Czwarta stolica. Kiedy Łódź rządziła Polską (1945-1949)
The Fourth Capital. When Łódź Ruled Poland (1945–1949)

Author(s): Przemysław Waingertner
Subject(s): History, Recent History (1900 till today), Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Paris on Jasień;Oxford on Łódka;female textile workers;textile industry;Polish Manchester;“Red” Łódź;Łódź in PRL (Polish People’s Republic);promised land
Summary/Abstract: The author of the present publication relates the history of Łódź during the first five years after World War II, when the former “Polish Manchester,” as Łódź had come to be known, began to revive as a metropolis of the socialist textile industry, the true capital of Polish culture with a view to taking over a similar function in the political field from the ruined Warsaw, the laboratory of a new Poland as well as an important link in the chain of repressive, totalitarian system of the communist state. Waingertner also reveals various facets of the reality at that time: taking over the power by the communists, their struggle against the opposition and the “underground”, the administrators of the “Red” Łódź, the postwar development of the city, the reactivation of the Łódź textiles, the cultural boom after World War II and finally the foundation of higher education institutions, including the University of Łódź. The publication’s audience are people who would be interested in recalling the reality of Łódź of the PRL era or rediscovering it through different eyes.

• Details
• Contents