A typical Polish apartment in the times of the Polish People's Republic was above all so small that only basic furniture could be accommodated. These small apartments were often inhabited by parents with adult children, their spouses, and children. Miracles were made to somehow fit in such a small space, hence the fashion for wall units, half-walled furniture, and folding furniture. Find out how it used to be lived and how people in the People's Republic of Poland obtained their own apartments. The wedding in the People's Republic of Poland was similar to today. The difference was in the great difficulty of organizing food and alcohol. In a time when everything was lacking, there was a principle of "get it and put it up". The weddings were boisterous, the menu was so rich that the tables had to sway and the vodka was flowing. We present what a typical wedding in the People's Republic of Poland looked like, how people enjoyed themselves, what food, drink, and typical wedding parties looked like.
In the times of the People's Republic of Poland, ownership of flats was legally regulated in a completely different way than now. After the war, the forced management of premises in large cities was introduced, which in practice meant the nationalization of premises, as the owners had no right to find tenants on their own. Only privately owned tenements were nationalized, in whole or in part, but the local authorities had the right to freely dispose of the flats, which in practice meant adding people. Wealthy people who owned large pre-war apartments were particularly oppressed. In practice, if someone had a 5-room flat, he was left with 1 room, while other people were accommodated in the rest with the right to share the kitchen and bathroom. The owners of tenement houses faced particular problems. Officially, tenants were accommodated who paid low, official rates that did not cover the operating costs. As a result, the tenement houses fell into disrepair.
In 1945, the Bierut Decree nationalized the land in the city in Poland. The owners did not want to rebuild or renovate the houses on their land, and as a result, the reconstruction after the war ceased. Then the city undertook the reconstruction, charging the owners with the costs, and taking back the real estate if the owners could not cover the costs. As a result, 94% of the properties were taken from the owners.
Gomułka restored housing cooperatives and supported construction. However, the economy was focused on heavy industry, and the needs of the population were in the last place. The Gomułka period was characterized by economical and low-quality construction. Small apartments with low ceilings, dark kitchens, and even shared bathrooms for several apartments were built.
The Gierek era meant a huge increase in housing construction. The construction of the Soviet-type was abandoned, i.e. with a shared bathroom on the first floor. Municipal housing for the poorest was limited. High blocks of the slab were built, resulting in poor quality buildings with lots of faults. The blocks, staircases, and apartments were the same. It was then that the fashion for furnishing with wall units was created, which is part of the TOP 10 biggest embarrassments of the 90s.
In the times of the People's Republic of Poland, ownership of flats was legally regulated in a completely different way than now. After the war, the forced management of premises in large cities was introduced, which in practice meant the nationalization of premises, as the owners had no right to find tenants on their own. Only privately owned tenements were nationalized, in whole or in part, but the local authorities had the right to freely dispose of the flats, which in practice meant adding people. Wealthy people who owned large pre-war apartments were particularly oppressed. In practice, if someone had a 5-room flat, he was left with 1 room, while other people were accommodated in the rest with the right to share the kitchen and bathroom. The owners of tenement houses faced particular problems. Officially, tenants were accommodated who paid low, official rates that did not cover the operating costs. As a result, the tenement houses fell into disrepair.
In 1945, the Bierut Decree nationalized the land in the city in Poland. The owners did not want to rebuild or renovate the houses on their land, and as a result, the reconstruction after the war ceased. Then the city undertook the reconstruction, charging the owners with the costs, and taking back the real estate if the owners could not cover the costs. As a result, 94% of the properties were taken from the owners.
Gomułka restored housing cooperatives and supported construction. However, the economy was focused on heavy industry, and the needs of the population were in the last place. The Gomułka period was characterized by economical and low-quality construction. Small apartments with low ceilings, dark kitchens, and even shared bathrooms for several apartments were built.
