British living in Poland - documentary

Who then sold it to your mum on the side, more often than not.


Yeah, that would be definitely fun, to start walking and have the bus pass me by on the way, and then wait another 20-40 minutes for the next one.


Funny that I have never felt that bitterly cold since I could actually start buying proper winter clothing. I bought my first down jacket in 1990 and I still remember the bliss. My mother's hand-me-down sheepskin coat from the sixties just didn't seem to cut the mustard.

Not them!


Well **** happens but then if you are clever about that not that often as you think, you just walk another tow stops - no big deal.


In 90' winters started to be mild.


You are a woman, you would anyway!


That BS Zibi how old are you?12?
I would say majority, so about 50% to 70%, the rest commies, all kinds of opportunists and political police guys, military intelligence and upper echelons of commie generals and their families they made it!Also few processionals and those who made by the way.

You Zbi are forgetting that in the Polish elections takes part about 30% to 50% of all citizens who have right to vote!
Also voters are not divided by the line - those who made versus those who didn't. That is only your imagination. Also there are m,any young voters who are just swayed by propaganda in the Polish mass media.

I know who you mean. But the other type did, yes ;-P


I'm talking Warsaw in the eighties. I lived in a new (partly built) neighbourhood on the outskirts (then) of the city. For the first year or two, there was ONE and then all of TWO bus routes serving the whole area. I needed to be in central Warsaw every day (university). The buses ran few and far between. I would not risk missing one or God forbid two of them in a row, the journey back home took almost two hours even if the bus was on time. Remember the winter of 1986/87?


Yeah, they got so mild that when I moved to Mazury in the early nineties the lake I lived next to would freeze over completely several winters in a row. ;-)

Yeah, I was also totally freezing in 91-94, but you're right, couldn't blame that on the political system ... but anyhow, the Poles had their methods. Ten minutes of being specially wrapped up in scarves, under-garments, ear muffs, hats, gloves, tights, boots, overcoats, etc, before being allowed out the door. Sensible.

The bus journeys by street light at 4pm for hours on end in that dreadful slush WERE dreadful ... but aren't they now as well? I suppose more people have cars, or can avoid the journeys. Don't know. But living in Poland, it's gonna be cold in the winter, whatever the government ...

Of course. But the quality and availability of clothes, shoes, infrastructure, the provision of food to the shops (all centrally dictated then, remember! and rationed!), the infrequent and unheated buses with icicles dripping from their ceilings, the undeveloped public transport - all this has a lot to do with living in a failing communist state. I remember all this and I would never want it back. There were other "inconveniences" of course - the lack of school books (I had almost no books throughout secondary school, our Polish and history lessons had to be presented in the form of lectures with us taking everything down), rationed notebooks (paper was scarce!), long bread lines in which I had to stand every single day after school, long lines for almost everything else...

On the other hand, people who were comfortably cushioned within the system, who had so-called "backing" (plecy), or who participated in the shady dealing and trading that took place all around, the good working men and women who stole coveted products from their factories on a daily basis and sold them on or bartered them for other goods and services... The Pewex shops stocked with seemingly normal products like lipstick, jeans, and cans of Coke, which some of my friends could easily afford to buy, but which to me were like artefacts from another world... My school friends frowning at their ham sandwich lunch (Not ham again!) while I looked at my own jam sandwich with tears in my eyes... Have you all forgotten everything?!

Someone said earlier on: "Blame your mum". Yeah, I could blame my parents for not playing along, for not joining all those dealing, trading, stealing, and "borrowing". For refusing to stand in line for hours to buy an ugly piece of furniture / primitive kitchen appliance or other stuff we didn't really need (you never knew what you would get when the cry went up that a shop had supplies), but you could trade for something else later. For not buying or wheedling their way into a better position or a car list. As much as they could, they lived outside a system they hated. My hat is off to them!


Why would Poles want to look fashionable and have freedom of movement, I wonder?

The system in Poland is still pretty rotten, the zus, and the most common wage in the east of Poland is barely enough to cover the rent in a sh1tty one bedroom apartment in a revolting block, hence, people have left in there thousands. To survive it looks like people still have to play the games of bureaucracy in order to remain in Poland. Blackmarket,avoid zus, bribe people in high places,cheat in exams etc etc. Obviously things are much better now than during communism, but the fact that there is mass emigration, must mean it's still pretty sh1t here.

