Communist Kitsch: Warsaw Edition

Having grown up far from the influences of Soviet Communist life and ideology, we are intrigued by anything that reflects Communist-era Warsaw and the lives of Polish citizens under the thumb of the USSR. Lately in our exploration of the city and Polish culture we happened upon three interesting examples of what we've decided to call "Communist Kitsch":

1. Neon Muzeum
Warsaw's Neon Muzeum is dedicated to the documentation and preservation of Poland's cold war era neon signs. The phenomenon of Cold War-era neon in Poland had been more or less forgotten until Polish artist Ilona Karwinska completed an eye-opening photographic documentation project entitled 'Polish Neon'. In 2005 she founded the museum on the subject with her British partner, David Hill.

Many of the neon signs were made during the boom of the 1960s and 1970s and were created by Poland's best architects and graphic designers.

Obuwie / Shoes

Ilona explains, "They became symbols, economically, of success, advertising and satisfying the growing needs of consumers for a multitude of modern products. They also served as socially aspirational symbols in ‘culturally relaxed’ post-Stalinist Poland, where citizens could expect a lively nightlife in the plethora of cafes, restaurants, dancing clubs, theatres and cocktail bars."

The museum now owns over 100+ neons and more than 1000 letterforms, and the collection grows daily. It made for an interesting and quirky afternoon, and we wish we could have seen Warsaw in its neon heyday!

Biblioteka / Public Library of Warsaw

2. Kolejka: Poland's most popular board game

"Kolejka" (English: line or queue) was one of Bryan's Christmas presents this year. The board game tells the story of everyday life in Poland near the end of the Communist era. The players' task appears to be simple: send their wooden family pieces out to various stores on the game board to buy all the items on their shopping list. The problem is, however, that the shelves in the five neighborhood stores are empty.

The players line up their pawns in front of the shops without knowing which shop will have a delivery. Tension mounts as the product delivery cards are uncovered and it turns out that there will be enough product cards only for the lucky few standing closest to the door of a store. Since everyone wants to be first, the queue starts to push up against the door. To get ahead, the people in the queue use a range of cheat cards, such as "Mother carrying small child", "This is not your place, sir", or "Under-the-counter goods". Only those players who make the best use of the queuing cards in their hand will come home with full shopping bags.

It's really a great game, but under the usual frustrations of competition players cannot help but be conscious of the grim reality of life in Communist Poland. Like many things in Polish life, there is a deep historical memory underlying the entertainment of a round of Kolejka. We can only recommend you try it for yourself and see how you fare!

3. Bar Mleczny / Milk Bars
If we have already described the phenomena of bar mleczny in Poland, forgive us. These bare-bones restaurants are active remnants of the Communist-era, when the government subsidized these family-style kitchens so residents could get protein and dairy when such things were hard to come by.

Still subsidized, the prices are insanely low and the offerings change hourly depending on what runs out. We occasionally seek these out for a great selection of Polish soups and comfort food dishes and follow the unspoken rules: order in Polish, wait at the window, and bus your own table on your way out.


Bonus Kitsch:
Who could forget our Christmastime experience of riding in the back a Communist-era Nysa as part of our Adventure Warsaw tour? In Communist times cars were hard to come by and not particularly well made. If you were lucky to get one, you could expect to make repairs to it frequently and on your own. Here's a picture of the tour company's colorful but rickety fleet:

And finally, Bryan recently built his other Christmas present: Warsaw's most famous Communist-era building:

Until next time!