The Gierek era meant a huge increase in housing construction. The construction of the Soviet-type was abandoned, i.e. with a shared bathroom on the first floor. Municipal housing for the poorest was limited. High blocks of the slab were built, resulting in poor quality buildings with lots of faults. The blocks, staircases, and apartments were the same. It was then that the fashion for furnishing with wall units was created, which is part of the TOP 10 biggest embarrassments of the 90s.
In the People's Republic of Poland, the lack of housing meant that young people lived with their parents for many years. Poles earned so little that it was not possible to buy a flat on the free market. From the times of Gomułka, the way to get an apartment was to join a cooperative or open a housing book. Due to the lack of flats, people had to wait a long time for a flat. Even with a raised contribution to the cooperative, one had to wait for an allocation of an apartment. This system led to degeneration, corruption and bribery. The flats were allocated from the top of the queue, which could last even several years. The ownership of such a flat was obtained after paying off the cooperative, which lasted for years.
Nowadays, young people rent an apartment either alone or in groups. It was impossible during the Polish People's Republic. The lack of housing particularly affected young people who lived with their parents even after their marriage. Married couples lived apart from time to time, he tells their parents. Two generations lived together in small apartments, which caused conflicts. Numerous jokes about terrible mother-in-law come from this time when young couples living together with their parents-in-law could not decide how they live and live.
Many houses and flats survived the war. However, the additional accommodation system meant that in large apartments, in each room of apartments, someone else shared one kitchen and bathroom. The layout of the pre-war flats, where there were long corridors leading to the rooms, favored the accommodation. The system of shared flats survived almost until the beginning of the 21st century, when many families managed to integrate pre-war flats, applying for a room for the dead.
Housing construction in the People's Republic of Poland was focused on the construction of economical, small apartments in order to obtain functionality in the smallest possible space. The flat for the family consisted of two rooms, one larger and one smaller, a small bathroom without a window, and a dark kitchen with a window onto the room. Space was saved, so instead of a long corridor leading to individual rooms, a microscopic hall with doors to all rooms was built.
A typical Polish apartment in the times of the Polish People's Republic had a common room, the so-called A "sitting room" where there was a TV set, and a small room was a bedroom. There was no separate room for children, so children's cult toys in the People's Republic of Poland were kept in a common room. When the children grew up, the functionality of the apartment was usually changed in such a way that the playroom was changed to the parents' room, and the small room became the room for older children, and later also the room of the second generation, when the young people started families and had nowhere to move out.
After the war, people equipped their apartments as much as possible. They often robbed old furniture in the ruins. Therefore, in the 1950s, solid wooden pre-war furniture reigned in the apartments. Tiled stoves were used for heating. Many pre-war apartments still had tiled coal-fired kitchens, which the inhabitants were gradually removing by installing gas cookers.
At that time, there was still the old custom of spending time together and eating dinner together. Therefore, initially typical apartments from the times of the Polish People's Republic had the so-called sitting room, where a large table was obligatory in the middle. When televisions became popular, the big table was moved aside or even thrown away. The equipment of the living room was occupied by a large sofa, where the family sat in front of the TV set. The fold-out sofas on which my parents slept at night were a hit. In front of the couch, there was a mandatory bench, i.e. a long, low table where you could put your tea and which did not cover the TV. A rectangular, patterned carpet was obligatory to furnish the room.
A typical Polish apartment from the times of the People's Republic of Poland was so small that the furniture could hardly fit into it. That is why the wall unit became a hit, which is now considered one of the greatest embarrassments of the Polish People's Republic. The Wall unit is a bookcase for the entire wall. Often such a bookcase was placed in the middle to divide the room into two parts for parents and children with their spouses and children.
The classic wall unit became popular in the '70s and '80s. It was a solution for a small apartment, not a design solution. It took up the entire wall, hence its name. It usually consisted of 3 floors:
- cupboards with a door at the bottom and top, where clothes, bedding, towels were kept,
- the middle part consisted of glass shelves or not, where tableware and glassware for Christmas dinner and books were kept,
- one of the wall shelves was intended for a TV set.
