Katherine Lebow - Unfinished Utopia: Nowa Huta, Stalinism, and Polish Society, 1949-56

Unfinished Utopia

Nowa Huta, Stalinism, and Polish Society, 194956

Katherine Lebow

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

A book so long in the making incurs many debts, and it is a long-awaited pleasure to acknowledge some of them here.

Financial support for research was provided by the American Council of Learned Societies, Fulbright-IIE, the European University Institute, Newcastle University, and the University of Virginia. Earlier versions of chapters appeared in David Crowley and Susan E. Reid, eds., Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2010), and Contemporary European History 10, no. 2 (2001): 199219. I thank Northwestern and Cambridge University Press for permitting me to use them here.

More like a fairy godfather and godmother than a Doktorvater und -Mutter , Istvn Dek and Victoria de Grazia at Columbia University have watched over me for years, providing input and advice when most needed. I am extremely grateful for everything they have done. At Columbia, Anna Frajlich-Zajc taught me Polish as only a poet could. Fran Rosenfeld commented extensively on an early draft, while the Dek cohort formed the nucleus of what has turned out to be a collegial, lively, and ever-expanding intellectual community of East Central Europeanists, inspired by the humanistic scholarship of our legendary mentor. Its members, broadly understood, have contributed to this project in many ways.

During my research in Poland I benefited enormously from Jacek Purchlas generous offer of mentorship. Others who shared their expertise on Nowa Huta and Polish history included Adam Bartosz, Jdrzej Chumiski, Dorota Gut, Dariusz Jarosz, Henryk Kazimierski, Jacek Kochanowicz, Monika Kozubek, and Maciej Miezian; I am also very grateful to my interviewees for their time and willingness to share their stories. I was helped by many staff members of the Archive of Modern Records, the Archive of the City of Krakw, the Institute of National Memory, and the Jagiellonian University Library; special thanks are due Szczepan witek and the late Sawomir Rado of the National Archive in Krakw. Meanwhile, it is a pleasure to acknowledge the hospitality and friendship of the Geisler family, Dmitrij Glinka and Irena Glinka-Wierzbicka, Monika Murzyn-Kupisz, and Annamaria Orla-Bukowska, among others.

Throughout the long haul of revisions, the input and encouragement of the ladies (Magorzata Fidelis, Irina Gigova, Emily Greble, and Andrea Orzoff) was a lifeline. I am thankful for their careful comments and dependable presence in cyberspace, as well as for Gosia and Emilys practical and intellectual support outside the framework of our monthly exchanges. Magorzata Mazurek, meanwhile, has been another generous and valued friend and interlocutor. David Crowley, Dagmara Jajeniak-Quast, Basia Nowak, Bernadeta Stano, Keely Stauter-Halsted, Alison Stenning, and Marcin Zaremba have provided feedback, suggestions, sources, and other acts of kindness along the way. Padraic Kenneys insights into Polish and East Central European Communism have been essential to this book; I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers of my manuscript for their helpful comments. Finally, I would like to thank the many local writers, researchers, bloggers, artists, activists, curators, volunteers, and enthusiasts who have contributed to an upsurge in interest in Nowa Hutas past in recent years, and whose efforts have enriched this book immeasurably.

I held down three different jobs while writing this, and I was lucky to have good colleagues and supportive supervisors at each. My colleagues at the College of Charleston provided a welcoming environment at my first job. At the University of Virginia, Alon Confino, Chuck McCurdy, Duane Osheim, and Jeff Rossman supported both me and this project, while Margarita Nafpaktitis and Elizabeth Thompson offered helpful feedback on early drafts. Special mention goes to UVAs wonderful libraries, and librarians, particularly George Crafts. At Newcastle University, Joan Allen, Tim Kirk, Diana Paton, and Susan-Mary Grant softened the blows of austerity and made me laugh at department meetings. I extend thanks to all my colleagues at the School of Historical Studies for their collegiality and professionalism.

Working with John Ackerman at Cornell University Press has been a consistent pleasure, and I am very grateful to him for taking on this project and seeing it through with care and attention. Thanks are also due to Karen Laun and Mary Petrusewicz for their excellent work on production and copyediting, respectively. Pawe Jago at the Historical Museum of Krakw helpfully hunted down scans of many of the illustrations, while Tadeusz Binek, Marek Sigmund and Marta Sigmund-Kozak, and Arkadiusz Sitarski graciously allowed me to reproduce their family photographs in this book.

Many friends should be thanked here, but I will have to mention just a few. First and foremost, Edinburghs gray days became much brighter in the company of Ola Helwak and Grzegorz Kuda, who also provided a second home for our children at crucial moments. Ilona Barratto, Gabriela Langowska, and Magosia Szoblik helped keep me on my toes (linguistically and otherwise), and Christina Ball and Dana Rosen have always been there when most needed.

My family has been a constant source of encouragement and support. Jane Dickler Lebow, Ned Lebow, Carol Bohmer, and Chris and Dia Lawrence provided endless hours of babysitting and countless other, intangible forms of assistance. Jane Lebow also performed heroically in her role of first-line copyeditor; I thank her for this labor of love, and for everything else. I would also like to express gratitude and affection for the brilliant people of Congregation Beth Israel Preschool, Scuola Materna Nathan Cassuto, Busy Bees Nursery, and Uni-Tots Nursery, and for Ia Mshchedlishvili and Vanessa Coles, without whose care this book simply would not have been possible.

I would like to make special mention of two people who I think would have enjoyed each others company, had they ever had the chance to meet. The first is my beloved grandmother Ruth Dickler. If readers find a fraction of her wide-ranging curiosity and skill as a raconteur reflected here, I will be glad. The second is Mark Pittaway. Mark invited me to present on Nowa Huta at my first major conference and supported this project in many ways, large and small, over the years. Mark was as generous as he was brilliant, and as I discovered after his death in 2010, scores of my colleagues felt the same loyalty and admiration for him that I did. His influence is present throughout this book.

Finally, none of this would have been imaginable without Andrew Lawrences daily presence as a partner, kibbitzer, reader, hand-holder, editor, punner, and father. Naomi and Jacob: admittedly, its not as exciting as Harry Potter or as funny as Asterix, but I hope, nonetheless, you will be proud of this book, and of your most loving mama.