even mentioning profitability, was something that could always be discussed later. As it was later coined by some economic historians, gigantic economic “white elephants” such as the largest steelworks in Europe in Katowice (Huta Katowice) [Picture 3] were constructed for the sake of demonstrating the “grand gesture” of the new team and winning a degree of prestige both at home and abroad. In addition to the quantitative growth in all sectors of the national economy and the expansion of the welfare state, there were numerous qualitative changes that took place in the 1970s. A vast majority of them was associated either with the purchases of Western production licenses or, to a lesser degree, with direct import of Western goods. An entire list of previously unavailable consumer products of the 1970s would be long and quite impressive, but it suffices to mention that they varied from civilizational breakthroughs in motorization and multimedia (colored TVs and telephones) to symbolic brand names such as Coca-Cola or Wrangler’s blue jeans, from subjects of everyday utility such as refrigerators to the potentially revolutionary tape-recorders. Mass motorization was perhaps the most ambitious task by means of which the authorities sought to offer Poles an opportunity to imitate the Western lifestyle. A widely publicized contract with the Italian Fiat was signed and the first Polish-designed Fiat 126p (dubbed maluch or the tiny one) left the assembly lines of the Bielsko-Biala plant on 22 July, 1973. Even though numerous jokes that ridiculed the small size of the vehicle circulated around, it was in fact the Polish equivalent of the Volkswagen that had finally motorized the masses. In 1970, there were around 400,000 cars on the Polish roads while in 1980 this number was equal to approximately 2,400,000 – a six-fold increase. New, larger versions of Fiat followed soon and a luxury sedan Polonez was first introduced in 1978.
late 1970s, bitter jokes started circling around in Warsaw that a new professorship should be established at the Main School of Planning and Statistics: the Chair of Codology (from the Latin word coda, i.e. queue). This new phenomenon was a source of concern for party leaders as well. For instance, Gierek was publicly challenged by the First Secretary of the Konin Province Party Committee in December 1978: Thirty five years after the war, one has to queue for bread, soaps, boot polish, toothpaste, paints, shoes… The chaos and the confusion in our economy obscure the party’s assessment of the situation. The people see this, they understand it… they condemn it and compare the realities of life with the rosy picture given by official prices, official information handouts and speeches. […] Responsibility… on macroeconomic issues assumes complete anonymity. No one seems to be responsible for putting together an unrealistic economic plan. The authorities were also afraid to tarnish Poland’s liberal image in the West and the levels of persecution and violence against the rising opposition were thus negligible until 1981. The University of Warsaw sociologist Jadwiga Staniszkis summarized this dependency in the following words: “credits from the West can be repaid in part symbolically, which means that the government in question installs a slightly more liberal leadership”. In a similar vein, Mieczysław Rakowski wrote in 1977: “They [Gierek and his team] are afraid of clamor that would spread in the West; after all we do not want to lose the reputation of Gierek’s Poland as a new beginning in communist history and we need this reputation to negotiate our debt rescheduling where we will have to count on a lot of patience and leniency.” From this point of view, it seems like the initially instrumental image-creation designed by Gierek evolved into a policy goal in its own right. As it was put by one of his advisers, Jacek Górski: “entering the road of success propaganda gave birth to a situation where one could not withdraw from this policy and one could not tell the truth to the society, as it would have probably entailed a change in
* The Fifth Congress of the Polish United Workers’ Party, 8-12 December 1975, Basic Materials and Documents. Press articles Kokot, Michał. “W KGHM tęsknią za Gierkiem.” Gazeta Wyborcza, July 18, 2010. * “KGHM misses Gierek.” Pajestka, Jozef. “U progu owej dekady.” Trybuna Ludu, December 1, 1969. * “On the eve of a new decade.” Journal articles Michnik, Adam. “What we Want and What We Can Do.” Telos 47 (1981): 67-75. Miller, James R. “The Little Deal: Brezhnev's Contribution to Acquisitive Socialism.” Slavic Review 44 (1985): 694-706. Pajestka Jozef. “Ogólne współzależności rozwojowe i społeczne czynniki postępu.” Ekonomista 1 (1973): 4-34. * “General interdependencies of growth and societal factors of progress.” Rakowski, Mieczysław. “Problem 1.” Polityka 48 (1975): 3. * “Number one problem.” Rakowski, Mieczysław. “Na Zachodzie bez zmian.” Polityka 13 (1977): 6. * “No changes in the West.” Rurarz Zdzisław. "Przesłanki przyspieszenia rozwoju Nowe Drogi 10 * “Premises of intensive growth.” Bareja Stanisław, Miś. 1981. * “Teddy Bear.”