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After the end of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
,
Polish society The demographics of Poland constitute all demographic features of the population of Poland, including population density, ethnicity, education level, the health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the po ...
and
culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
were subject to significant changes.


Post-Second World War

With expanding urban industrial opportunities in the early postwar era, agriculture steadily became less popular as occupation and lifestyle in new Poland. The service sector, like industry, grew rapidly, even though much less than the service sectors of Western Europe. The result was a postwar exodus from the rural areas and increased
urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...
, which split apart the traditional multigenerational families upon which the prewar mostly rural society had been based. The early socioeconomic reforms were greeted with relief by a significant faction of the population. Most people were willing to accept Communist rule in exchange for the restoration of relatively normal life. Even the Catholic Church believed that any open resistance would be suicidal. Postwar Poland, like the rest of socialist Eastern Europe, saw growing opportunities for higher education and employment and increased rights for women. In many respects, Poland offered women more opportunities in professional occupations than did many countries in Western Europe. Professions such as
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
,
engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
and university teaching employed a considerably higher percentage of women in Poland than in the rest of the West. Communist propaganda, and sometimes reality itself, has created the model of the "Communist woman worker", similar to the "woman miner" in
Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
, initially part of the forcible socialist trend in art and culture dominating from the late 1940s to late 1950s. By the year 1980, the majority of Polish medical students were women.


Rebuilding

Polish society had already been brought to the edge of disintegration by the ravages of war. In 1945 Warsaw and other cities lay in ruins, and many smaller towns, which had been populated by Jews before the War, were half-empty. Half of the prewar Polish intelligentsia, mainly those of Jewish or middle-class origins, were dead or in political exile. Many children had gone six years without school. Under these circumstances, the political struggle for total control of all aspect of social and economic life in Poland favoured the communists, who held control of the government and security apparatus. Nonetheless a latent popular discontent remained present. In the early postwar years, only a minority of new recruits from agricultural career were literate. In contrast, by the late 1970s only 5% of workers lacked a complete elementary education. In the same period, the
central planning A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, pa ...
system yielded impressive gains in the education level and living standards for much of the new urban industrial workforce.


Advances

In the first two decades of the Communist rule, the health of Poland's people improved overall, as
antibiotics An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention o ...
became available and the standard of living rose in most areas. The extension of medical services also contributed to this trend. Codifying such advancements, the constitution of 1952 guaranteed universal free health care. However, by the 1970s and 1980s, critical national health indicators showed many negative trends, as economic conditions deteriorated, which, combined with small wages in the medical system, led to rampant corruption. One of the major achievements during the communist period was the massive housing estate boom. Following wartime destruction of homes, and a population which boomed in the 1950s, there were massive housing availability pressures, which were relieved by large-scale infrastructure building, particularly from the Gierek era onwards. This massive improvement to the population's quality of life however, became insufficient as soon as the baby boomers came of age.


Communist role

Following World War II, many Poles believed that Poland, unlike other Eastern European countries, did not need an additional phase of terror. Within years, tens of thousands of Poles had joined the Communist Party as well as the Social Democratic and Trade Union organizations in order to create what they saw as the society of the future. Founded in the late 1950s, the first
workers' councils A workers' council or labor council is a form of political and economic organization in which a workplace or municipality is governed by a council made up of workers or their elected delegates. The workers within each council decide on what thei ...
to voice opinions on industrial policy, based on the "
Polish October Polish October (), also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the politics of Poland in the second half of 1956. Some social scientists term it the Polish October Revolution, which was less dramatic than the ...
" of 1956, marked a fundamental change in the social awareness of the working class. The increasingly literate leadership of these councils, dominated by the rising number of workers that had acquired secondary education, would eventually lead to the formidable labour and professional organizations such as KOR and
Solidarność Solidarity ( pl, „Solidarność”, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" (, abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”'' ), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subseq ...
that would gradually come to threaten the socialist order. Despite the gains in the living standards for much of the growing urban workforce after World War II, with the increasing influence of outside ideas from the West brought by television, radio (such as
Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
) and magazines, often smuggled by Poles returning to the country, social dissatisfaction with the regime increased, as people became aware of viable alternatives to their lifestyle. By the 1980s, the modernization of Polish society would lead to a complete restructuring of Poland's political life. An important role in shaping of the social attitudes of Poles was played by culture and art. Despite censorship and administrative interference, the patronage of the state and some leeway left to artistic creativity permitted the development of the
Polish film school Polish Film School ( pl, Polska Szkoła Filmowa) refers to an informal group of Polish film directors and screenplay writers active between 1956 and approximately 1963. Among the most prominent representatives of the school are Andrzej Wajda, And ...
, theater, arts, music and literature after
destalinization De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...
of 1956. Of great importance to the loosened fetters of censorship was the literary and scientific activity pursued in exile.
Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
played a significant role in molding public opinion. Similar roles were played by the Paris-based periodical "
Kultura ''Kultura'' (, ''Culture'')—sometimes referred to as ''Kultura Paryska'' ("Paris-based Culture")—was a leading Polish-émigré literary-political magazine, published from 1947 to 2000 by ''Instytut Literacki'' (the Literary Institute), ini ...
" and a number of similar publications. As a result, Poles were not isolated from European culture, which was, indeed, so close to them. The importance of the émigré cultural community was highlighted by the awarding of the Nobel Prize for literature to
Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, ...
in 1980. Polish History. Part 13: "The Post-War Years, 1945-1990."
/ref>


See also

*
Socialist realism in Poland Socialist realism in Poland ( pl, socrealizm) was a socio-political and aesthetic doctrine enforced by the pro-Soviet communist government in the process of Stalinization of the post-war Polish People’s Republic. The official policy was introduce ...


References


External links

*{{in lang, pl}
Toons and other children's programmes from the 1970s and 1980sPolish Festivals You Can't Attend Anymore
Cultural history of Poland Polish People's Republic