Lenin’s Leftovers

Nowa Huta (meaning literally the “New Steelmill”) is the easternmost district of Krakow with over 200,000 inhabitants today.  Immediately following the communist take-over of Poland in 1945, the Party authorities encountered strong resistance from middle-class Krakowians.  In order to maintain authority, the communist government commenced building a satellite industrial town to attract people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to the region and thus creating an “ideal” town for Party propaganda.  The town was a feat of socialist realism architecture and careful urban planning.  Many important people including Fidel Castro visited Nowa Huta to see this new model.

In 1954, the Lenin Steelworks opened, and in less than 20 years the factory became the largest steel mill in Poland.  Factory workers were given a place to live and even a garage for their cars, although no one owned one and 5,000 garages remained empty.  Following the opening of the factory, Lenin made a high-profile visit to Nowa Huta and a year later a statue of him was unveiled in Strzelecki Park. The monument was moved to the Lenin Museum soon after, and thereafter mysteriously disappeared. In 1970 the decision was made to construct a new one in a highly visible central square.

Only four artists were considered, and Marian Konieczny won the commission.  Coincidentally, the artist was living in Lenin’s former flat from the time he spent in Krakow in 1912.  His depiction of Lenin was slightly bent as if walking forward, and the artist explains that the statue of Lenin, “like his ideas, are in perpetual march forward.”  Ironically enough, all factory workers were required to help pay for the construction of the massive statue from their own salaries even though no one wanted it constructed.

Forced to contribute to a highly visible symbol of a regime they despised, the residents of Nowa Huta constantly plotted on how to get rid of the statue.  In 1979 a bomb was planted at the base, with two packs of explosives each weighing 6 kilograms attached to the legs.  The prankster thought if the explosion broke the legs, the whole statue would topple.  The blast was so powerful that neighboring houses were damaged with broken windows, etc.  The only casualty was a local man who died of shock waking up by the explosion.  Despite the strength of the blast, the statue remained standing.

Later attempts to destroy the statue were also in vain, including efforts to pull down the statue as well as an arson attack.  Finally on December 10, 1989, Lenin was picked up by a giant crane, boxed up and left abandoned in storage.  Authorities held an auction for the statue, but there were no bidders.  Years later a Swedish businessman and philanthropist bought him for 100,000 Swedish crowns, and had him shipped to a museum outside of Stockholm.

After the fall of communism, these massive monuments of the old regime proved problematic in many places in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states.  Highly visible, they stand representing a period of history that locals wish to forget.  Today in Nowa Huta, the former street named after Stalin has been renamed for Ronald Reagan.  These small but highly symbolic changes matter most to the residents as they forge ahead into the future.  The square near the center of Nowa Huta that formerly held the massive memorial to Lenin remains empty, but I suspect that many locals who lived in the town during a different era still vividly picture it in place.

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Arial view of Nowa Huta depicting the carefully planned city.

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Former sign in front of the steel mill, named for Lenin.

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Protecting Lenin:  Nowa Huta, Poland

2009
10/11
CATEGORY
History
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Ordinary Days in Auschwitz

I fear this will not be my only post on Auschwitz.  Living in Krakow for five or six weeks now, I know that I am getting closer to my inevitable visit to the nearby extermination camp.  It is hard to walk through the center of the city without noticing many advertisements for tours of Auschwitz, although I doubt the Poles are particularly happy that so many visitors use the beautiful city of Krakow as a stepping stone to something they didn’t want in the first place.

