IMPRESSIONS OF CHANGES IN WARSAW SINCE 1949/SOVIETIZATION/CONSUMER GOODS AND PRICES/INTELLIGENTSIA/JAN WILCZAK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500290017-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 2013
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: December 10, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/08: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500290017-9
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
U.S. Officials Only
ONFIDENTIAL
SECURITY I NFORMAT ION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
Poland
Impressions of Changes in Warsaw Since 1;9/
Sovietization/Consumer Goods and Prices/
Intelligentsia/Jan Wilczek
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laTiOa OF ITS CO 666666 TO 05 AMU, ay OA u0001061[u 900505 II
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
DATE DISTR. /0 Dee 1953
NO. OF PAGES
NO. OF ENCLS.
SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
01.taipXen Critiulsm cf the Regime
3 wir1 .771:=1;;;;-4r warRav 4a charact..rized by a genemaildlasatisfaction with everything.
rehe second
eM..ao Ir. the outspoken, pu.blic cf the rall/ts or tne regime
U.S. Officials Only
OONFI1E!1?i IA.
SECUR I TY INFORMATION
LOISTRIUUTION ?11. NAVY I. I A IN F01
MINT
This report is for tote use within the USA of the Intelligence components of the Departments ar
Agencies indicated above. It in not to be transmitted overseen without the concurrence of the
originating office through the Anstrtant Directir of the ?Mee of Collection and Dissemination, CIA.
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Sovietization
'The people of Warsaw complain bitterly against the Sovisticetimusbich infiltrates by
all possible channels. The symbol of this sovietization is Vie Palace of Culture.
One of the problems which is seriously discussed
in 1:arsaw is what should be cone with this building in the suture, Warsaw is not
large enough for such a colossal pile and it woUld perhaps be a pity to destroy it, ,
as the Orthodox Church (SOBOR) in SARKI Square was destroyed. It is thought that mayhe
all governmental departments and offices could be lodged there. At any rate, Polish
architects are already deliberating how to reconstruct the building so as to deprive it
of its Soviet character.
5. "In architecture, the process of Sovietization is marked. It is now obvious to all that
the regime wants to rebuild ancient Warsaw with utmost care. In this sphere the architects
are left in absolute freedom. It can safely be said that the results are excellent. alte
Old Town, Cathedral, the 'POD BIACHA' Palace, the Polish Bank, St. Alexander's Church
and other such buildings are beautifully rebuilt. On the other hand, the regime wants to
destroy everything which arose between ancient Warsaw and the new, Communist Warsaw. ,otl.1
traces of 20 years of independence and of the bourgeois Warsaw of the beginning of the
20th century are therefore to disappear from the city. The new Warsaw is to be builton
the Soviet pattern. The best example of this new Warsaw is the MIIM district?grandiose,
disproportionate, totalitarian. The purpose of the statues and sculptured ornaments
on tht: buildings is to impose. The galleries along the houses make the broad street even
broader. Other central districts of the city are also to be reconstructed on the same
monumental linen. But architects already point to a serious construction fault ia the
MDM. From the sidewalk one ascends to the gallery by five steps. With the winter
snowstorms and frozen sidewalks 111 Warsaw, and, of course, with the muddle in the
Municipal services, the snow will certainly never be swept away and people will break
their legs on the slippery steps.
6. "Yarsaw is a city of state employees. There is no more !private initiative,' save
in the market place opposite the Polytechnic and a few small shops in back streets. But
the whole population of Poland ic now divided into three classes: peasants, workers and
state employees. In :s.rsaw everybody ts a state employee. Bureaucracy suffocates
everything and everybody. Innumerable heaps of documents or all description are needed
to settle the simplest human problem. A medical treatment is a sinister experience.
It consists of interminable waiting in queues. There is a saying in ';!arsaw that in
order to obtain medical treatment in People's Poland, one has to have an iron health.
This bureaucracy is another sign of Sovietization.
7. "The main Instruments of cultural .ovietization are the theatres, cinemas, and books.
deterioration in the sa.ndards of the actors, decorators and producers. In ca rj
Polski - once the 7eprchentative stage of ';:arsaw?the acting and decor were on the level
of amateur theatricals: only the actresses Cwiklanska and Romanowna were god. The
play "as a nee piece by :orsztyn, Called 'Polacy Pie Ges11,774717Iy written on the
'sucial order' (1:: Zamowienin r-nolecznego1). There is a flood of cheapnoviet literature.
To prove tha,: the lovlet authorities assign to ';oviet books purely political functions, it
is enough to say that Soviet soldiers and officials posted in Poland buy these books,
especially the ones on scientific and technical subjects, and send them back to the USR,
waere their families re-cell them at a greet profit. This practice is well-known. ';Ovlet
books are cent to -'oland at 'clumping prices, to serve the task of lovietiz7..tion.
j Cu=DENTIAL
,2,NLY/rTCUHITY INTIJM.1A'i.L611
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Communication
8. "Cons,:ruction of the Warsaw subsray meets with enormous difficulties. The capital is
built partly on the former marshes and sandy shores ef the Vistula. At a certain depth
the soil is still marshy with mealy underground streams,
the
earth deep down is sti so :.? ?ea n 'ese ? ficulties Is beyond Poland's
present technical resources. No ults should therefore be expected uefore five yeare
at the earliestl. Work on the u.nde.ground was considerably reduced in early simmer 1953,
and a large number cf workers were directed to other building sites--some to the recon-
struction of Warsaw's Old Town and many to the Nown Huta combinate.
