Nowa Huta - Socialist Realism: The Communist Utopia in Poland

If you want to know more about how a communist utopia (utopian socialism) used to look like there is no better place to visit then Nowa Huta, a city district of Krakow in Poland. This neighbourhood was built in the 1950s in communist Poland. The style that was implemented was called Socialist Realism. It gives you a perfect way to look at how the communists envisioned the future.
History Hustle presents: Nowa Huta - Socialist Realism: The Communist Upotia in Poland.
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This history on location was filmed on the 3rd of May 2019 in Nowa Huta Krakow, Poland.
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Images from commons.wikimedia.org and Culture.pl.
MUSIC
"Prelude and Action" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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"Division" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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"Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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[@HistoryHustle]

Learn MORE about the POLISH BORDERS during the 20th century: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqmroWSAjdudm68

[@TomGuideKrakowPoland]

great show and educational

[@HistoryHustle]

@@TomGuideKrakowPoland Thanks!!

[@maximilienfrancoismarieisi6875]

In Polish "w" is pronase as "v", so it's "Nova Huta".

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for the correction!

[@Northerner-Not-A-Doctor]

@@HistoryHustle If you even went to Kraków or Howa Huta itself you should've heard how it is pronounced, or if you ever made any research about Poland you should've known how Polish W is read.

[@FrugalTravellers]

Excellent explanation and insight into Nowa Huta. I'm in Krakow and plan to visit it tomorrow. I'm glad I found this video to explain it all to me. Keep it up!

[@HistoryHustle]

Cool! Thanks for your reply. Enjoy!

[@paulsz6194]

Nowa Huta is going through the process of gentrification, with real estate prices in krakow always rising, it’s becoming a viable alternative for families who want to still live in krakow, even on the fringes.

[@HistoryHustle]

Indeed. It's transforming for the better.

[@barrmatthew89]

I'm lucky enough to have a house In one of the outer villages of Krakow. 15 minutes from downtown. I've noticed all the new houses being built.

[@paulsz6194]

@@barrmatthew89 which village is that? Are you somewhere near the Airport?

[@barrmatthew89]

@@paulsz6194 Gaj, to the south area of Mogilany

[@paulsz6194]

@@barrmatthew89 I thought it would have been around the airport like Balice or Wola Justowska..

[@luxembourgishempire2826]

I went to Poland with my family to Warsaw a few years ago in the old town, I remember seeing the communist architecture and how different it was to Luxembourgish architecture. I think it was like 90 percent of Warsaw was destroyed so they had to rebuild a reconstruction still to this day I wonder if the old town looked like that before the Germans invaded.

[@HistoryHustle]

Actually the old town of Warsaw was reconstructed fairly like how it used to be, judging old photographs.

[@luxembourgishempire2826]

@@HistoryHustle I believe I went there. But I went to a place similar where you went to I think. It might of been just outside of Warsaw I can't really remember tbh. 🤣

[@ohajohaha]

@@HistoryHustle reconstructed using bricks from other Polish towns, whole buildings were demolished to get bricks, like a leech

[@Moosemoose1]

It's absolutely beautiful, I hope the building's are preserved and not torn down to build some hideous overpriced condos only the rich could afford.

[@HistoryHustle]

Hope not indeed. I believe it won't happen since the area has gotten better.

[@Sebastian-dp8zb]

It wont happen, the district become a cultural park now. It means that it will be preseverd that way and even getting better. Eg. Shop logos now need to be in a certain style and match the style of the district.

[@2serveand2protect]

...."BEAUTIFUL" ????.... have you even lived TWO MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE under communism ????

[@Artur_M.]

Another great video! Naming the main square in Nowa Huta after Ronald Raegan is such an amusing act of contrariness for me. I would like to explain to any possible American viewers (and others) who might not like Raegan, that we Poles, in general, didn't care much about the details of his presidency and any controversies and criticism in the context of American internal politics. The communist propaganda said he was bad, so he automatically was good. Plus he famously called the USSR an "Evil Empire", told Gorbachov to "Tear down this wall!" and had some kind and flattering words for the Solidarity movement and Polish people in general, therefore was a great president, because these are the most definitive criteria of judging it. :)

[@HistoryHustle]

Thank you for the compliment and thanks for the additional information. It was a very interesting place to visit. Have you ever been there?

[@Artur_M.]

@@HistoryHustle Nope, I've been briefly in Krakow two times (not counting just changing buses on a way to Zakopane). But i was hanging around the Old Town and Kazimierz, and never actually visited Nowa Huta. Maybe I should next time.

