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To go aboard and to earn
“Those two are undefeated around the world: the Soviet Army and the Polish tourist,” people would say in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. This opinion was earned by tourist tours from the Polish People’s Republic throughout the Eastern Bloc. Such fame was earned by thousands of citizens who were allowed by the people’s government to travel abroad. Until the mid-1950s, however, traveling abroad was possible for very few, and only some 170,000 border crossings were being recorded annually.
Nationalised culture
Once in power, the Bolsheviks sought to take control of all areas of life. They saw culture as the perfect tool for exercising power over minds. Lenin, as well as the People’s Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, claimed that the function of Soviet cultural institutions was to bring up the ‘new man’. The function of literature and art was to become propaganda.
Soviets in the Dark Continent
For many African politicians at the time of decolonisation, it was not western democracy but communism that was the most attractive political and economic system. They believed it offered a chance of rapid development. Besides, the newly created states were mostly artificial organisms, created by the colonial powers in the 19th century. The boundaries drawn by the Europeans, did not change until decolonisation. Independence was thus gained by political organisms that were conglomerations of tribes, often hostile to each other. This necessitated the search for something that could bind these communities together more strongly.
Electrification without electricity
The director of the Turów power station, Zygmunt Łątka, divided their construction into five stages – “Stage one: indescribable enthusiasm, stage two: indescribable mess, stage three: searching for the guilty ones, stage four: punishing the innocent ones and stage five: rewarding the undeserving ones”.
The era of success propaganda
“Working and leisure conditions have improved. The achievements of our nation have been augmented by new and valuable achievements of Polish scholars, as well as the representatives of art and culture,” enumerated the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. Year by year, the always idyllic speeches corresponded less and less with reality, because there the successes had faded away and all that remained was propaganda.
The profiles of the torturers
Mao Tse-tung
Mao Zedong
1893 - 1976
Vladimir Ulyanov
alias Vladimir Lenin
1870 - 1924
Saloth Sar
alias Pol -Pot
1925 - 1998
Mengistu Haile Mariam
1937 -
Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili
alias Joseph Stalin
1878 - 1953
Victims’ silhouettes
Sambadondogiin Tserendorj
1872 - 1937
Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko
1947 - 1984
María Elena Moyano Delgado
1958 - 1992
Lin Zhao
1932 - 1968
Milada Horáková
1901 - 1950
It started with…
In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the brochure entitled Manifesto of the Communist Party. It covered the main points of Marxist ideology, developed later in subsequent works, especially by Karl Marx. Marx believed that he had discovered the scientific principles governing social development. The basic mechanism of mankind functioning was the struggle of classes, which, in the course of the revolution, would impose subsequent forms of the socio-political system.
Comintern
After the end of World War I, there were several attempts in Europe to provoke a communist revolution. Even the short-lived Alsatian, Bavarian, Slovak and Hungarian Soviet Republics were established. The communists did not gain power in any country, but technically they created their own parties in every European state. Some of the parties acted illegally, others were participating in the elections and often enjoyed a great deal of support. It resulted, on one hand, from the unsolved economic problems of Europe and, on the other hand, from efforts of Soviet propaganda to create a false image of the USSR. It was supported by numerous “useful idiots” (a term coined by Lenin) – intellectuals fascinated by the vision of building an ideal society.
Conquest
Hitler’s seizure of power in Germany (1933) was a matter of concern for Stalin – one of the Nazis’ main goals was to destroy Marxism. In 1935, the Soviet leader ordered the communists to form an anti-fascist People’s Fronts – a coalition with the Social Democrats and other left-wing parties, who had been considered antagonistic before. The field of indirect confrontation between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany was the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This conflict did not, however, impede the agreement that Stalin concluded with Hitler on 23 August 1939.
Political upheaval
The enslaved nations of Central and Eastern Europe had repeatedly expressed their opposition to the imposition of the communist system. In many countries (including Soviet Union itself) anti-communist guerrillas were active for many years after World War II. In June 1953, the first broad civil revolt took place. A wave of demonstrations and strikes that swept through German Democratic Republic were brutally suppressed by Soviet tanks. Along with smaller protests in Czechoslovakia, these events led to a partial revision of communist policy in some countries.
Communism in the WORLD
To go aboard and to earn
Most people travelled to communist countries. The trusted and the chosen ones...
Nationalised culture
In 1922, the Main Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press...
Electrification without electricity
During the rule of Wladyslaw Gomulka (1956-1970), electricity problems...
The era of success propaganda
To make people see their prosperity After Edward Gierek took power at the end...
Self-monitoring as highest form of real socialism
The publishers will see to the authors The political thaw of 1956 allowed...
Italy
On 21 January 1921, at the 17th socialist congress in Livorno, radical party...
Partners
Co-financed by the Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Jan Paderewski Institute for the Legacy of Polish National Thought
under the Patriotic Fund – “Independence in Polish” edition.
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