SHORTAGES IN POLAND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00423R000800250001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 31, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
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F50-Yr20113/07/31:2A-RDP83-00423R000800250001-5
formation
S ONLY ti
BOST 6517
SECURITY INFO ATION
COUNTRY Poland CIA
SUBJECT Shortages in Poland
DATE 8 July. 1953
PLACE ACQUIRED
(By source)
50X1
DATE ACQUIRED
(By source)
Supplement to:
DATE (of info)
June - July
1953 Responsive to:
contains information affecting the national defense of the
United States wi , --si ing of Title 18, Sections 793 and 794, of
the U.S. Code, as amended. Its ra .. id fir revelation of its con-
tents to or receipt by an unauthdtized person is pr law. The
reproduction of this report is prohibited.
This UNEVALUATED INFORMATION is supplied for the possible interest of your
analysts. It does not warrant dissemination by
Source:
50X1
1. "The shortage of bread in Poland continues to pose a serious problem for the
government as well as the consumer. Reports from all areas agree that bread
is exceedingly poor in quality, improperly baked, and delayed in delivery to
the stores selling it.
2. "The situation is especially bad in Warsaw, where the local population must
compete with large numbers coming in from suburbs all around the city where
it is quite impossible to get bread. The bakeries there have been so irregular
in their operation, that stores supplying bread are open at times when working
people cannot buy. The result is that when they have time, on Saturdays or
days before a holiday, they go to Warsaw and lay in enough bread to last a
week--if they can find it.
3. "Potatoes, in years past the cheapest of all Polish food items, have been on
the scarcity list for many months. In June new potatoes on the Warsaw market
sold at 25 zlotys a kilo (2.2 lbs), the equivalent of seven hours earnings for
the average worker. The price of old potatoes had dropped somewhat, but even
so Were not less than three zlotys a kilogram, and not desirable at that. All
fresh vegetables are extremely high-priced and meat continues to be out of reach.
14. "Food is not alone in being hard to find or non-existent. Complaints are
reported because of no soap, no tooth-paste, no buttons, no combs. Farmers
were so persistent in their demands to know why the rural cooperatives did
not have certain simple farm tools so necessary to the spring work that the
authorities had to explain, by throwing the blame on each other's department.
RR (IT TP TV TRIWYRMil rPTC),F
use within the USA of CIA and the Intelligence components
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of State, Army, Navy, Air an smitted overseas with-
out the concurrence of the originating office through the Assis
of the Office of Collection and Dissemination, CIA.
SC=TiiIi lifOrMatiO1 1 !RIMY
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/31 : CIA-RDP83-00423R000800250001-5
RETURN TO CIA
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/31 : CIA-RDP83-00423R000800250001-5
Secri niumation
U. o. OFFICIALS ONLY
CONFIDENTIAL
SECURITY INFORMATION
-2-
5. "Instances of arrests, trials, and sentences for theft of goods from state-
owned stores or plants and sale on the black market are frequent. Sometimes
it is a case involving only one person, though the amount of money and goods
concerned may be significant. Sometimes it is the work of organized bands.
6. "Recently a case of the latter sort got considerable attention. A number of
men employed on the construction of the Warsaw subway were so organized that
they were able to divert to certain companies, quantities of building
materials that private concerns could not legally obtain. This meant that
prices on the black market for such materials have been exorbitant, and the workers
on the subway could get handsome rewards for their theft of cement and other
builder's needs.
7. "Charged and convicted, they drew prison sentences ranging from one and a half
to three and a half years, plus heavy fines.
8. "A number of the managers of nationalized stores selling all kinds of paper--
cardboard, stationery, art papers and the like, who had organized to take from
their stocks and sell on the black market, were also tried by the same court
and sentenced. Twelve persons were arrested in connection with this abuse of
office, one of them the financial director in the City Retail Trade, through
whose influence the speculators had been able to get consignments earlier than
other store managers and sell at raised prices. One manager had been
successful in disposing of three tons of paper and writing materials in this
fashion.
9. "Arrests are becoming more and more frequent, by no means all of them on
charges that have any basis in fact, and the old practice of arresting
without making a charge continues. To encourage the members of the Security
Police, the secret police, to 'chrry out their duty,' the government has issued
a decree giving all those receiving injury, during performance of duty, 'official,
political, or social,' a monthly pension, the amount depending upon the
seriousness of the injury inflicted by 'an enemy of the democratic form of
government.' The pension is cash, but it also carries many other priviliges.
The widows of such men and minor children also are to receive monthly
allowances.
-end-
U. S. OFFICIALS ONLY
CONFIDENTIAL
SECURITY INFORMATION
-LAU
Security Informatinft
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/31 : CIA-RDP83-00423R000800250001-5