A rough, concrete bathtub was left behind for decades in a corner of a Warsaw backyard.
The massive, uncomfortable tub was made in the Stalin era amid the Korean War and supply shortages. Like many technologies in the former Soviet-bloc, it was built for necessity, not comfort.
The tub is a funny relic from Poland? communist past and a reminder of how communist industry proved so ineffectual it was often surreal.
But this year, as Poland celebrates the 20th anniversary of communism? fall, the owner is digging out the tub to submit for a contest at the Polish History Museum.
While most people can picture the USSR? massive, polluting factories and heavy industries like coal or steel, fewer people know about technology? little absurdities under the regime.
And it? the comic and odd objects the museum hopes to collect for a book or possible display on communism? ?nti-technology.?br />
It? especially important to gather the material now, said Michal Kopczynski, head of the museum? research department, before it becomes distant history.
?his technology and organization isn? very well documented,?Kopczynski said, ?nd we want to gather these now, while the people who lived during that time are still alive.?br />
Contest submissions can be technology, like a machine invented to throw rocks into coal to speed up production when coal purity didn? matter.
Contestants can also submit tales of labor practices, like the way factory cars were disassembled when supplies were short so they could be put together again and falsely raise numbers on the assembly line.
The idea for the contest comes from technical historian Boleslaw Orlowski, who has written of communist-era ?nti-technology,?or 貞olutions that are not logical.
?hat mattered is that you produced how much the central command wanted,?Kopczynski said. ?hether you sold things or not, it didn? matter. It was a system of shortages, so you could produce low quality and it would still sell.?br />
The competition comes at a time when enough years have passed for Poles to see the humor of life under the regime. While the subject still raises emotions, Poles can now look back with more distance.
?here? a tendency to look at that era in two ways,?said Robert Kostro, the museum? director. ?ou can denounce it and look at it from the point of view of terror, or sentimentalize it and remember the funny or absurd things. You can? look at that period only through the prism of repression.?br />
Interest in communist daily life has surfaced recently with several new books that focus more on the era? clumsy washing machines and orange soda than on historical events.
Varsovians now take walking tours through socio-realist neighborhoods that were once dismissed as dull, while the 20th anniversary of communism? fall brings concerts, historic re-enactments and debates.
Kostro says it? the responsibility of museums to preserve those memories now, so young people can understand the ?tarting point?of modern Polish democracy.
But the core of the contest wants to explain why the Soviet bloc lagged behind in progress for half a century and why it ultimately failed to inspire people.
Former government spokesman Jerzy Urban, one of the regime? most disliked figures, had an explanation for the era? slow production and worker apathy.
?rban said in Poland people are so demoralized that no type of system would help,?Kopczynski said.
? was reading at the time about Henry Ford? assembly line and how they said Poles made the best workers,?he said. ?nd I thought who was right, Jerzy Urban or Henry Ford?
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS