The author analyses a history of research on culture in communist Poland and the USSR (later Russian Federation). She finds similarities and differences. During the time of communist Poland a tendency was to standardize the supply of culture and make the access to it more democratic. The basic task of the sociology of culture in communist Poland was to control the advancement process of culture dissemination and research into the various forms of participation. However, in the second half of the 70s attention was more and more focused on the directions of cultural sociology development and functions. Following the fall of communism this discipline was faced with a challenge of embracing all the important directions of changes while indicating a now socio-cultural model at the same time. In the USSR, on the other hand, the government was interested only in the cultural research which was to confirm a hypothesis on fast cultural development of masses. Sociology of culture did not exist as a science, though. Following years of deep crisis, when perestroika period began, sociologists of post soviet Russia faced a serious challenge: how to move from “the only one true” Marxist paradigm to the mastering and usage of various theories which functioned in sociology around the world. The Author indicated the contribution in this respect i.a. of Vladimir Yadov or academics circled around Yurij Levada. In general one can say that in Poland as well as in Russia, the sociology of culture following the fall of communist regime and following certain major political, economic, social and cultural changes, found itself in entirely new reality.
This essay contains reflections on the problems of discourse that appear in analyzing written historical sources. The author refers to Krzysztof Gajewski’s book, Reprezentacje komunizmu. PRL z perspektywy badań literackich i kulturowych [The Representation of Communism: The PPR from the Perspective of Literary and Cultural Studies] (2018). The primary findings concern the necessity of taking into account the linguistic framework of the given era.
The Vladimir Lenin Steelworks and other state-owned enterprises in Nowa Huta, the eastern district of Cracow, ran a number of holiday centres all over Poland and encouraged their staff to spend their leave in those places with their family members and colleagues. This form of organized leisure was also promoted by the press. So for example Głos Nowej Huty, a weekly issued by the Workers’ Council of the VL Steelworks, published articles showing the attractions and, occasionally, problems of individual holiday homes. At the same time readers were encouraged to file in their application in good time. The publicity contributed to the success of this type of organized leisure — the number of people who took up this offer increased year on year throughout that period.
Hanna Krall is an acclaimed journalist and author, whose books were translated into multiple languages. However, relatively little critical attention has been given since her rise to world fame to her early work as a journalist. This article revisits this unjustly neglected part of her biography, when she made her name by reportages portraying the realities of life in Poland in the 1970s (the Edward Gierek's decade) and registering the tensions that led to the political earthquake of 1980 and culminated in the collapse of the communist system in 1989.
This article looks at the record of the activities of Poland’s Women’s League, first registered in 1945 under the name Social and Civic League of Women, presented in its two magazines, Kobieta Dzisiejsza [Today’s Woman] and Kobieta [Woman] published in 1946–1947 and 1947–1949 respectively. Their approach and choice of stories were to demonstrate the new organization’s concern with the lives of their readers. The magazines offered advice on how to cope with problems of everyday life, both at home and in the workplace. The broad range of themes was intended to appeal to a broad audience from all walks of life, including those that were not members of the new organization.