Kultura codzienna w socjalizmie; współczesne dziedzictwo i jego skutki dla procesów transformacji ustrojowej (propozycja badawcza)

Abstract

The theme of the daily life inside the People's Republic of Poland was almost never the subject for consideration by the scientific community during those times. At the same time however, many autobiographies, diaries, and memoirs have been written in Poland on this subject. Their authors are usually respected intellectuals, writers and publicists from the second half of the 20th century. Because of their work, these important decades have entered literary chronicles. Today, more then ten years after the fall of “The Iron Curtain”, it is clear, that the political and social transformation process in Central and Eastern Europe has proceeded unexpectedly slow. One of the reasons, is the accepted present-day legacy of so-called “real socialism,” in the form of behaviour and models of thinking. The impact of this “real socialism” was most apparent in the problems faced by “normal Polish people” in every day life, especially the lives of the average working intellectual in Polish cities; scientist, teachers, clerks, engineers and students, whose standard of living was far below their aspirations. The intelligentsia was the main social group whose income and standard of living differed the most from that of their pre-war period.