daily life behing the Iron Curtain

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Jan 30 17:43:23 PST 2003



> It's amazing for someone who grew up hearing the most hysterical cold
> war propaganda to read these tales from Woj of daily life in Poland
> and from ChrisD of the kids in Komsomol drinking, flirting, and
> listening to Pink Floyd. Has anyone done anything on daily life under
> formerly existing socialism?

I am not sure if there is market for this kind of stuff. Milan Kundera is what comes to mind. But I think interest in this type of literature waned, losing ground to the Western-boys-doing-Eastern-Europe variety.

But these were certainly very interesting times. One part of it was that these were societies in transition from mostly rural to modern/urban society. A lot of people left the "idiocy of the rural life" for the cities. These people still retained some sense of social solidarity that kept them together, but the cities freed them for the restrictions imposed on them by "rural or small town idiocy." At the same time, full employment and social welfare policies removed the fear of not being able to support oneself. People really lived without fear (which I realised only coming to this country where most people seems to live in fear of one kind or another). That creted some crime problem, but also was conducive for the bohemian life styles especially around universities. There was a lots of idealism, often very naïve, people were really interested in foreign culture - Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Yes, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix etc. were quite popular, much more so than the local artists. Not to mention drugs.

I left in 1981 just before the declaration of military rule - and I heard that it was a real low point. Most people retreted to the private sphere, developed the struggle-for-survival materialistic mentality or adopted really weird religious views. After 1989, people realised that the promise of capitalist heaven did not materialize. Instead. Many lost their jobs, savings, and any sense of economic security. One thing that I noticed when I started going back there regularly during the 1990s is that people started to be afraid.

What is see now is rampant materialism and disillusionment. My daughter who lives there as well as her friends are basicallylow income yuppies, frustrated over their low wages. My uppity sister who teaches at a university is frustrated over their low wages as well as the fact that the only people who seem to get ahead are predatory two-bit capitalists. Some of my old friends OD'd and are no more, other emigrated, still other settled down grew fat and try to make a buck any way they can. There is not much we can talk about anyomore. And of course there is the obnoxious and ubiqituos two-bit capitalist class, arrogant boorish "biznesmeny" who set the tone in clubs, restaurants and public places. Not a very nice place to be.

Wojtek



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