[@igorbednarski8048]

​​​@@HistoryHustle I know it's an ancient comment, but maybe you or someone else will read it 😅 I used to live in Nowa Huta for about a year. I also have many friends that used to live there or live there now. Outside of Kraków, Nowa Huta has a bad reputation as a crime-ridden and unsafe district, but that is incredibly outdated. The area was overrun by gangs back in the 90's, but by late 00's all of these gangsters have either killed each other, got imprisoned or just grew up and/or left. Nowadays it's one of the safest areas in Kraków, much safer than the downtown (where most of the crimes occur simply due to sheer numbers of drunk and/or stoned tourists from abroad and from other areas of Poland and students). The area of the Central Square had undergone renovation, so the buildings no longer have this depressing, grey look, the symmetry and wide avenues actually make it quite an aesthetically pleasing part of the city. There is also a strong sense of local patriotism among the locals - when you ask for the directions to the "centre" (which in any other Polish city would mean the actual city centre), you're being told how to get to the Central Square, not the Main Square of Kraków. In casual conversation the locals also say that "they're going to Kraków" when they say that they are going to the city centre and there is a small local movement that wants to officially separate the city from Krakow and make it its own city again.

[@guishenStreetB]

Reagan is cringe lol

[@kev492001]

Great video, a lot of good info!

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks!

[@stanleyrogouski]

Andrzej Wajda's film Man of Marble ("Człowiek z marmuru") is about the construction of Nowa Huta and about the growing disillusionment with communism over two generations. Very much worth checking out.

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for the tip!

[@sfadam]

An amazing film, in part because it was produced in 1977 as a specific rebute to the stupifying Stalinist politics in the early years of socialist Poland. No film with a critical and unapologetic point of view was even released in the USSR to my knowledge. It even criticized the bureaucratic stiffling of the then more current government. Another fascinating look at the changes in Polish political transition from the Stalinist government to the post-Stalin period is the 2013 film Ida. The whole film is riveting adore than I can get into her. But the character of Ida's estranged sister tells a similar take. She was Polish Jew deciding the fate if fascists. Decades later, she is a shell if her former self. Once a prominent Communist judge who sentenced Polish collaborators with the Nazis has been used up and reduced to hearing cases of the petty disdeeds of children. This is not the main point of the film, BTW. It us an important piece of the background of the sisters very different lives.

[@emilianosintarias7337]

So next time you guys try communism -don't ban churches -celebrate Polish heros, not just foreigners -make it a local way, not imposed by russia -don't do the one party thing then you can be free from both streets named after Reagan (embarrassing), and from repression and conformity

[@HistoryHustle]

Perhaps we shouldn't try communism...

[@emilianosintarias7337]

@@HistoryHustle why not? is there another alternative?

[@DotToryX]

@@emilianosintarias7337 seems like nowa huta is thriving with capitalism?

[@halguy5745]

​@@DotToryX thriving under capitalism, aka being exploited by foreign megacorporations with minimum wages

[@guishenStreetB]

True

[@Dasha25101995]

The video is very informative and well-edited)) Keep it up!

[@HistoryHustle]

Thank you!

[@TomGuideKrakowPoland]

120👍🏻 my thumb up for promotion my little non Krakow district. Greetings from NH. Tom Guide Krakow

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks, Tom!

[@TomGuideKrakowPoland]

Always welcome 🍅🙏🌍

[@TomGuideKrakowPoland]

Hello Friend, I do not know how subscription was off. I am back and listen to🤗☘🇵🇱 Keep doing. Greetings from Nowa Huta🌏

[@HistoryHustle]

Great to have you back, Tom!

[@barrmatthew89]

Hey man it needs to be pronounced like "Nova Huta" instead of Nowa Huta". In polish the letter W makes a V sound.

[@HistoryHustle]

check

[@sensibleshinchan1019]

This Poland Was Based Poland

[@HistoryHustle]

👍

[@brunodrweski3689]

Actually socialist realism began In New York with New York municipality but also the Woolworth building

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for adding!

[@SolidusJack]

Please note: Poland was socialist, Communism/Socialism is cool but not utopian.

[@HistoryHustle]

Yes, that's right. I was referring to the neighborhood that had an ideal behind it. Utopia was the word I used to discribe it. However, if you look at the scholar term of it, it might not be totally accurate. Thanks for the comment.

[@SolidusJack]

@@HistoryHustle yep you're welcome humble citizen.

[@mikoajbadzielewski3396]

Faktycznie, w chuj czasu trza było poświęcić dla Anglosasów by sprawdzić że wymowa to "nɔva ˈxuta"

[@HistoryHustle]

English please.

[@mikoajbadzielewski3396]

@@HistoryHustle Inglisz? Okej, fak ju;)

[@davidgau3477]

But you cannot call yourself a historian and not discern between socialist realism and communist utopia, the Polish popular republic was a socialist country with a communist party, there are socialist countries with communist parties, not communist utopia

[@HistoryHustle]

I see.

