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What was better in Poland under communism?


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southernThreads: 116
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Joined: May 17, 07 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 09:42    #31
They also say that kielbasa and bread tasted better under communism.
IronsideThreads: 59
Posts: 6,786
Joined: Feb 26, 09 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 14:49    #32
beckski:
My relatives in Lublin still practice some Russian customs. For example, a three kiss greeting on the cheeks.

It isn't Russian custom, actually in old Poland kisses were more elaborate :p
enkiduThreads: 18
Posts: 983
Joined: Sep 23, 08 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 15:09    #33
It's not particularly great thing, but one day in winter, on the main square of my town I saw a great big tank. And soldiers warming themselves around burning barrel. It was a first day of martial state. For a boy like me - it was something beautiful!

Stan wojenny
Polonius3Threads: 1,005
Posts: 4,834
Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 15:58    #34
The Church and private farm ownership, plus the contradictious Polish spirit adn realtively big population are what softened the rigours of Soviet-style rule in Poland. The Church was restricted butnot obliteraetd as in the USSR, Albania and Czechoslovakia and agricultrue was never extensively collectivised. Also only Poles rose against Soviet-style rule on so many occasions: 1956, 1968 (students), 1970, 1976 and finally 1980 (Solidarity).
NatasaThreads: 7
Posts: 2,607
Joined: Jun 6, 10  Pictures: 2  Gold Member MEMBER ♀ 		 Sep 23, 10, 17:47    #35
If I put aside many easier solvable practical problems during communism (apartment, free education, health system, etc., not noticeable differences in SE status) I would say they were more fertile systems, totalitarian in less transparent way, so they were able to produce free thinkers, fresh ideas that were real opposition to those regimes, which was visible for me at least in arts like literature, movies....
Now I have to stop myself from throwing up when I try to choose a book in a bookshop. FUJ!

Solidarity is as a word and as a concept disappeared with fall of communism.
In Serbian you can rarely hear it nowadays. People are more selfish, competitive and life philosophy " Homo homini lupus est" imported from the West is dominating our minds. Souls are gone.

stop the earth i want to get off
Marek11111Threads: 49
Posts: 1,954
Joined: Aug 6, 09  Pictures: 1 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 18:10    #36
you knew who to bribe now you have to bribe everyone
zetigrekThreads: 59
Posts: 2,709
Joined: May 20, 10 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 18:12    #37
Natasa:
" Homo homini lupus est" imported from the West


Well I think that in Poland we have always been "wolves"...
NatasaThreads: 7
Posts: 2,607
Joined: Jun 6, 10  Pictures: 2  Gold Member MEMBER ♀ 		 Sep 23, 10, 18:20    #38
zetigrek:


Well I think that in Poland we have always been "wolves"...

Maybe you're right...
What i read here about everyday behavior of older Polish generations (parents, grandparents), didn't leave that impression.

Here it was not like that (YU, SRB). For most ppl.

Maybe the difference in tradition (orthodox and catholic) from pre communist era, has something to do with that? What do you think?
;)

stop the earth i want to get off
zetigrekThreads: 59
Posts: 2,709
Joined: May 20, 10 ♂ 		Edited by: zetigrek  Sep 23, 10, 18:22    #39
Natasa:
What i read here about everyday behavior of older Polish generations (parents, grandparents), didn't leave that impression.


They are just bleaching their past... yeah sure but donoszenie was the most favourite hobby of most Poles those times...

Natasa:
Maybe the difference in tradition (orthodox and catholic) from pre communist era, has something to do with that? What do you think?


I think it has nothing to do with that
NatasaThreads: 7
Posts: 2,607
Joined: Jun 6, 10  Pictures: 2  Gold Member MEMBER ♀ 		 Sep 23, 10, 18:26    #40
zetigrek:
donoszenie


Can you explain me what does that mean?

if I use Google translate, it will surely lead me to wrong conclusions :)

What are they bleaching?

stop the earth i want to get off
zetigrekThreads: 59
Posts: 2,709
Joined: May 20, 10 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 18:41    #41
Natasa:
Can you explain me what does that mean?

if I use Google translate, it will surely lead me to wrong conclusions :)


snitch on somebody

Natasa:
What are they bleaching?