Consumer Goods and Prices
9. 'Tae people of Warsaw are better dressed than in 1949, but the quality of domestic
materials is always low. The percentage of faults in production remains at a high level.
There are many faulty goods on the market, especially clothing articles and footwear.
10. "In comparison with 1949, food prtOes have risen, they
averaged the following level.:
Meat: 1 kg pork - 30 4
t' beef - from 2 tys
" veal - about zlotys
1 kg wheat flour - 6 zlotys (this flour is of particularly bud quality. It does
not rise. As a result all sorts of breads and pastries in Poland are still unsatis-
factory-Hiampy, sticky, heavy - in contrast to the standards of bakery products
before World War II.)
A loaf of] rye bread - 3 zlotys
1 kg of butter - 35-40 zlotys.
1 kg of eeffee - 300 zlotys or more.
gollector's Note: Contact here comments that the prices of other articles--
clothing, underwear, etc :0 'acted by the soaroe do not differ from previous
informaticn in summer 19f.
11. "Parcels 'rom abroad are inalaable. cs mc ,.t profltutie gifts are still razor-blades,
coffee--especially Nestle's coffet, all kinds of spl:,:es, cocoa, woolen materials and
knitting wool.
12. soms at.tion of assistamle shouLd te organized in the West, especially for
the non-Communit intelligentsia wnh suffers great poverty.
?
13.
"A family living in War!;aw, in order tc mainin a civil standard living, should earn
at least 1200 otyc in monthly salarles. But the salaries are not high, and even
Communist dienitarses Ss; sos get more, than about 2000 zlotys.
every resourceful person tries to
at once and in thiL way e the ends meet.
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hold two or three joss
14. "The women of Warsaw dress quite smartly. The great ladies of the regime get their
frocks from tne] one and only remaining private dressmaking establishment
and from the ?entre of Folk's Art (Centrala Przemyslu Ludowo
Artystseznego), which maIntains an elegant dressmaking workshop.
15. "There is a great shorte.ge on toe market of many essential articles. From time to time
they suddenly appear and then disappear again. Toilet paper is nicknamed 'bonds'
(Papiery Wartoseiowe) in Warsaw. It is se scarce and difficult to get that people are
always on the llookout for it, and speculators buy large quantities for resale. There
can be no question of any rationing system for this item. Therefore, if any snap receives
an allocation? the first person entering the shop can practecally buy out the whole stock.
In the streets one se? c from time to time people carrying chains of toilet-paper rolls
threaded on a string, Other pedestrians look at them without amusement, only with an
expression of envy.
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Cafes
16. "Warsaw cafes (eg. The La,lkonik) are always full. They are quite attractive places.
But this habit oi .pending hours at a cafe table, so dear to Central and Eastern
Europeans is gradmally being eradicated by the Communists. For the present, however,
the cafes are nice, overcrowded and not very expensive.
Warsaw Intelligentsia
17. "The Polish writer Antoni Slonimski and his -wife are flourishing. They
flat, earn a lot of money--he by writing, she by painting Th.
cannot travel abroa
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have a beautiful
is that the
18. "The poet Julian Tuwim is an absolute ,millionnaire'.
19. "The woman writer r Nalit owska, old, with a lot oi" war-paint on her sagging face
came to an understanding with the regime and fares quite we
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20. "The Communist writer Jan Kott, alter being demoted for a while to the post of professor
of Polish literature at Wroclaw University, is to return to Warsaw in autumn 1953. But
nobody knows his new post.
21. "Apart from a few old names, the leaders in the press, radio, and literature of
toddy's Poland are all brand new teams. Older, ron-Communist writers and journalists
suffer poverty and hope ror some help from abroad which, unfortunately, never appears.
The intellectual classes of Poland live in most precarious conditions. Such 'luxuries'
as awning a private car are not in the picture any more. No one in Warsaw, 50X1 -HUM
eve, from Communist circles, possessed a car of his own.
Jan Wilczek
22. "Under the Communist regime personal careers have nothing to do with real qualifica-
tions. It is the Party, and not the talents, that 'makes a man'. As an example,
consider the nomination of Jan Wilczek troy Krakow as ViCe-Minister of Culture.
The than's intellectual abilities are nil.
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23.
After the war he suddenly became an entLAaiastic
uummum.ut. sut even nis comrades flom tlal Party do not understand how anyone could
nominate such a stupid and worthless man a Vice-Minister of Culture.
Current Warsaw Jokes
(a) The Bank Square (Plac Bankowy) in Warsaw has been
A woman travelling by tramway asks the conductor:
'Is it the Bink Square already?'
'No, he replies, it's still Dzierzynskies.'
(b) 'Anything new?' one Warsaw man asks another.
'I do not know, the jamming was too strong.'
re-named 'Dzherzynoki Square'.
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f. ?
The prominent Communist woman of Spain, Dolores Ibarruri - 'La Passionaria' -
came to Warsaw for a visit. They brought her to a mass meeting in a workers'
hall where she talked for two hours in Spanish amidst the bursts of enthusiastic
and overwhelming applause.
'What were you all so happy about?'
you acclaim her so much? You could
one worker was asked by a friend. 'Why did
not understand a word of what was saying.'
'Ah, answered the worker. 'But every few minutes she shoutel as loudly as she
could: Democrazia Granda.'
(Note: The word grand% in Warsaw Islang, means 'swindle'.)"
end
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