[@halguy5745]

2:20 funny how that also describes capitalist realist art

[@bullet1544]

Utopia bro, not Upotia

[@HistoryHustle]

Oh snap, crazy nobody saw this before. Thanks. I changed it.

[@sfadam]

I have to say that I this a real disappointment. I was surprised by my reaction, because other of your videos seem to be muchore insightful and thoughtful. It might be fair to discuss Soviet design as a possible reference point, but you ignore the real differences of culture, design, and politics between socialist Poland and the USSR. First off, Poland had a larger level of industrialization before WWI than Russia. The proletariat of Poland did not need to be created as you claim. The Catholic Church in Poland had far more power, cohesion, and the ability to counter the encroachment of the government than the Russian Orthodox Church did. Believe me I have no sympathies for the frequently reactionary Polish Church. But it's more stable relative position is again more like East Germany's relationship to the Lutheran Church. Although the USSR obviously played a large part in the higher levels of Polish politics, it did not micromanage the cultural, design, architecture policies. Part of the insanely rigid stranglehold on Soviet cultural policies is on part directly related to Stalin's specific personality. He saw himself as insightful cultural critic and director. He had direct and bizarre direct relationships withe Siviet writers, film and theater directors, etc. Polish design was much freer in contrast to the USSR. Polish film had far more critical and different points of points of view. Not totally free, not without limits, but a far cry from 1937 Moscow. You call the architecture of Nowa Huta "socialist realist," but that phrase is oblique here. You have a mix of oth high and low examples of early Soviet design styles mismoshed together. The famous worker and collective farmer woman statue were never like anything in Poland. The "Stalin wedding cake" in Warsaw--not Nowa Huta BTW, is an anomaly in Poland. Even the attempt to restore the historic center of Warsaw in a relatively historic manner is in stark contrast to the reconstruction of destroyed Soviet cities. This restoration in Warsaw was an enormous expense and even included tthe rebuilding of a Catholic Cathedral. Do you think this happened in Leningrad, Kyiv, or Minsk? The basic idea of six to ten story full block apartment building along broad boulevards were common plans for many destroyed cities in Europe. It certainly had regional differences. Architecturally, Nowa Huta is a pared down version of the grandiose structures Stalin favored, sometimes called Stalinist Baroque. Khurshev, for one denounced that style explicitly in favor of third rate modernism, with its cheaply made, mass produced apartment blocks. The Nowa Huta buildings were better constructed, had larger apartments, with better materials. The proof is in the films you shot. These buildings are still standing, not deteriorated like in Moscow. You would be better to compare Nowa Huta's basic plan to the model of socialist city planning in East Berlin along Karl Marx Allee or to Karl-Marx-Stadt in Vienna. Nowa Huta failed because it was politically planned, as a working class counterweight to the more Krakow, which was seen as suspect and a center of Polish nationalism and a remaining non-communist intelligence. Nowa Huta apparently failed economically because it was not well positioned geographically for heavy industry. Raw materials had to be transported there.

[@sbarr10]

NOW I know where that ugly architecture comes from.

[@HistoryHustle]

Modernist architecture in Western Europe is not great either.

[@dallaswinston8260]

@@HistoryHustle yes it is

[@PowersOfDarkness]

so much historical inaccuracy

[@HistoryHustle]

Please explain.

[@PowersOfDarkness]

@@HistoryHustle 0:43 Soviet entry into Poland was not 1st of september 1:14 Referring to Poland as having been ruled from Moscow then you might as well say that Italy was ruled from Washington. Yes the USSR was HIGHLY influential, but you make it sound like the independence of Poland in that time period was a complete facade. 1:56 not even the CIA could attest in their internal memos to such ridiculous notions of Stalin having absolute power www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A006000360009-0.pdf "The Western idea of a dictator within the Communist setup is exaggerated" -the literal CIA 2:10 While Socialist Realism was what the party was officially pushing for its wrong to say that nothing else was allowed, art exhibitions of 1935-1960 seemingly disprove these claims of such great suppressed by the ideology and artists submitted entirely to what was then called "social order". A great number of landscapes, portraits, genre paintings and studies exhibited at the time pursued purely technical purposes and were thus free from any ideology. Russian art historian Vitaly Manin considered that "What in our time is termed a myth in the works of artists of the 1930s was a reality, one, moreover, that was perceived that way by real people. Another side of life did exist, of course, but that does not annul that the artists depicted. ... One gets the impression that disputes about art were conducted before and after 1937 in the interests of the party bureaucracy and of artists with a proletarian obsession, but not at all of true artists, who found themes in the contemporary world and did not get embroiled in questions of the form of their expression"

[@wegder]

Soviet monsters

[@HistoryHustle]

Ok.