Squarely at the center of conversations and controversies about what Poland is and should be in the future, food has great political value due to the nation’s recent past as a socialist country in the USSR sphere of influence, its post-socialist transformation, and its current high-speed economic development.
As I prepare to give a talk about food and contemporary politics in Poland at the Cucina Politica conference (which means both “political kitchen” and “political cooking) in Bologna in November, I have done some initial historical research on the topic, in order to provide some background to better assess today’s dynamics. Squarely at the center of conversations and controversies about what Poland is and should be in the future, food has great political value due to the nation’s recent past as a socialist country in the USSR sphere of influence, its post-socialist transformation, and its current high-speed and still strong economic development,
The destruction caused by World War II made food security and food production central issues for the new Polish government, which found itself torn between the efforts towards the establishment of a socialist society and the immediate needs of the population. Although an agrarian reform was launched in September 1946 to install displaced peasants on over a million farms, already in 1948 Bolesław Bierut, a former official of Comintern, put in place efforts towards collectivization under the ‘Polish Agricultural Enterprises’ (PGR). Such goals, however, quickly slowed down and were never accomplished, while food production lagged behind what was necessary.
1956 protests in Poznań for bread and freedom
In 1956, riots over “bread and freedom” took place in Poznań, causing the death of dozens of workers. The events marked the beginning of Władyslław Gomułka’s rise to the party secretariat, after being purged back in 1948. Taking advantage of the “thaw” following Stalin’s death, as First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party Gomułka managed to ensure a certain amount of autonomy from the Soviet patrons. Most of the land was returned to private peasants, while collectivization was maintained mostly for large estates located in the Western areas that had previously belonged to Germany and had been assigned to Poland at the end of World War II. While productivity in state farms did not particularly improved, small peasants continued to be considered a hindrance to the socialist future, and their capacity for larger outputs was limited by almost non-existent investment, high prices in inputs and machinery, and bureaucratic nightmares concerning land ownership. As a consequence, shortages and kinks in the distribution system often made shopping for groceries time consuming and frustrating. Once again, demonstrations about price rises, especially regarding food, determined Gomułka’s demise when the army opened fire and killed workers protesting in Gdańsk and Gdynia.
The new first secretary Gierek ushered the era of “consumer socialism” in the early-1970s, a period of economic revitalization and relative comfort, fueled by money the state borrowed from the West. The move of rural populations toward the cities to participate in the new productive activities generated a sense of nostalgia that in turn led to the emergence of a manufactured image of old-style cooking (kuchnia staropolska) as simple but tasty peasant food, while the actual “countryside” products were already quite industrialized and homogeneous. Leveraging public subsidies, food prices were maintained artificially low while salaries improved.
Bread lines in Poland in the late years of Gierek
As the oil crisis and the global recession that followed it made the service on foreign debt unmanageable, in 1976 Gierek decided to suddenly raise prices. Riots exploded at the Ursus tractor factory in Warsaw and in the armaments works at Radom, causing the party to delay the food prices rise. When the government tried again in 1980, it was the turn of the shipyard workers in Gdańsk to vent grievances (including affordable food) which eventually led to the formation of the independent workers union Solidarność. The twenty one demands that workers wrote on panels at the entrance of the shipyard included: “9. Guaranteed automatic increases in pay on the basis of increases in prices and the decline in real income. 10. A full supply of food products for the domestic market, with exports limited to surpluses. 11. The introduction of food coupons for meat and meat products (until the market stabilizes).”
The demands of Solidarność at the entrance of the Gdańsk shipyards
The outcome of Gdańsk events was the Martial Law, imposed on December 1981 by general Wojciech Jaruzelski and his Military Council of National Salvation (Wojskowa Rada Ocalenia Narodowego, WRON or wrona, the crow, as it was often referred to), with the support of the USSR. A few months later, in February 1982, food cost skyrocketed by 300 percent, while products actually became unavailable. Scarcity, queues in front of stores, black markets, illegal provisioning networks became the norm for most Polish citizens, with the possible exception of the nomenklatura. Having family in the countryside meant having some source of food, even if that only meant basic staples such as potatoes, root vegetables, or eggs.
The post-socialist transition that followed the first free elections on June 4, 1989, created stark differences between the haves and the have-nots. Those who reaped the benefits of the dismantling of the socialist safety network, taking advantage of the rise of a service economy in which the intelligentsia, those with connections, and risk-taking entrepreneurs with financial capital, became the face of the new Poland. The new authorities made only limited efforts to protect the weakest segments of the population from dropping wages and the unemployment caused by the closure of state enterprises.
Kuroń distributing soup
Jacek Kuroń, a leftist Solidarność politician, who thought it was in the interest of the nation to join forces with finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz, the architect of the economic transformation and the shock reform, and joined the new government as a labor minister, took upon himself to try and ease the suffering of people. Besides establishing unemployment benefits, Kuroń organized free distributions of Pea soup, which was called kuroniówka after him and became an iconic element of the period. Kuroń himself publicly gave soup to the needy. Later, the term kunowiôwka has been used in general for unemployment benefits from the government. Interestingly, Kuron’s son, Maciek, was one of the first publicly visible chefs on TV.
As Poland moved out of its socialist phase and into a different – although not less troubled – political landscape and consumerism was embraced as the standard lifestyle, food has played an increasingly relevant role in defining the cultural outlook, social status, and political worldviews of citizens from all walks of life. More about that in upcoming posts…
Mateusz Halawa contributed information and analysis to this post.