The text analyses the conditions in which that process occurred in Poland and her bordering countries: Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia.The concluding paragraphs of the article contain the assessment that the process of creating the institutions responsible for taking over the materials of the state security organs, their development and making them available was a part of a political ritual of transformation from totalitarianism to democracy. That transformation was experienced by all post-communist countries of Central Europe which chose a democratic variant of social development. The institutions established in order to accomplish that goal have similar competences apart from investigative functions possessed only by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. Lesser successes were achieved as far as the attempts to legal persecution of the perpetrators of communist crimes were concerned and it relates to the entire geographical area. The state of law proved to be an inefficient tool in bringing the guilty ones to justice within the course of passing years. Settling accounts with communism was never done in Russia. One may think that Russian leaders came to the conclusion that society is not ready yet for such a move since it would entail huge social and political costs and that its full realisation would be possible only after the natural generation exchange has been accomplished. The author puts forward a thesis that a future researcher of the historyof the post-communist era in Europe will be able to clearly distinguish the borderlines of the countries which have settled their accounts with a totalitarian past and of those where this has not been done with all the system, social and moral consequences of that fact.
More...
Radio Free Europe was one of the most effective tools of Cold War in the hands of the western countries. The fact which is relatively unknown is that one of its units was conducting widespread surveys primarily aimed at establishing the level of the Station’s popularity in the countries to which it directed its broadcasts. Somehow additionally, the Station collected the information which today allows us to obtain the picture of the Polish public opinion on various topics, among others, on the issues concerning international affairs. International affairs are very closely linked with the internal situation of the country and are mainly perceived from this perspective. Particularly interesting are the opinions of the Poles on the Arab-Israeli War which got a lot of publicity in Poland, above of all, in the form of an Anti-Semitic witch-hunt symbolised by March 1968. Another interesting aspectis the attitude of the Poles to the problems of racism in the United States. Anti-American opinions, unfavourable to racism, are mixed with xenophobia which many Poles did not conceal. From the perspective of the RFE studies, the Polish People’s Republic emerges as the country of dying hopes, deepening stagnation, and the Poles as the opponents of the system who are hostile towards the USSR yet are not willing to risk a mutiny or a protest. In spite of all, in their majority, they assumed positions of adapting to and conforming with. Simultaneously, the surveys recorded also the opinions of the RFE employees who prepared the reports; these people often did not understand the realities of the studied countries and had a tendency to see the world only in black and white colours.
More...
In spring of 1981, conservative forces within the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) sprang to life, articulating a necessity to strengthen the Party ideologically and to engage into a decisive struggle against “Solidarity” Trade Union. One of the main representatives of the conservative fraction was the Katowice Party Forum (KPF). The founding meeting of the Katowice Party Forum was held on 15 May 1981. The Forum was established at the Katowice Regional Committee of the PUWP under a patronage of its first secretary, Andrzej Żabiński. In the first stage of its activities, the Forum consisted of over 100 people who were mostlyactivists of the Polish United Workers’ Party from the Katowice Region, functional activists of the industry trade unions and officers of the Citizens’ Militia (MO) and Secret Police (SB). The executive body of the Katowice Party Forum was the Programming Council consisting of highly positioned functionaries of central and regional echelons of the PUWP. The Council was chaired by a member of the Politburo of the PUWP Central Committee, Gerard Gabryś and a Marxist ideologist, Wsiewołod Wołczew. The main objective identified by the Forum activists was a struggle for keeping the socialist system intact and maintaining the ideologicalline of the communist party. First of all, the KPF members underlined a critical diagnosis of the Party condition, for which they blamed the PUWP Management. As particularly dangerous, the Forum regarded the functioning of linear structures of reformative, grass-roots, internal movement described as revisionist and right-wing. The Forum accused the members of that movement of the will to transform the PUWP into a liberal and social democratic party. The Forum activists were equally critical of the “Solidarity” movement, accusing trade union leaders of exploiting workers and creating counterrevolutionary structures striving for the change of the system. The Katowice Party Forum became soon a subject of a massive criticism by the PUWP activists and was fiercely opposed by the leaders of the Silesian “Solidarity”. Party leaders accused the Forum activists of creating an illegal fraction within the Party and attempts at hindering the process of democratization in the country. Unfavourable attitude of the Party Management led to the Forum losing support of a part of the PUWP activists who, so far, were well disposed towards it, and its initial activity came to a halt. In July 1981, also the delegates to the 9th PUWP Congress negatively assessed the functioning of the KFP. The Katowice Party Forum ceased to exist in September 1981 and then it was transformed into the Katowice Marxist-Leninist Seminar.
More...