What was it like in 1989+ in Poland when the Soviet house of cards fell?

How long did this period of "silly money" last? When did it begin?


what does the "PLZ" stand for?


what year, more or less, was this? what accounted for the sudden drop?

It was mid nineties. The denomination. All prices stayed the same except we had to remove 4 zeros. For a year or so we had the old PLZ (Polish Zloty) and the new PLZ in circulation. It was quite a treat to get the coins back. I thought back then that they were very good looking, 5 PLZ being my favorite coin. With the old currency nobody bothered with coins. They had literally no value.

were the old and new worth the same during this period?

Not really. The old prices stayed in thousands and millions, the new prices were 4 zeros less. So for example you would have two prices for each item listed, like e.g a cup of yogurt would be 2 PLZ or 20,000PLZ in the old money. The stores would give you your change in the new money, so it took much shorter than a year to get the old money out of circulation.

PLZ stands for "polski złoty", now commonly known as "stary"
PLN stands for "nowy polski złoty"


It was exactly in year 1995.

In the transition period you could mix and match in paying (or getting change). So if you have to pay 25 new zloties you could pay with a new 20 and an old 50000.

You could also get mixed change though most stores made an effort to mainly give change in new zloties (and I assume old zloties were taken out of circulation when they made it to a bank).

I didn't realize the name of the currency changed after the denomination. I always miss details like that.

Oh, I remember a puzzled look of an American guy in Warsaw when he studied a restaurant menu and thought the figure "30" was about US dollars ;-)

Marynka, equal surprise to me was to learn quite recently that the Romanian Leu (ROL) has been denominated lately and it is now New Romanian Leu (RON), worth slightly less than 1 PLN now.

I have so many questions! Is there a book that deals with this period?
What was the mood of the people/country when the wall came down? How/when were the commies ousted? when were new elections held? did Wałęsa have any challengers?

Hey what the wall has to do with Poland? I assume you are taking about the Berlin wall.

I think you are expecting too much from him Iron.They ("westerners") were (are) being feed with propaganda and they simply have no clue.


Not many cared.Poles were travelling freely to West Berlin months before Berlin wall came down and during this period East Germans were escaping to West Germany thru Poland.


"Commies" were never ousted.


Challengers to what?
Look rybnik you will not believe but there wasn't any revolution in Poland.The "commies" how you call them made a deal with PART of Solidarity movement in which deal they agreed to SHARE some power.As for Lech Wałęsa aka Bolek he was a f u c k i n g snitch of SB not any hero.

This is one of popular conspiracy theories.
I will learn soon that Leszek Balcerowicz, the man who made a free-economy (capitalist) country of Poland was a bloody commie.
Wake up, grubas. You should thank God it was the "velvet revolution". Romanians shot out their Ceaucescu and they have not been able to come out of poverty and corruption and bureaucracy for last 22 years.

Yes L.Balcerowicz WAS A MEMBER OF PZPR (COMMIES).
Are you part of the regime or just an idiot?"Velvet revolution" kurwa ,don't even **** me off.Romanians got it right with executing this p o s Ceaucescu and the Poles should have done the same with their "leaders".But I hope not everything is lost yet and the Poles will overthrow the regime.Now, if you are part of it RUN because when we get you,your best bet is a liftime in a labor camp building highways for Polish people.

Rather logical conclusions given few facts which seen daylight in a meantime.


I'm all ears now what he did - exactly to make capitalist country out of Poland?

How and why would they do that?


Did


Did he have any political challengers or was he just "decried President for life"?
I touch a nerve?


So illuminate me Grubas ;)

What do you mean why?to escape to West Germany.Polish news were showing them besieging West German embassy in Warsaw.If you look for it you can find videos of them.Once they crossed to Poland they were free and could go West Germany.


You 7 y/o or what?To keep some power,influence and takover this way or another many state companies.


The FIRST President of "free" Poland was General Wojciech Jaruzelski.The deal was "Wasz prezydent,nasz premier"...."a lato Muminków"(a joke).That means the President was to be "commie" (Jaruzelski) and Prime minister a "Solidarity" guy (Mazowiecki).Wałęsa was a SECOND President of "free" Poland.


