Society and Culture in Communist Poland

Twenty years after the semi-free parliamentary elections in 1989 several features of the Communist period are well researched and described both in Polish and foreign scholarship. However, the complexity of social, cultural, economic life during more than forty years makes the concise presentation difficult. Thus, this course will focus on a few selected aspects of Communism in Poland related mostly to society and culture: the people in power, migrations, leader cults, Catholicism, Polish-German relations, Nowa Huta – a socialist city, new man, gender relations, everyday life, conflicts and opposition, samizdat and independent culture. The course will end with a discussion of myths and memories of the Communist period as well as its visual representations (exhibitions, architecture, monuments, pubs).

The aim of this course is to analyze how was life in Poland under communism for different people during successive decades. Some political events will be discussed to show their impact on individual lives as well as to outline contexts for social and cultural changes. Selected movies will be shown to illustrate discussed topics.

Week 1 Orientation:

Introduction and presentation of the topic, its goals and means of achieving them

Week 2 The beginning. The authorities – the society after the war.

Toranska, Teresa. "THEM" Stalin's Polish Puppets. Translated by Agnieszka Kolakowska. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1987 (Julia Minc, Edward Ochab)

Kersten, Krystyna. Poles' Responses to the Realities of 1944-1947: Questions for Consideration. Intermarium 1/1.

Week 3 Leader cult, new holidays (optionally).

Behrends, Jan C. "Exporting the Leader: the Stalin Cult in Poland and East Germany (1944/45-56)." In The Leader Cult in Communist Dictatorships. Stalin and the Eastern Block, ed. by Balazs Apor et al. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2004, 161-178.

Kula, Marcin. "Communism as Religion." Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 6, no. 3 (2005): 371-381.

Week 4 The Catholic Church.

Main, Izabella. "The Weeping Virgin Mary and the Smiling Comrade Stalin. Polish Catholics and Communists in 1949." In Public Spheres in Soviet-Type Societies, ed. by Gabor T.Rittersporn et al. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lange, 2003, 255-278.

Week 5 Poznań Uprising 1956.

Visit to the Museum of Poznań Uprising

Week 6 Nowa Huta.

Lebow, Katherine Anne, Nowa Huta, 1949-1957: Stalinism and the Transformation of Everyday Life in Poland’s “First Socialist City”, PhD Diss, Columbia University, 2002 (a selection).

Week 7 Labor heroes (optionally).

Kenney, Padraic. Rebuilding Poland. Workers and Communists 1945-1950. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997 (Chapter: The Rise and Fall of a Labor Hero, 237-286).

Week 8 Film: short documentaries

Week 9 Women in Communism.

Fidelis, Malgorzata. The New Proletarians: Women Industrial Workers and the State in Postwar Poland 1945-1957, PhD Diss, Stanford University, 2006 (a selection).

Week 10 Conflicts, strikes, opposition

Ash, Timothy Garton. The Polish Revolution: Solidarity. New York: Vintage Books, 1985 (a selection).

Kubik, Jan. The Power of Symbols against the Symbols of Power: the Rise of Solidarity and the Fall of State Socialism in Poland. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994 (a selection).

Gluza, Zbigniew (ed.) The Days of Solidarity. Warsaw: Karta Center Foundation, 2000.

Film: Solidarność, Solidarność

Week 11 Literature, theatre.

Film: Eighth Day Theatre

Week 12 Memory and myth

Paczkowski, Andrzej. "The Poles and Their Past: Society, Historiography and the Legislation Process." East European Studies 64 (2001).

Week 13 Representations of Communism (1)

Poland: case studies

Week 14 Representations of Communism (2)

Poznań: case studies

Week 15 Final class

See above

Active class participation and a written paper / an oral presentation.

Students are expected to take part in all classes, two absences without an excuse note are permitted.

All students are expected to read texts for classes and discuss it. Students are required to write a short paper (1 page) with summary / analysis / questions concerning each reading.

Students will be evaluated according to active involvement in class discussions (50%), and the final paper / oral presentation (50%).

Students may chose between writing a final paper and making a presentation during the class.

The final paper should have 10-12 pages and be delivered by the end of Winter Semester 2010. Oral presentations will take place in January 2010. Topics of papers / presentations will be discussed during the classes.

Welcome and good luck!