The wall unit became a hit and the pinnacle of Poles' dreams of that time. Contrary to appearances, the furniture was not difficult to access, although very expensive. This piece of furniture was so fashionable and functional that families were getting rid of classic pre-war solid wood antiques and replacing them with cheap chaff.
Wall units, or rather wall murals, were used in the 1970s and 1980s in adolescent rooms. The second room in a typical apartment was often so small that it could barely fit a bed. The solution was a half-wall, where part of the wall unit was occupied by a folding couch. At night, the couch was folded out to sleep. And for the day it was hidden in a wall unit. There was also a version with a folding table, which unfolded after folding the couch so that the child had a place to do homework.
A typical Polish apartment looked almost the same in every home: a wall unit on one wall, a sofa with a bench on the opposite, a carpet on the floor. Pictures were hung on the wall above the sofa, while the rest of the walls were covered with windows and a glass window to the kitchen.
The course of the wedding in the times of the People's Republic of Poland largely depended on the wealth of the parents and whether the wedding took place in the city or in the countryside. A Polish wedding in the city had a much more modest setting than a wedding in the countryside. On the other hand, a typical village wedding was an event that gathered the entire local community. Country weddings were so loud that they were remembered for years. They were usually held outdoors or in the largest room available, usually at the fire station. There were often fights, especially since you drank a lot, and Polish country weddings lasted for several days.
Weddings in the city were more modest because of the small apartments. Most often they took place at home, in the garden or on a plot. No one could afford a hotel, so visiting guests were placed with all possible relatives. Weddings organized in venues were rare. Even if it was possible to organize a wedding hall, the young families prepared the menu and decorations on their own.
It was only around the 1980s that the custom of organizing weddings on the premises became popular. The cost of such an event was much higher, but more guests could be invited, and cooking and then cleaning were avoided. At that time, gifts in the form of an envelope with money became more and more popular, part of which was used to pay off debts for wedding expenses.
Even then, there was a custom for very expensive gifts. They were supposed to help young people to develop themselves. There was no list of gifts then, it was not even proper to ask what gift would be desired. Therefore, after the wedding, it turned out that the bride and groom had several of the same irons, alarm clocks, coffee sets, and tablecloths.
In the times of the Polish People's Republic, civil marriage was obligatory in the Registry Office, and a church wedding was not of official importance. Average people, however, treated these things the other way around. Civil marriage was considered a necessary formality. It was not without a ceremonial setting, but it was kept to a minimum. The bride and groom performed in ceremonial wedding costumes and with flowers. The participants were usually only parents, witnesses, and colleagues. After the wedding, a festive dinner for the loved ones was held at the bride's house.
A church wedding followed by a wedding was especially solemn. The course of the church wedding and the wedding reception was similar to the current one. However, the focus was less on the visuals, but rather the wedding was treated as a family event where families from different neighborhoods could meet and have fun together. The closest friends were also invited to the wedding.
According to custom, the organization and costs of the wedding ceremony belonged to the bride's parents, and the groom's parents provided alcohol and music. This may seem like an unfair division. However, in terms of the amount and prices of alcohol, the costs were almost equal. We drank a lot during the wedding and subsequent after-parties. Full boxes of vodka bottles were brought to the wedding. TOP 5 alcohols from the times of the People's Republic of Poland appeared on the table, i.e. pure choice, clean table, rye soup, rowanberry, clean with a red card, etc. The amount of alcohol was not just a matter of fun, you had to stand up and impress with the number of drinks.
Toasts were raised every now and then and on every occasion: for the bride and groom, for parents, for guests, etc. In the times of the People's Republic of Poland, only a woman could refuse to drink alcohol. This was even in good tone if the woman had little or only dipped her mouth in the glass. The women were unable to drink. Getting drunk at a party often did not end well for a woman. On the other hand, men did not have to limit themselves, and even could not. Refusing to drink was treated almost as an insult, which is why at weddings lying drunk gentlemen or fights of drunk people were not uncommon.
