Gomułkowska rzeczywistość. Łódź w latach 1956–1970
The Gomułka Reality. Łódź in the Years 1956–1970

Author(s): Krzysztof Lesiakowski
Subject(s): History, Recent History (1900 till today), Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: everyday life in the PRL;propaganda in the PRL;de-Stalinization;1968;PZPR;Roman Catholic Church;May Day marches;housing policy and architecture of the Gomułka era;1956 strikes;protests and riots
Summary/Abstract: The book is the third 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. The book shows various aspects of the functioning of Łódź and its inhabitants in the Gomułka reality of 1956–1970, the immutable gap separating needs and possibilities in the sphere of consumption as well as investment. The dynamics of the changes that occurred during the so-called post-Stalinist thaw, and the administrative and sociocultural development of the city are also described in the book. The party-state apparatus its internal mechanics have likewise been characterized, together with the relations between the secular state and the structures of the Roman Catholic Church, including the conflict between these entities in the context of the dispute over the nature of the millennial celebrations of the Baptism of Poland. The discussion has also covered events of the student revolt of March 1968 which marked the infamous end of “crude socialism” in Łódź.

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