I mean generally that people tend to make old times better than it really used to be.
pgtxThreads: 49
Posts: 6,327
Joined: Feb 14, 09  Gold Member MEMBER ♀ 		 Sep 23, 10, 18:43    #42
Natasa:
zetigrek:
donoszenie


Can you explain me what does that mean?

to inform against someone...
NatasaThreads: 7
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Joined: Jun 6, 10  Pictures: 2  Gold Member MEMBER ♀ 		Edited by: Natasa  Sep 23, 10, 20:04    #43
zetigrek:
snitch on somebody


pgtx:
to inform against someone...



Today seems like not at all necessary institution.

"Foucault also compares modern society with Jeremy Bentham's "Panopticon" ..... Ancient prisons have been replaced by clear and visible ones, but Foucault cautions that "visibility is a trap." It is through this visibility, Foucault writes, that modern society exercises its controlling systems of power and knowledge (terms Foucault believed to be so fundamentally connected that he often combined them in a single hyphenated concept, "power-knowledge"). Increasing visibility leads to power located on an increasingly individualized level, shown by the possibility for institutions to track individuals throughout their lives. Foucault suggests that a "carceral continuum" runs through modern society, from the maximum security prison, through secure accommodation, probation, social workers, police, and teachers, to our everyday working and domestic lives. All are connected by the (witting or unwitting) supervision (surveillance, application of norms of acceptable behaviour) of some humans by others."


he died in 1984., what would he say today ;)

looking for similarities... :)

stop the earth i want to get off
HarryThreads: 62
Posts: 8,508
Joined: May 2, 07 ♂ [Suspended] 		 Sep 23, 10, 20:17    #44
zetigrek:
They are just bleaching their past... yeah sure but donoszenie was the most favourite hobby of most Poles those times...

Now that is a vicious lie! Everybody knows that no Pole ever informed on another Pole. The only people in Poland who informed were Jewish/communist/black/gay/ethically German-Polish mixed/not Catholic and so can not possibly have been Poles!
nottThreads: 6
Posts: 1,271
Joined: Jun 2, 10 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 20:58    #45
zetigrek:
donoszenie was the most favourite hobby of most Poles those times...


Yeah, that's how you get a massive samizdat working.

Harry:


Get yourself an enema, or what...
BzibziohThreads: 6
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Joined: Oct 15, 08 ♀ [Suspended] 		 Sep 23, 10, 21:18    #46
nott:
zetigrek:donoszenie was the most favourite hobby of most Poles those times...

Yeah, that's how you get a massive samizdat working.


Kids these days, what do they know?
nottThreads: 6
Posts: 1,271
Joined: Jun 2, 10 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 21:46    #47
Bzibzioh:
Kids these days, what do they know?


She just got it wrong. Her parents may remember snitching as the worst Polish vice, and it did happen, of course. But you don't get an institution of 'fucha' when every second person might be a snitch. You don't get ripe bribery, when snitching is a popular sport. You can't have the word 'organise' with its unique Polish meaning, if snitching is any problem.

The very thing that they hated it so much is typically Polish. A snitch is the lowest form of life in Poland. You can be useful, you can be nice, you can be an expert, but if you are a snitch, you're done.
pgtxThreads: 49
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Joined: Feb 14, 09  Gold Member MEMBER ♀ 		 Sep 23, 10, 21:48    #48
Bzibzioh:
Kids these days, what do they know?

well, so educate them, not patronize them...
pawianThreads: 90
Posts: 5,395
Joined: May 30, 08  Pictures: 2 ♂ 		 Sep 23, 10, 22:01    #49
50% polled Romanians declare they prefered communism than current times.

Shocking.

http://www.tvn24.pl/12691,1674869,0,1,rumuni-tesknia-za-komuna,wiadomo sc.html
zetigrekThreads: 59
Posts: 2,709
Joined: May 20, 10 ♂ 		Edited by: zetigrek  Sep 23, 10, 22:51    #50
nott:

She just got it wrong. Her parents may remember snitching as the worst Polish vice, and it did happen, of course. But you don't get an institution of 'fucha' when every second person might be a snitch. You don't get ripe bribery, when snitching is a popular sport. You can't have the word 'organise' with its unique Polish meaning, if snitching is any problem.

