Antek_Stalich
7 Jun 2011
History / What was it like in 1989+ in Poland when the Soviet house of cards fell? [237]
The video is very interesting. Indeed, (AFAICR), Poles could access East Germany using their personal ID, at least for many years, and at least the inhabitants of the border zone. Since 1990, a passport with valid visa was required for a Pole to enter Germany. Getting the German visa (at least in Warsaw) meant long hours of waiting in queue, possibly for couple of days. The Queue Committee held a list of participants updated daily. If you missed putting your signature on given day, you had to start all over. In 1990, I was expected to go for scientific work to Duisburg. Technically, it would be a business visa, yet a clerk from our Institute had to attend the Queue Committee every day. Once, she lost her position by non-signing. My visa was jeopardized. Therefore I activated my superpowers ;-) (taught by golden survival rule "Always go to the TOP") and went directly to meet the German Cultural Attache. The Attache understood the problem instantly and I got my visa on the same day.
However, the German clerk wrote the visa start date: 10/7/1990 (10th of July, 1990) in unclear pen, and my return train ticket made according to the new Polish rule read: 1990-10-7 (7th of October, 1990) On my exit from Germany, the German border officer said: "Aha! You should have left Germany on 10th of July, you overstayed, now I got you!". Luckily, the older of the two men, a German conductor patted the other one on the shoulder and said in German: "Leave the man alone, you do not understand it".
Returning to the times before 1980s, Poles were technically allowed to countries of Warsaw Pact, and the luckier ones even to HEAR, HEAR! Yugoslavia! ;-) (Army officers could not travel farther than Yugoslavia during their whole life). Some lucky people having families in the West (like my family) had rare chance to travel there, only it was never guaranteed. It was a decision of a clerk if a given citizen could get the passport (and the Embassy of the other country had to issue the visa). Those lucky could buy as much as $50 for their whole travel ;-)
There were of course contractual workers travelling to say, Libya or Iraq. There were scientists, artists, writers that might get the permission to travel. Our guitarist Krzysztof Klenczon of Czerwone Gitary and Trzy Korony got such a chance. By playing for American Polonia, he earned enough to be able to buy a Gibson guitar... Lucky man! All above in this paragraph related to 1971 - 1980, the beginning and end of Edward Gierek era. Before Gierek, travelling to the West was hardly possible, from Solidarity times the situation got very complex and I am not a person to explain it.
Regarding voting - I don't know. There is so little historical material available on the Net! I was looking for lyrics of some Communist/Stalinist songs since I wanted to make some punk-rock parody of that. None to be found. Also, almost no pictorial material. As if those times had never happened... And the witnesses are slowly dying out, leaving space for "Seekers of the Truth" such as our young friend Żelaznoboki ;-)
Jola, I'm sure Delphi knows enough about Poland and what the communism was like. Have you ever read the book "Kamienne tablice" by Wojciech Żukrowski? That 1965 novel describes the life in Hungarian Embassy in India. Very interesting insight for people looking for traces of history. Zukrowski was a declared commie, yet you'll find a grain of truth in the novel. There are so many things I would like to know about the history that was the life when I was a baby, yet no historical facts are available really. I support Delphi's historical interest.
The video is very interesting. Indeed, (AFAICR), Poles could access East Germany using their personal ID, at least for many years, and at least the inhabitants of the border zone. Since 1990, a passport with valid visa was required for a Pole to enter Germany. Getting the German visa (at least in Warsaw) meant long hours of waiting in queue, possibly for couple of days. The Queue Committee held a list of participants updated daily. If you missed putting your signature on given day, you had to start all over. In 1990, I was expected to go for scientific work to Duisburg. Technically, it would be a business visa, yet a clerk from our Institute had to attend the Queue Committee every day. Once, she lost her position by non-signing. My visa was jeopardized. Therefore I activated my superpowers ;-) (taught by golden survival rule "Always go to the TOP") and went directly to meet the German Cultural Attache. The Attache understood the problem instantly and I got my visa on the same day.
However, the German clerk wrote the visa start date: 10/7/1990 (10th of July, 1990) in unclear pen, and my return train ticket made according to the new Polish rule read: 1990-10-7 (7th of October, 1990) On my exit from Germany, the German border officer said: "Aha! You should have left Germany on 10th of July, you overstayed, now I got you!". Luckily, the older of the two men, a German conductor patted the other one on the shoulder and said in German: "Leave the man alone, you do not understand it".
Returning to the times before 1980s, Poles were technically allowed to countries of Warsaw Pact, and the luckier ones even to HEAR, HEAR! Yugoslavia! ;-) (Army officers could not travel farther than Yugoslavia during their whole life). Some lucky people having families in the West (like my family) had rare chance to travel there, only it was never guaranteed. It was a decision of a clerk if a given citizen could get the passport (and the Embassy of the other country had to issue the visa). Those lucky could buy as much as $50 for their whole travel ;-)
There were of course contractual workers travelling to say, Libya or Iraq. There were scientists, artists, writers that might get the permission to travel. Our guitarist Krzysztof Klenczon of Czerwone Gitary and Trzy Korony got such a chance. By playing for American Polonia, he earned enough to be able to buy a Gibson guitar... Lucky man! All above in this paragraph related to 1971 - 1980, the beginning and end of Edward Gierek era. Before Gierek, travelling to the West was hardly possible, from Solidarity times the situation got very complex and I am not a person to explain it.
Regarding voting - I don't know. There is so little historical material available on the Net! I was looking for lyrics of some Communist/Stalinist songs since I wanted to make some punk-rock parody of that. None to be found. Also, almost no pictorial material. As if those times had never happened... And the witnesses are slowly dying out, leaving space for "Seekers of the Truth" such as our young friend Żelaznoboki ;-)
Jola, I'm sure Delphi knows enough about Poland and what the communism was like. Have you ever read the book "Kamienne tablice" by Wojciech Żukrowski? That 1965 novel describes the life in Hungarian Embassy in India. Very interesting insight for people looking for traces of history. Zukrowski was a declared commie, yet you'll find a grain of truth in the novel. There are so many things I would like to know about the history that was the life when I was a baby, yet no historical facts are available really. I support Delphi's historical interest.