People are used to hearing stories of heroism and victimization surrounding Auschwitz and the Holocaust.  Everyone knows about Anne Frank- after two years, her hiding spot was discovered and she was sent to Belsen where she died of typhus.  Most people have also seen Schindler’s List, which chronicles the story of Oskar Schindler who rescued around 1,200 jews by employing them in his enamel factory.  In fact, many tourists look for locations from the movie around Kazimierz (former Jewish neighborhood in Krakow pre-WWII) and Krakow.  There was also Maximilian Kolbe, a priest who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in Auschwitz.  He was canonized as patron saint of “Our Difficult Century” by Pope John Paul II in 1982 for his extraordinary heroic and selfless deed.  Also unique is the story of Witold Pilecki, the only known person to volunteer to go to Auschwitz.  Once a prisoner, he sent invaluable information to the West and organized resistance.auschgate

This list is in no way complete; there are countless heroes of the holocaust and Auschwitz.  In retrospect, people like to hear these stories of extraordinary people doing extraordinary deeds in the midst of the biggest disaster of the twentieth century.  It provides some hope that “good” really does conquer “evil.”   However, as I read the book This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman by Tadeusz Borowski, I see a completely new perspective.  After publishing in underground circles, Borowski walked into a trap and spent 1943-1945 in Auschwitz until the Red Army’s “liberation.”  His experiences are reflected in this book, which is in first person narrated by a fictional character named Tadek.  Sometimes he has the “privileged” job of helping to unload the new arrivals to the camp from their crowded trains, directing them onto trucks to extermination.  Afterwards, he and the other workers take their food from the abandoned suitcases on the tracks for means of survival.  Tadek also works with groups doing heavy labor around the camps, and discusses the hierarchy of prisoners.  He talks about daily life with an incredible amount of distance.  Every person discussed has the dual role of the executioner and a victim, as they try to make it through the day.  No one is innocent.  And when the work is done for the day, Tadek describes the camp as a “haven of peace.”  People are dying but one has enough food and the ability to work…

Of course, the impact of this book cannot be summed up into a few paragraphs and I digress.  However the stories are unique in many ways.  Often, we hear the Auschwitz perspective of the Jewish people and usually heroic tales of solidarity.  Instead, Borowski unabashedly recounts ordinary days in Auschwitz.  Although a collection of his personal experiences, the perspective of a narrator allows the stories to be those of many, instead of just Borowski’s.  These stories could be those of the ordinary days of many people, and Borowski identifies himself with millions in the writing of this book.

2009
10/07
CATEGORY
Art
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Museum or Attraction?

I was extremely excited to go to the Warsaw Uprising Museum on my recent trip to Poland’s capital, but sorely disappointed by the tourist trap I found.  I mean no disrespect to the heroic resistance group that stood up to Nazi Germany in 1944; rather, I wish to discuss the organization of the museum itself.  As a former art history student who has worked in museums, galleries, and curated a couple of dozen art shows, perhaps I am a bit harsh on museums in general.  However, I found the Warsaw Uprising Museum to be poorly organized, failing to communicate much information, and downright tacky.

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(above) Warsaw Uprising Museum: Crowds waiting to go upstairs, and tunnels in the basement.

Perhaps my biggest mistake was to visit the museum on a Sunday when admission is free, but I was with my school and had no choice.  I should also add right from the beginning that everyone else in my group seemed to be impressed and to really enjoy the museum.  In my opinion, the biggest problem with the museum was its failure to communicate information about the Uprising, and I left feeling like I had learned nothing.  It was truly a museum for people who do not like museums, as seen in their many different gimmicks to portray the events of the Uprising, and thus the information was lost.  I love when museums use innovative and interactive ways to educate the public.  For example, I thought Budapest’s House of Terror Museum was surprisingly worth seeing in a city with dozens of great museums.  No photographs were allowed, and there was an easy-to-follow chronological path.  Visitors could watch news clips, pick up phones to hear different audio recordings, and see memorabilia from different events throughout the 20th century history of Hungary.  In addition to the informative handouts in each room that visitors could take home, the best part of this museum was that it was an easy to understand walk through history.

