Normal life in People's Republic of Poland (PRL)

If it will interesting You, I'll still making this topic

This topis is about normal (?) life in PRL.
In essence it wasn't normal life I want describe here many nonsenses and characteristically behaviurs/items which were in socialist Polish.

1. Milk Bars (Bary Mleczne) - similar to Fast Food bars in Western Europe and USA, but with two differences:
*Milk Bars was very cheap (for every comrade)
*there were national dishes (mainly milk and mealy meals - dumplings, kasha etc)


2. Censoreship (Cenzura) - press, films (from Western - for example James Bond - it was "anti-soviet") and publications. Forthermore censoreshipping was pornography films and films with violence.
In WarState (1982-89) censoreshipping was telephone callings!

3. Social Acts (Czyny społeczne) - deeds which was making by normal people - normally unnecessary and pointless - cleaning etc. Big enterprise was building ground train in Chorzow.

If You want more, say

So how did you feel about the censorship?

Really?
Really: It was real dishonour of soviet authority.
In the name of "national ibuisness" power was keeping citzens under surveillance and inspecting all letters, calls and normal conversations - SB* agents were allwhere!

*Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa - Security Service, institution which were inspectioning people and informing authority about all mans.

@soviet78 - sorry I wasn't response in previous post, becouse it didn't exist at that time.

1. Depending on the family's members, profession (teacher had additional room for preparation for lessons) and... membership in socialistically party - members had bigger and better flats! normally: 80m2.

2. Food - poor. In shops was empitiness - all goods was forced exporting to USSR! It relate all items - food, television etc. For buying goods people had special cards - http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafika:Kartka_na_mleko.jpg
it is card for milk.
Party members recived special cards.

Rest of responses soon

Well, that's strange. When my grandfather went to Poland during the 70's and 80's, he said that ususally brought back lots of goods that they didn't have in the USSR. Speaking of censorship, my dad saw Rambo, a pretty violent film in the USSR on video back in 1983, dubbed. Though I don't know its origins.

So with things that bad you still support socialism and the PZPR? Do you blame the problems more on the Soviet Union than the party in Poland?

...end of post.

3. part of polish people allways hate soviets, and in PRL wasn't goods. what soviets gave us? nothing - only terror and poverty.

4. I'm not supporter - I'm enemy - but I think I should show people how was in this years and I feel nostalgia to this time.

@Kirov:
To 1978-9 in shops were goods, but after it communists introduced WarState. At that time soviets introduced goods cards and shops were empty - look:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Towary.jpeg
It's butcher's shop.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Kolejka.jpeg
it is queue for toilet-paper (for all goods were that queues)

@Whitten:
Unfortunately, nothing was good in PRL.
I think problems make indirectly Soviet Union - demands for meat, sugar etc... but PZPR wasn't without guilty.

I am guessing there was a huge difference before and after/during Martial Law. Kind of like how the USSR got fu*ked up after Perestroika.

Why Lada 07 in your sig for nostalgia then? I thought that the Polish National Car was the Fiat 126. And what's with milk? Was it the Polish overabundance equivalent of birch juice in the USSR?

Is there such a thing as birch beer floats, or am I just making it up? Sounds like the kind of thing you would get at one of those milk bars.

By the way, I do find it interestingly peculiar that you dislike the PRL and even aspects of mundane life in the PRL, and yet are nostalgic about it at the same time.

@Kirov:
hm, this problem is complex - on my holidays with friends I learned interesting song about Lada. In our centre we find this car and.. that's all

@Marshal Konev:
about nostalgy - it's real atrange - but really I don't like that times, but I'm tearfully reminisce about PRL

By the way, how big were Indian(Bollywood) movies in Poland? I know that quite a few of them were popular in the USSR.

Short reply: yes, with delay, but yes

I'm sorry for that guy (from the age and preferences propably supporter of liberal Civic Platform). There is a lot of stuff that isn't true here.

Quote:

3. Social Acts (Czyny społeczne) - deeds which was making by normal people - normally unnecessary and pointless - cleaning etc. Big enterprise was building ground train in Chorzow.

that's an idiotic interpretation. For example in the Social Act to celebrate 1000 years of Polish country, the state, the people and army builded 1000 new schools. Yes pretty pointless.

Quote:

membership in socialistically party - members had bigger and better flats! normally: 80m2.

That's a shamefull lie. There were around 3 milions of members of Polish United Workers Party, only few (for example from the Executive Commitee) were having bigger houses.

