Socialist realism in Poland ( pl, socrealizm) was a socio-political and aesthetic doctrine enforced by the pro-Soviet communist government in the process of

Stalinization Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

of the post-war

Polish People’s Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million near ...

. The official policy was introduced in 1949 by a decree of the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

minister (later, Minister of Culture and Art) Włodzimierz Sokorski. As in all Soviet-dominated

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

countries,

Socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

became the main instrument of political control in the building of

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...

in Poland. However, the trend never became truly dominant. Following

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's death on March 5, 1953, and the subsequent

De-Stalinization De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...

of all

People's Republic People's republic is an official title, usually used by some currently or formerly communist or left-wing states. It is mainly associated with soviet republics, socialist states following people's democracy, sovereign states with a democratic- ...

s, Polish artists, writers and architects started abandoning it around 1955. The De-Stalinization process peaked during the

Polish October Polish October (), also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the politics of Poland in the second half of 1956. Some social scientists term it the Polish October Revolution, which was less dramatic than the ...

History

The policy was enforced in Poland between 1949 and 1956 amidst the wave of human rights abuses committed by the Ministry of Public Security (secret police/intelligence). It involved all domains of cultural politics including visual, music and literary arts, though its most spectacular achievements were made in the field of architecture. The objectives of this new trend were explained in a 1949 resolution of the National Council of Party Architects. Architecture was declared a key weapon in the creation of a new

social order The term social order can be used in two senses: In the first sense, it refers to a particular system of social structures and institutions. Examples are the ancient, the feudal, and the capitalist social order. In the second sense, social order ...

. It was intended to help spread the communist ideology by influencing citizens' consciousness as well as their outlook on life. During this massive undertaking, a crucial role fell to designers perceived not as merely architects creating streets and edifices, but rather as "

engineers of the human soul "Engineers of the human soul" was a term applied to writers and other cultural workers by Joseph Stalin. In the Soviet Union The phrase was apparently coined by Yury Olesha. Viktor Shklovsky said that Olesha used it in a meeting with Stalin ...

". The idea extended beyond aesthetics and into principles of

urban design Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, cities, and regional spaces, urban d ...

meant to express grandiose expectations and arouse feelings of stability and political power monopoly in

Stalinist Poland Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theor ...

Local characteristics

Since the style of the Renaissance was generally regarded as the most revered in old Polish architecture, it was to become Poland's socialist national format. However, in the course of incorporating these principles into new ideology, major changes were also introduced. One of these was to more closely reflect Soviet architecture, which resulted in the majority of new buildings blending into one another. The all-encompassing Stalinist vision propagated by the Soviet Union was best exemplified by the new Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science (''Pałac Kultury i Nauki imienia Józefa Stalina'') constructed in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

between 1952 and 1955. Its design was based on similar skyscrapers built in the USSR at that time. The 3,500 builders were brought in directly from the Soviet Union with their own blueprints, and housed in a suburban shantytown. The monumental form disseminated by the Communist Government reached its apogee with the construction of an entire new town near

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

along with a

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...

soon to become the biggest in Poland. Nowa Huta was centrally planned as a major new centre of heavy industry, against substantial resistance from middle-class Cracovians. Its Main Square (''Plac Centralny'') was surrounded by huge blocks of flats populated by a new class of industrial workers employed at the

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

Steelworks. Notably, the socrealist centre of Nowa Huta is currently considered a monument of architecture. Other prominent examples of urban design included Marszałkowska Housing Estate (MDM) in Warsaw, Kościuszkowska Housing Estate (KDM) in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, r ...

, Main Station Gdynia Główna, a housing estate in Kowary, and the Palace of Coal-Basin Culture in

Dąbrowa Górnicza Dąbrowa Górnicza is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, southern Poland, near Katowice and Sosnowiec. It is located in eastern part of the Silesian Voivodeship, on the Czarna Przemsza and Biała Przemsza rivers (tributaries of the Vistula River, ...

Painting and sculpture

Socialist

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: * Classical Realism *Literary realism, a mov ...

