Propaganda na rzecz Polski Ludowej. Studium przypadku na przykładzie Tygodnika „Przyjaciółka” (rocznik 1952)

Abstract

The „Przyjaciółka” weekly used to have an almost monopolistic position among women’s magazines, which it shared only with the „Moda i Życie Praktyczne” monthly (from 1953 „Kobieta i Życie”). Like other titles in late 1948, it joined the trend of establishing and consolidating the new regime, which was reflected in popularizing the content so as to support system changes. Topics traditionally attributed to the model of women’s magazines were dominated by selected current news and political commentary as well as a retrospective view of the style of government and social problems of the inter-war period. In the form accessible to readers, using different genres of expression, it popularized an extremely positive image of the People’s Poland (from July 1952 the People’s Republic of Poland). Propaganda for the changes and achievements made after the war in the country was spread not only in the information and commentaries published in this magazine, but also in stories, novels, movie stories, newspaper columns, reportage, letters to the editor, responses to them, competitions and puzzles. The authors assured that, although the provocative behavior of Western countries after the war were a concern, the socialist country could count on the support of the citizens expressed in everyday life, professional and social work and efforts made to maintain world peace. A significant part of the described, or even created, reality was exaggerated or „improved”, but some of its elements captured traces of those years, indicating areas of modernization and the positive balance of the changes.