IMG_2710 Facade of House of Terror, Budapest Hungary (no photography allowed inside museum)

Despite the obvious fact that the museum in Warsaw modeled itself after the museum in Budapest, right down to the same font on the information papers in each room, it was as if the Warsaw Uprising Museum exploded into chaos.  The expansive rooms make it easy to take a wrong turn and quickly get confused about the information portrayed.  The booming sound of bombs dropping rang in my ears the whole time I tried to explore the museum, and the pushing of little kids to look into every peephole or screen quickly got annoying.  It was as if the museum thought they needed to portray the information quickly, rather than effectively, so they rapidly flashed images of historic events at every turn.  I quickly grew tired of waiting behind lines of children to look at the images through binoculars for no apparent reason.  The claustrophobic tunnels in the basement felt like a playground.  Unlike in its Hungarian counterpart, the Warsaw Uprising Museum had very little “traditional” exhibitions to ground its overuse of multimedia.

Obviously, the city of Warsaw spent a lot of money on this museum.  As my first visit, I am unable to compare Sundays to other days of the week, and perhaps I am unfair in my assessment.  However, “In Your Pocket: Warsaw” seems to agree with me about the jostling by the crowds and the ease of making a wrong turn and thus finding yourself lost in history.  I couldn’t help but longing for my experience in Sarajevo when I visited the Bosnian History Museum.  I will forever be moved by experience looking at the exhibition on the Siege of Sarajevo.  The exhibition was one large room, showing historical documents and memorabilia from the years of hardship.  Visitors easily moved around the room through the display in chronological order, pausing over the artwork made by children or the re-creation of the living conditions at the time.  This museum shows that there is no need for technology to educate visitors.sarajevosarajevo2

(above) Bosnian History Museum: Sarajevo, Bosnia

All in all, I go to museums to learn.  I left the Warsaw Uprising Museum with the sound of bombs dropping still ringing in my ears, feeling like I had learned nothing.  My classmates, however, enjoyed their time and the multimedia-filled exhibitions.  It remains popular with tourists visiting Warsaw, so other people must feel differently.  At the end of it all, I couldn’t help but wondering… is this meant to be a museum or an attraction?

2009
09/27
CATEGORY
Tourism
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Polish Political Party(ing)

As my classes continue, I am slowly learning about the government of Poland.  Also, last weekend I took a tour of the Sejm (House of Parliament) in Warsaw, but the guide left out a very interesting fact that I learned today at school.  Apart from the “normal” sounding major political parties- Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska), Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość), Polish People’s Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe)… there is an interesting minor player in the mix: the Polish Beer Lovers’ Party.  I kid you not, this actually exists.

I can’t find much about the party on the internet, but according to wiki, the Polish Beer Lover’s Party (PPPP- Polska Partia Przyjaciół Piwa) was satirically founded in 1990 to promote beer over vodka consumption in an effort to prevent alcoholism.  Because of the funny name and the general feeling of post-communist discontent and apathy, some people voted for the party.  Although starting as a prank, the party actually developed a political platform and won 16 seats in the Sejm in the 1991 parliamentary elections.  Today the PPPP no longer exists, but I think this fact adds to the quirkiness I am finding here in Poland….as well as a small insight into the country’s post-communist transition.  Zywiec-piwo

2009
09/25
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Polish Food- Not Recommended for Those on a Diet

Polish food, typical of the East and Central European cultures I have encountered so far, is heavy but delicious.  The most typical ingredients used in Polish cuisine are sauerkraut, beetroot, cucumbers, sour cream, kohlrabi, mushrooms, sausages and smoked sausage.  Meals in a restaurant come in courses starting with homemade soup and contain large portions.  Although I did notice two vegetarian restaurants in Krakow, salads in Poland are not the same as the lettuce-based American salads.  Basically, avoid Poland if you are on a diet but you will definitely miss out.