Polish art Art in Poland refers to all forms of visual art in or associated with Poland. Nineteenth century Polish art has often reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków school of history painting developed by Jan ...

was confined to portraits of party leaders and various depictions of muscular labourers and battle scenes, with special attention paid to popular taste. Formally inspired by

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism ...

as well as the local folk art, socrealism served strictly political and pro-Soviet propaganda purposes; however, its most notable artists, such as

Wojciech Weiss Wojciech Weiss (4 May 1875 – 7 December 1950) was a prominent Polish painter and draughtsman of the Young Poland movement. Weiss was born in Bukovina to a Polish family in exile of Stanisław Weiss and Maria Kopaczyńska. He gave up mus ...

and Włodzimierz Zakrzewski were educated before Stalinism and inadvertently adhered to traditional Western techniques and technologies. Some of the most blatantly socrealist paintings were: "Pass-on the brick" (''Podaj cegłę''
pictured here
by Aleksander Kobzdej, and "Thank you tractor operator" (''Podziękowanie traktorzyście''
pictured here
as well as "Comrade Bierut among labourers" (''Towarzysz Bierut wśród robotników'') by Helena and Juliusz Krajewski. Socrealizm

In sculpture, there was a trend toward stone-carved allegories elevating the common worker, used mainly for architectural purposes, such as those surrounding the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, including mostly plaster busts of communist

apparatchik __NOTOC__ An apparatchik (; russian: аппара́тчик ) was a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or the Soviet government ''apparat'' ( аппарат, apparatus), someone who held any positio ...

s. The collection of Polish socrealist sculpture is exhibited at Kozłówka Palace near

Lubartów Lubartów () is a town in eastern Poland, with 23,000 inhabitants (2004), situated in Lublin Voivodeship. It is the capital of Lubartów County and the Lubartów Commune. Historically it belongs to Lesser Poland. Lubartów was established in 15 ...

Film and music

While the socialist realism doctrine in

Soviet cinema The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. M ...

originated around the time of the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mom ...

( Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, Pudovkin) and reached its peak in the 1930s, it did not have sufficient time to develop in postwar Poland. Therefore, the cult of the communist party remained alien to the local film industry. Among the more creative Polish films loosely adhering to principles of socialist realism were ''Celuloza'' by

Jerzy Kawalerowicz Jerzy Franciszek Kawalerowicz (19 January 1922 – 27 December 2007) was a Polish film director and politician, having been a member of Polish United Workers' Party from 1954 until its dissolution in 1990 and a deputy in Polish parliament since ...

, ''Pokolenie'' by

Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the ...

and ''Piątka z ulicy Barskiej'' by

Aleksander Ford Aleksander Ford (born Mosze Lifszyc; 24 November 1908 in Kiev, Russian Empire – 4 April 1980 in Naples, Florida, U.S.) was a Polish film director; and head of the Polish People's Army Film Crew in the Soviet Union during World War II. Follo ...

. The ideological stereotype gave birth to some inferior productions as well, such as ''Uczta Baltazara'' by Jerzy Zarzycki and Jerzy Passendorfer. In

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

, the trend was limited to art song, film soundtrack, and pop-song based on local

folk tradition Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...

. Communist ideals were glorified in lyrics. Among the prominent composers were

Jan Maklakiewicz Jan Adam Maklakiewicz (24 November 1899, Chojnata, Congress Poland – 8 February 1954, Warsaw) was a Polish composer, conductor, critic, and music educator. His most known compositions belong to the choral music. Selected filmography * ''Pan ...

: "Śląsk pracuje i śpiewa" (''Silesia Works and Sings''), Alfred Gradstein: "Na prawo most, na lewo most" (''A Bridge on the Right, and a Bridge on the Left''), and

Andrzej Panufnik Sir Andrzej Panufnik (24 September 1914 – 27 October 1991) was a Polish composer and conductor. He became established as one of the leading Polish composers, and as a conductor he was instrumental in the re-establishment of the Warsaw Philh ...

: "Symfonia Pokoju" (''The Symphony to Peace''). Widely promoted popular songs included "O Nowej to Hucie piosenka" (''This Song is about Nowa Huta''
featured here with the video
The song is still well remembered by most Polish people of the older generation. Following Stalin's death, and especially from 1953 on, critical opinions were heard with increasing frequency. Finally, as part of the Gomułka political thaw from within the

, the entire doctrine was officially given up in 1956.Kimball King (2007),
Western Drama Through the Ages
' Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 232.

References

External links

at Marxists.org
Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw

Palace of Coal-Basin Culture
in

Wojciech Weiss Muzeum Foundation

Top 10 Socialist Realist Architectural Sculptures in Warsaw
{{History of the People's Republic of Poland Cultural history of Poland

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Polish People's Republic Stalinism in Poland