Also, what was the driving like in Poland then? The death rate on Polish roads is now 50% above EU average.

frankly when it comes to rise family and live - not really! People could afford to do it then and cannot now that the fact.

I never claimed that it was easy and pleasant, it worked for me, I guess women are less up to challenge..if it doesn't involve men lol!


I remember them somehow milder then before.


Was it? damn,I guess I didn't really payed attention.


yep blaming it on government is a bit rich.


not all the time ...


Not so bad, could be better.


Failing? you mean if not for the round table communism would fail anyway? I don't think so!


Don't recall them, I recall buying easily yogurt and bread roll, you know the longish kind,a stage between baguette and a short bread roll.

Yogurt was somehow better than nowadays. Less of chemicals and all that ****.


What changed? They can do it openly now and show you a finger.


Hey? Are you talking 60' or something? Coke you could buy easily in a bottle and was somehow better then #coke I drink sometimes nowadays. Fact, there were no cans, but hell who needs them, glass bottles are more ecological.. as for lipstick I;m not using it.:)


Come on, for not buying meat from other sources, nothing wrong with it. Honestly I don't understand where you come from with this[i]hunger[/i??? Yes, there were shortages of meat but then it wasn't that bad, there were no chocolate though(I still don't understand why- in 80' ? - I think they were doing it on purpose)When my father brought few bars from somewhere I was looking at them as if they were bars of gold lol!

Remember those pleasant years between 1981 and 1986? When even baby formula was strictly rationed?


Nobody blamed the government for the weather.


The round table was a clear sign that the structures of the state were crumbling and the the commies knew this perfectly well and were ready to negotiate.

BTW, how old were you in 1989?


Well, I stood in one every day around 1982 - 1983. Maybe one of the reasons was that there was one tiny "shop" (a tin shack actually) for the whole of the neighbourhood where I lived (the whole area was still under construction then and any service infrastructure was almost non-existent).


Keep kidding yourself. I remember exactly two kinds of yoghurt on sale, one "fruit-flavoured" and the other plain. The fruit flavoured one was vile, I know that now since I've tasted normal yoghurt. Sickly sweet, pink, and very runny. The one with a picture of forest berries on the top - do you remember it?


What changed? Pretty much everything. I can buy toilet paper, tights, feminine hygiene products, meat, sugar, and other "luxuries" without standing in line and / or operating a vast network of "friends" who could help me "finalise a transaction". True, I might not have the money to buy expensive stuff. But for every roll of soft toilet paper with bunnies printed on it, there is a roll of good old trustworthy grey and crinkly recycled toilet paper which I can afford and which I remember as being a great rarity in the eighties. You could make a person happy by giving them a few rolls of that, or even by directing them to the shop which was temporarily stocked with them.


That's the good old attitude right here. Ask around in any smaller town with a meat plant, most older inhabitants will be happy to tell you how everyone was well stocked with meat during the martial law - it was called "wynoszenie" (i.e. theft). The meat or other products were "taken care of" and then sold on the black market, so the shops were empty and rationing lasted longer than it possibly could have. I see a lot wrong with this, myself.

Communism did not fail at the round table talks. They prepared for transformation and retained key sectors of government and industry. If communism failed why did the communist criminals gen.Jaruzelski become the President and gen.Kiszczak the Minister of Internal Affairs? It's not really a question that I need answering but 99% viewing this forum have no clue about "failure"of communism in Poland. Why would they give up power when they could just share it with selected "opposition?"

Thank you for the replies - they have been really encouraging and very interesting.


That sounds fantastic. I will definitely be able to get to Warsaw, and Lodz is certainly a possibility as travel between the two looks okay. If you could email me so we can talk more I would appreciate it (I tried to PM and email you but the message board will not allow me).


Thank you very much. I will PM you now for a little more information.

The way I see it they needed these eight years (1980-1989) to prepare transformation from communism to capitalism with themselves at the helm. If they were (if Kremlin) would have committed to fight to the hilt it could go on for a long time.


Yes I do! The plain one was good though.


Are you still in ave or what? fine you can buy everything if you have money now, then you couldn't buy everything even if you had money - same difference!

Anyway I was talking about establishment.


You see there was good old Polish farmer who has been rising his meat himself and from whom your mum could have bought it.

Only if she knew the right people. She didn't.