The very thing that they hated it so much is typically Polish. A snitch is the lowest form of life in Poland. You can be useful, you can be nice, you can be an expert, but if you are a snitch, you're done.


Well nott, you see, in civilized countries it is called obowiązek obywatelski. In Poland it is called donosicielstwo. ;)))
nottThreads: 6
Posts: 1,271
Joined: Jun 2, 10 ♂ 		Edited by: nott  Sep 23, 10, 23:26    #51
zetigrek:
in civilized countries it is called obowiązek obywatelski. In Poland it is called donosicielstwo. ;)))


there is something to it :) PRL was not a 'civilised country'. It was a system of exploitation, and the nation reacted in a natural way. Stealing from the state was widely accepted, stealing from a private person was your ordinary thieving, despicable thing. You needed to paint your flat, you 'organised' paint from your factory, or a neighbour did you a favour for a symbolic bottle, then you went to your GP, and his first question was '3 days or a week'. Those who happened to actually have a flu felt like slightly embarrassed, un-Polish.

Weird stuff. Bareja got it right, although it seems unbelievable. In this reality, snitching means civil death, and sometimes worse. Civil death means you go to the shop and all you can get is what you see. It means you call a recommended plumber, and he's not doing it, sorry, and that was one exceptional case, my brother in law asked me to do a favour to his best friend's terminally ill mother, and she provided all the materials anyway, I only put it all together for a cup of tea and a nice chat. On Sunday.

edit: well, maybe it's not clear enough. The recommended plumber turns out to be a mistake, so you call the official service, they come next Easter, they leave mess in your bathroom, and the leak comes back the next day anyway, because they exchanged your loose, but otherwise good tap with a faulty one. They needed good material for good Poles, innit. You getting the gist?
Mr GrunwaldThreads: 34
Posts: 2,358
Joined: Dec 16, 08 ♂ 		 Sep 24, 10, 03:21    #52
Harry:
German-Polish mixed

You better watch your tongue!

pawian:
50% polled Romanians declare they prefered communism than current times.

Shocking.

Indeed shocking

zetigrek:
Well nott, you see, in civilized countries it is called obowiązek obywatelski. In Poland it is called donosicielstwo. ;)))

Good one, good one...

1 Thing was better, professional ******** :) in one party. Keep it simple ;)
plk123Threads: 30
Posts: 6,412
Joined: Aug 29, 07  Pictures: 2 ♂ 		 Sep 24, 10, 05:40    #53
zetigrek:
yeah sure but donoszenie was the most favourite hobby of most Poles those times...

not in the circles i am from
tygrysThreads: 2
Posts: 404
Joined: Dec 28, 07 ♂ 		Edited by: tygrys  Sep 24, 10, 06:03    #54
Yeah I agree, Poles didn't do that where I lived either. It was just the opposite, for example they would kill a cow or pig, make kielbasa or steaks and sell it to neighbors and friends without telling the gov because under communism the gov wanted to know everything about you, how many cows, pigs, chickens you had, when did you kill them and what did you do with the meat, etc. Money was tight that's why people never fully gave the correct answers and would cover each other then kill the pig, make sausages, sell it and have money.
The lines were unbelievable in stores, specially the masarnias. People would stand in line 2-3 hours before the store would open to get a piece of wątróbki or schabowy and if you came to late, you got screwed.
The movie "nie lubię poniedziałku" or the seriał " zmiennicy" is an excellent example how Poles lived in those communistic times. many movies were made about communistic Poland. When toilet paper was brought in to a store, poeple would buy as many as they could carry. The stuff was tied up together with a string through the middle. It was worse than sand paper, but hey, they had some hard asses.
Chicago PollockThreads: 10
Posts: 638
Joined: Apr 10, 10 ♂ 		 Sep 24, 10, 07:21    #55
tygrys:
but hey, they had some hard asses.


Is that where the term "you're a hard ass" comes from?

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