History /
Modern myths and legends about communist past in Poland [250]
Time to get back to the proper thread. We have been discussing the life of wealthy non-party Poles in communist Poland in other threads, remember? hahaha
I mentioned that my dad was a brilliant inventor in a chemical industry, while my mum , also an engineer, worked as a teacher of technical subjects. Both worked long hours so I saw them mostly in the evening. I wasn`t too sad because I had our pets and hundreds of books (I learnt to read and write at 5) on shelves all over the house at my disposal. So, due to parents` lack of time, I had nannies as a small child. I remember one - she was a Polish Jewish woman, very strict and gloomy most of the time, I didn`t like her very much, but one day she gave me a plastic figure of a crocodile, all black. I used to play with it often later on, I still have it today in our toy boxes.
Later, when I became a pupil, I needed a chauffer coz my prestigious primary school was located in the very centre of the city while we lived further away. It was a middle aged man whose main asset was his car - old white Warszawa. Today old, but at the time it was a standard car. I liked the man, he was kind to me, always happy and relaxed, like an uncle. Whenever I see vintage Warszawa car today, I recall him.
wealthy non-party Poles
Why were we wealthy? My mum worked over 40 classes per week, at certain times it was close to 50. In summer she ran youth camps - that was an advantage coz she always took us to them. As they were usually located in school facilities, I could use local libraries at will. My first steps while at a new camp were always to the library.
But my mum earned peanuts compared to my father`s earnings. As an inventor, he got a really huge salary plus income from patents. Communist industry was always backward and they needed new technologies all the time. Communists could buy licenses but that required a lot of hard currency. That is why some technologies were stolen in the West by communist agents and spies, not only Polish but also from other commie block countries,. But they weren`t able to steal everything, so inventors were worth their weight in gold coz they allowed communists to save a lot of money - paying a Polish inventor was hundredfold cheaper than buying a foreign license . My father designed apparatuses for chemical factories.
What do you think? Was it OK that he worked as an engineer and earned so much money? Did he support communists and communism in some way with his work? That might be an interesting issue for discussion.
Did he support communists and communism in some way with his work?
My dad was a peaceful agreeable decent chap, he liked people and they liked him, he hated brutality and violence. That is why he rejected communism for its dirty methods, though he didn`t manifest it in public. When the right time came, he joined Solidarity in 1981 like 10 million other Poles. During martial law, his design office went on strike but that was a symbolic one coz such eggheads like him posed zero threat to the regime. A few dozen ZOMO functionaries easily dealt with the strikers - just took them out of the office, no beating or violence was necessary. Afterwards, dad went on so called internal emigration - he wrapped himself in his work even more and became disinterested in the outside world. I couldn`t help him - I was an adult and had my own problems.
tbc
