Crispy Rolls and Communism
There was a temporary exhibit of policital cartoons from the 1980s at the entrance of the Museum of the History of Warsaw. The artist created some captions to help explain the cartoons to people who did not live through the era, and I found one of them particularly funny. It said:
"Everyone (except him [Minister Krasinski]) knew that they (crispy rolls) can't exist in socialism, because it's either a socialist economy or crispy rolls. Both are never found anywhere in nature at the same time."
On the surface, it sounds like just a silly little remark--crispy rolls and socialism are incompatible in nature--but the sentiment definitely touches upon some serious issues surrounding socialism. Do we suffer for our social/economic ideals or feed the people? And should we suffer, how far are we willing to go?
It's hard to imagine that the people I see on the streets of Warsaw--the old men hobbling along the cobblestone pavement with hunched backs and felt caps--lived through the whole Soviet experience. For me, the two lives of Poland are not compatible. There's the Poland I see today with cute cafés, affordable restaurants and readily available wireless internet and the former USSR of another lifetime. The two do not exist on the same timeline for me.
But for the people who live here, the War (WWII), the destruction caused by the War, the process of reconstructing the city, socialism, the Soviet Union and breaking from Soviet oppression are real, tangible memories--events that happend during their lifetime and events that continue to linger in their memory. Even the Lech Wałęsa I saw speak at Lawrence is not the same Lech Wałęsa who liberated the nation, the same Lech Wałęsa featured in photographs at the museum. They're different and divided in my memory. There's too much distance between my experience and perceptions of the events for my mind to comprehend that I am in a place that was part of the Soviet Union during my lifetime. (And now the new imperialists are "liberating" central Europe with their own "evil empires." Wherever socialism gives way to capitalism, Starbucks can't be too far away...)
"Everyone (except him [Minister Krasinski]) knew that they (crispy rolls) can't exist in socialism, because it's either a socialist economy or crispy rolls. Both are never found anywhere in nature at the same time."
On the surface, it sounds like just a silly little remark--crispy rolls and socialism are incompatible in nature--but the sentiment definitely touches upon some serious issues surrounding socialism. Do we suffer for our social/economic ideals or feed the people? And should we suffer, how far are we willing to go?
It's hard to imagine that the people I see on the streets of Warsaw--the old men hobbling along the cobblestone pavement with hunched backs and felt caps--lived through the whole Soviet experience. For me, the two lives of Poland are not compatible. There's the Poland I see today with cute cafés, affordable restaurants and readily available wireless internet and the former USSR of another lifetime. The two do not exist on the same timeline for me.
But for the people who live here, the War (WWII), the destruction caused by the War, the process of reconstructing the city, socialism, the Soviet Union and breaking from Soviet oppression are real, tangible memories--events that happend during their lifetime and events that continue to linger in their memory. Even the Lech Wałęsa I saw speak at Lawrence is not the same Lech Wałęsa who liberated the nation, the same Lech Wałęsa featured in photographs at the museum. They're different and divided in my memory. There's too much distance between my experience and perceptions of the events for my mind to comprehend that I am in a place that was part of the Soviet Union during my lifetime. (And now the new imperialists are "liberating" central Europe with their own "evil empires." Wherever socialism gives way to capitalism, Starbucks can't be too far away...)
posted by Elizabeth at 5:42 AM
1 Comments:
Starbucks and Subway... actually, I guess McDonald's and Coke usually lead the way, but I had to throw that in for good measure...
Part of me wishes I'd done more in terms of museums/contemplation of historical events (i.e. the Museum of Terror and Statue Park in Budapest) while in that part of Europe, but instead I was drinking in the street. How very uncuratorial of me! I hate to think that I just kind of came and did the immature, pretty-picture, barely-scratching-the-surface kind of tourism, but I suppose there's only so much one can do in two days and when newly and happily reunited with friends in the land of cheap yet delicious alcohol. Or maybe I'm just making excuses for myself for being lazy...
But the trip was great and I'm not going to let myself feel guilty about what I did or didn't do... there's always the next time, and I think I learned a lot in spite of the things I missed.
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