Quote:

Food - poor. In shops was empitiness - all goods was forced exporting to USSR! It relate all items - food, television etc. For buying goods people had special cards

Hm, in the 80 there was a crisis of the distributing goods in the shops, there were few reasons:
- demands of Solidarity of for putting more money in the consumption and increasing pays, that wasn't good in that situation cause we increased the salaries but we make money less valuable.
-Crisis of the economy

That's a shit about all goods from USSR, there were products from the East Germany and all states from eastern bloc. What more, the Edward Gierek rule introduced american and other goods into Poland, the most popular was Lewis jeans and coca-cola:D

About these products, we had some problems with trade with USSR, cause polish coal was sold there very cheaply, but we as well had possibilities to buy cheap gas, oil, iron etc.

Why many products of everyday use was from USSR? Many simple plastic products, or more sopihisticated ones, are now cheaply produced in China, then they were produced in USSR. I don't see the point why those things were worst from Chinese and other? I'm ussing still hower from USSR, I got a lot of papers from the PRL (esspecialy thirst magazines about computing) and really a lot of books, from the socialist book only few books from UK, that I got in London from british comerades and Lew Trotsky book "Revolution Betrayed" was that I had and been printed after 89 and I've got around 30 of PRL, great books about communist movement, marxism. The books from the 70-80 were the best cause the ones from 50 and early 60 were bit falsicated and writen with were heavy language (for example: right wing nationalist antiworking class renegats from reformist Polish Socialist Party- that's a true sentence from book from 50).

Quote:

Party members recived special cards.

Again a few of them.

Quote:

Unfortunately, nothing was good in PRL.

That's away that obiective historians from the right and govermental trusts are trying to show.

Quote:

was the Fiat 126

Yeah drive it sometimes. Problem is that they are out of production now. I think that they would be grat after changing an engine some other stuff- in the times of cars like SMART. The anticommies were laughing at FIAT 126 p because of it's size, unfortunately they didn't say nothing after introduction of SMART and other 'city cars'.

That's enough for one time, I think.

Why I didn't like in PRL was that political police and censorship, that often "biten" marxists as well.

Quote:

I'm sorry for that guy (from the age and preferences propably supporter of liberal Civic Platform). There is a lot of stuff that isn't true here.

Lout, simply lout! Civic Platform is party of thiefs.

Quote:

that's an idiotic interpretation. For example in the Social Act to celebrate 1000 years of Polish country, the state, the people and army builded 1000 new schools. Yes pretty pointless.

Probably it's only good example. BTW in schools "teachers" was learning soviet propaganda!

Quote:

That's a shamefull lie. There were around 3 milions of members of Polish United Workers Party, only few (for example from the Executive Commitee) were having bigger houses.

Not only houses. For example: authority didn't give fiat126p for my friend, but old beetle. Why? Becouse he wasn't in party!

Quote:

-Crisis of the economy

Haha. LOL. Why? Becouse USSR forced Poland to giv them uor food (meat, sugar and other goods). It is reason!

Quote:

What more, the Edward Gierek rule introduced american and other goods into Poland, the most popular was Lewis jeans and coca-cola:D

In Pevex-shops for dolars for party-members.

Quote:

Yeah drive it sometimes.

Now we see - you was in PZPR! Thief!

Quote:

In Pevex-shops for dolars for party-members.

Have ya lived in PRL? Pevex shops were for all people with western currency. There were few shops for higher members of executive Commitee, where regular and even leaders of local structures of Party didn't have entrance. Remind in diaries of Jaruzelsky and Urban.

Quote:

BTW in schools "teachers" was learning soviet propaganda!

yeah so kick the school of and live in a forest. What kind of propaganda? That stalin didn't attack II Republic of Poland together with Hitler? In last period of PRL it was taught ofcourse.

Quote:

Now we see - you was in PZPR! Thief!

Just piss of. Haven't been in PZPr never, just have been in the socialist youth and now in cp, but not ya bussiness where I have been and why.

Quote:

I thought it had something to do with Edward Gierek's massive borrowing from the United States and West Germany -which, when the 1970s oil crisis hit, forced Poland to pay more and more for the goods purchased, sent interest rates flying through the roof, and forced the country to export more and more of its products, while raising prices at home.

I won't blame Gierek too much, I just think that the crisis began because of an economical crisis in the eastern bloc and because of increasing pay after solidarity stirikes and ofcourse a bit taking away not ours money for consumption in Gierek times.