Here are pictures of a few mainstream Polish dishes… just to make sure my Babcia in America cooked authentically.

golabki

First, Gołąbki.  These cabbage “parcels” are originally from Lithuania but are popular  in Poland.  The cabbage is stuffed with they are usually stuffed with meat and rice and either topped with a mushroom cream sauce or a tomato sauce.  Many East/Central European countries have their own version.  In Serbia, these are called sarma.  In Polish, golabki literally means “little pigeons.”

shaslik

Next we have the shaslik… which is pretty basic and common on the menus here.  It’s really just a shish kebab and often contain either pork or chicken.  Here it came with frytki and a salad.  The salad is primarily cabbage.

pierogi

Lastly, the pierogi.  This is probably the most well-known Polish dish.  Every Wigielia (Christmas Eve) my family eats pierogi that my Babcia makes from scratch, expertly preparing the dough with years of experience. Pierogi were traditionally peasant food but eventually grew in popularity for all social classes. They are very traditional small white dumplings, larger than ravioli, filled with sauerkraut, mushrooms, meat, cheese and potatoes or even with fruit. My favorite kind are ruski (pictured) which are filled with potato and cheese and served with fried onions.

Delicious.

2009
09/15
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Culture
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Tacky Tours and Exasperated English

rynekPoles seem to be accustomed to the hordes of tourists visiting Krakow, and I feel nostalgic for my days of being the only tourist in town.  When I lived in Novi Sad, I drew attention as a foreigner and was constantly asked by taxi drivers or street venders where I come from-  “What is an American doing in Serbia?” they would ask me, and I would respond enthusiastically “Učim srpski jezik!”  My answer was followed by stares of disbelief and sometime bursts of laughter.  No Serb could believe that a young American woman moved to the country to study their culture.

Serbia is an isolated place.  Not many people think to visit even though it is a lovely country, and unfortunately Serbs are very limited in their ability to travel.  Sure, some foreigners live in Beograd working in the capital city for embassies or NGOs, but very few seem to venture north to Vojvodina.  Aside from the infamous EXIT festival in Novi Sad each July, the city is homogenous.  Even though I arrived months before EXIT, people asked if I were there for the concert because they couldn’t imagine any other reason.

Krakow is different.  No longer does my English spark a look of interest, but rather a look of annoyance.  I hear many languages spoken in the center by photo-snapping tourists.  Golf carts advertising Schindler’s List or Kazimierz tours circle around the square, ready to carry lazy visitors to nearby sections of the city.  Cities do prosper economically because of tourism, but I definitely long for the days when I had a more authentic experience.

2009
09/08
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Tourism
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Allow me to introduce myself…

My name is Christine and I am a Balkan-freak.

My Serbian professor called me this while I was studying the language in Novi Sad, but I think he meant it in a nice way.  A few years ago I fell in love with the culture and history of East Europe, appropriate given my Polish heritage.  As an art history major in college, I began to seek out museum exhibitions of East European artists until I eventually realized its the history of the region that I like so much.

After graduating college I packed my bags and moved to Serbia, the capital of the former-Yugoslavia, so that I could take language classes and experience the culture first-hand.  Sometimes I couldn’t believe that I was living in a small country that my own bombed only ten years ago, but irregardless of politics, I found Serbs to be the most hospitable and friendly people I have ever met.  Novi Sad only had tourists during the infamous EXIT Festival each summer and so it was easy to immerse myself and to meet locals.  The best moments were the simple ones- spending time with my new friends sipping strong Turkish coffee and learning about the people of a complicated nation.

Unfortunately, I was not keeping a blog at the time and I am sure that after only one month in the United States, already many details are lost.  Now I am about to move to Krakow, Poland to pursue a Master’s degree, and I want to make an effort to record the journey.  As a control-freak and compulsive planner, I sometimes focus too much on the future and invariably ignore the present.  Now that I have graduated college unsure of where my future leads, I am beginning to appreciate the journey.

This blog will be a place for me to post about Poland and East and Central Europe in general.  I am not trying to lump a whole region of diverse countries into broad generalizations but rather to create a place for me to record thoughts and information about this interest of mine.  Maybe there are other East-European addicts out there in need of support.  Most likely not even my mother will read this blog but at least I will be able to look back on my journey.  This is my Journey East.

2009
08/27
CATEGORY
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