Stalinowska codzienność. Łódź w latach 1949–1956
Everyday Life under Stalinism. Łódź in the Years 1949–1956

Author(s): Grzegorz Mnich
Subject(s): History, Recent History (1900 till today), Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: propaganda in the Polish People’s Republic;1956 strikes;protests and riots;Stalinist security;newspapers in Łódź;protests; censorship;housing policy and architecture in Łódź;Stakhanovite movement;top workers
Summary/Abstract: The book is the second in the series Łódź in the PRL. The PRL in Łódź. The authors of the five-volume project have embarked on the task of depicting the consecutive phases which the City upon Łódka went through in the years 1945–⁠1989. The goal is to popularize the knowledge about Łódź in the most accessible way in the context of the historical reality of the PRL, or the Polish People’s Republic. This is a popular science publication presenting the history of the city on the river Łódka under totalitarian regime. Drawing on source research and literature, the author shows both the ruthless repression policy of the Department of Security (Polish: Urząd Bezpieczeństwa – UB) and the everyday reality of Poles: long queues in retail stores, subsistence wages, the eternal undersupply of goods, and, finally, social protests on economic grounds as well as opposition to the imposed communist regime. We are observing the very slow development of Łódź in such areas as urban transport, construction and healthcare, while witnessing a nascent social rebellion which fully manifested itself in the so-called “Polish thaw” of 1956. The distinguishing feature of this publication is the presentation of the attitudes, material situation and social advancement of the journalistic community of that time that used to be at the communist party's beck and call. The author also explains how censorship ensured applying the correct overtones to all propaganda content. The book may be an interesting proposition for anyone interested in popularizing the history of Łódź. An additional merit of the monograph is the analysis of the functioning of the press under the communist regime.

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