Hope I just did a little bit.This time in Polish history will be more investigated in I guess at least 20 years.Many authors of Magdalenka deal is still alive and they want people to know the truth.I guess you don't know that Polish (unlike e.g Czechs)people never learned who was a SB snitch because most of people in Sejm voted AGAINST exposing secret SB associates.You can guess why.

What I am telling you are not any secrets.


I meant they DON't want ofc.

Grubas, Ironside,

The older I get, the less I'm inclined to discuss matters with people who have Belief. You cannot dispute Belief.
I'll only tell you you live in some dreamworld to compensate the fact you feel losers inside. I let you have the Belief.

So, Poles, especially older than 30+ years, were you happier before 1989 or are you happier now?

(I had many friends from other former Soviet countries during those days and they were happy for a year or two and then, they started to miss old days, they had started to say old days were better when they experienced capitalist system health care, etc etc. I have not met them anymore since 1995-96.)

the joke actually went like that: 'Zima wasza, wiosna nasza' (a Solidarity slogan - I think it alluded to the Martial Law) 'A lato muminków' was added to the slogan :)

Maybe,I don't know I was too young in 1981 but I remeber "Wasz prezydent,nasz premier ..a lato muminków".


Sure we were happier because we were kids or teenagers before 1989

@ Grubas: I still don't understand how the East Germans made it to West Germany via Poland.

Most of them on flying machines called planes,paid for by West German government.Poland was already "free" but East Germany was still communist.East Germans were allowed to go Poland but not to West Germany.It didn't last long but thousends of East Germans made it west thru Poland.

it was only after Poland had its first quasi-democratic government after the war in 1988 i guess - East Germans would come to Poland, drop in the West German consulate/embassy to be issued some immigration papers and off they went to West Germany

even more Eastern Germans escaped through Hungary (they presumably went for vacation in Hungary and in 1988 Hungary dropped border controls on the Austrian border)

True.Not many people know that also majority of Russian Jews made it to Israel thru Poland in early 90's.But that was a deal striked between Soviet and Israeli government and executed with the help of Polish secret service.

Hungary opened it's border to Austria. The East Germans travelled to Hungary (through Poland) then to Austria and then to West Germany.

(Never mind; I haven't noticed Gumishu's post.)

Thanks................(they're called planes?!) ;)

For me, there are two impressions of 1989+ that really stayed in my memory as landmarks:

Just before the changes have begun, and later especially during the hyperinflation, I was exchanging any money I could save to US$, illegally of course. I was thinking that way: "If this grim life continues, the dollar will be a good saving here. If the changes go into the right direction, I'll lose all my savings but it will mean we have reached the normal world". My savings reached... $100 ;-) And I have lived up the normal life, never regretting that. My Dad and Mum were saying "We never thought we would live up the free Poland again..."

The other impression was full availability of banana, something unthinkable before. Banana were everywhere ;-)

Do you remember how much for one dollar? Bananas! You are spot on. Bananas, oranges, forget about it. That must've been a sight to see citrus and tropical fruits in the stores. Back in my day it was solely bruised apples. That's it. (strawberries in the summer).

I don't recall the country rioting during hyperinflation(pls correct me if I'm wrong) so what was the reaction from the people? How was it explained/presented to the people? Who was the "communicator" in this regard?(not J Urban right?)

If I remember rightly, that route wasn't particularly popular - East Germans needed exit visas to visit Poland, and they simply weren't being issued in any great numbers, especially after the Round Table agreements. The last death due to 'republikflucht' (or however it's spelt) was actually on the Polish-German border, not the German-German border as is commonly believed.

The same problem with that route was that crossing the Odra wasn't especially easy either - I've seen some photos (alas, don't have copies) where you can clearly see that the East Germans were defending the Polish border too. All that talk of 'friendship' - utter nonsense ;)

So you never seen pears,blueberries,gooseberries,black and red currants,plums,raspberries,cherrys,WHAT'S CZEREŚNIE IN ENG? and apricots in Poland?Strange because I'v seen plenty.Truth is that tropical fruits were not common in stores but there was always plenty of fruits grown in Poland.