The wedding menu depended on the region, but the rule was that there had to be so much food that the tables wavered. Meat dishes, fish, salads, and appetizers in the form of meats and herring prevailed. The sweet dishes were rather limited as the cakes are usually served last and by this time most of the participants were already too drunk to eat. At country weddings, where at least several dozen guests were invited, cooks were employed to cook food in huge pots, and local bakers prepared bread.
In the times of the Polish People's Republic, there was a custom of a wedding cake, which the bride and groom cut together. However, it was a symbolic, modest, and unnecessary custom. Nobody could afford a huge, multi-story cake. A large sheet of dough was simply baked so that there was enough for each guest.
The most difficult thing was to organize a menu for a wedding in a time of shortages in shops from the late 1970s to the liberation. They were prepared for months, standing in long lines for sugar, flour, etc. Alcohol was for cards, but it was also bought by non-drinkers so that it was a kind of exchangeable currency. At home, everyone had a collection of vodkas. These supplies were sufficient for a modest wedding in the city.
The current wedding costumes do not differ much from the costumes from the times of the Polish People's Republic. However, in those days, the outfits were dripping with artificial and shiny elements. Patent leather shoes were obligatory. The bride's dress was made of a non-crumple bistro. Costumes were often made to measure by a seamstress, and the bride received two dresses for a civil and church wedding. The wedding attire was complemented by a bouquet, in the times of the People's Republic of Poland it was obligatory with carnations and asparagus.
In the 40's and '50s wedding fashion had to be modest, unless somewhere else a pre-war dress from grandma was preserved. Wedding outfits began to develop more in the 1960s when short wedding dresses became fashionable. In the 1970s, long, ruffled dresses and long, loose hair, referring to the hippie fashion, returned. The secrets of the PRL make-up show similar trends, from the modest make-up of the post-war years, through the intense make-up of the 60s and hippie trends in the 70s, to the discreet make-up as it is today.
Apart from drinks, music was also the responsibility of the groom's family. At a wedding in the city, people were satisfied with music from a gramophone or tape recorder. However, at a village wedding, a hired music band was obligatory. Various games and competitions were organized for the guests, especially at country weddings, which lasted for several days. The music was quite traditional. Some people find it embarrassing to play the same hits, such as "They are already carrying me a dress with a veil" or "I have wonderful parents."
A typical Polish wedding had its course defined by tradition, although the observance of various rituals has long been declining. In the times of the Polish People's Republic, many of these rituals were still observed. After the wedding, the parents of the bride and groom welcomed them at home or in the wedding hall with bread and salt. The young people drank a glass of vodka, while the glasses were thrown behind each other so that they would break and no one drank from them anymore.
Shaving is an ancient wedding custom, which had its origins in historical times when a girl who entered the group of married women had her braids cut and a married woman's bonnet was put on. In the times of the People's Republic of Poland, the "Nitepines" had lost their old Polish character. They took place around midnight, when the bride took off her veil and, with her back to the guests, tossed her wedding bouquet backward. The unmarried girls tried to grab the bouquet as it was a sign of a quick marriage.
The traditional capitals were associated with games and races. The bride pretended that she did not want it, ran away, the guests chased her, etc. The remainder of this custom is wedding games and competitions.
After these games, the bride and groom thank their parents for their upbringing and give them gifts. They then change into more comfortable outfits and the fun continues.
Some people today consider these old rituals and traditional games to be embarrassing. Some of the TOP 10 biggest embarrassments of the 90s include such customs as 'okepin', thanking parents for raising, pouring wine into the bride's shoe and drinking it by the groom, or coarse chants. Some fertility-related wedding games can be a bit coarse and in bad taste.
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