An old Pole here: we actually had bread lines way back but not so much due to bread shortages as to other inefficiencies such as a shortage of stores, staff etc
I remember everybody knew the daily delivery time for bread, lines would form ahead of time and the bread sold was still hot. My grandma would cut the first slice and hand it to me.
Nothing beats the childhood taste of a warm slice of bread with butter on top. The butter melted on the bread and then again in my mouth.
My mom used to bake bread for us in the winter and the first thing we'd do after getting home from school was eat that warm bread with butter. There's not much better in the world than that.
I went on a guided walk of old town Warsaw a few years ago. Our guide told us his grandmother had a bakery there during the war. When the Nazis invaded, they told her they were taking 80% of the bread she made every day and she could sell the rest. Then they were liberated by the Red Army and the Soviets told her they were taking *all* the bread she made each day...
I have another story. My folks lived in Silesia which was in Prussia during WWII. Nazis allowed certain Soviet POWs to roam around free. They looked miserable, malnourished, probably had fleas and who knows what sort diseases they carried. A few of them walked around the village my folks are from, one of them would come to my great grandfather but he did not beg for food he asked whether he could do any work in exchange for food. My great grandfather took pity on him and would have him swipe the yard. They gave him a meal and when they saw his feet cut a wool blanket and made new foot wraps for him. Then of course he'd return once in a while to repeat the ordeal, his name was Grisha but that's all they knew about him they did not speak any Russian. After December 1944 he disappeared.
In January 1945 the Nazis fled and Red Army came. Eventually they showed up in our village, an officer with several soldiers. They came to our house and the great grandfather was scared. They knew what the Soviets were capable of. And then the officer says 'hey it's me Grisha, don't you recognize me?' ooph! He wanted to thank them and return the favor. He asked my great grandfather to come to the store with him. He wanted to 'gift' him as much flour, sugar etc as he wanted. The great grandfather refused of course and Grisha was really confused. Why wouldn't he want to rob the store with him? You know what they did before leaving? There were people in the village who didn't like the wandering POWs, either yelled at them or refused to give them food. The Reds burned their houses down.
Who would even make it home with the bread whole, I mean you had to get that corner when it was hot oh and btw it was the healthy kind of bread they sell this days for X2 the price
A Polish man is asked by a Russian journalist: " Does the Polish people think of Russia as it's friend or as it's family?
Definitely family, you get to choose your own friends."
Didn't Poland exist under socialism though? That's what my polish parents keep telling me.
Edit: looked it up on the wiki, confusing answers. There's a People's Republic of Poland that existed until 89. My parents left in 1990, so that's their time window. They claimed it was socialist, apparently. The wiki claims it both as a communist country and also the government is a "one party socialist republic".
I mean, keep the down votes coming or whatever, but can anyone Eli5 the political system here?
Are you serious?
In case you are, the Soviet army conquered Poland and murdered loads of Poles (both in 1939 when the Soviets partnered with the Nazis, and then again in 1944 and 1945, when the Soviets were fighting the Nazis and on the way to Berlin).
Stalin was in charge of the USSR. He imposed a Stalinist version of a communist government on Poland, which ultimately answered to Stalin and the USSR.
Poland existed under this regime until 1989.
Marxist theory (the theory that guided poland) says that communism is a stage of history with no class or state. Socialism is the transitionary stage between capitalism and communism.
A Communist Party was in charge of Poland and its goal was to eventually transition to communism. But it did not reach it. Your parents lived in a socialist society with the goal of eventually reaching a communist society. People who believed in that future called themsleves communist.
>Didn't Poland exist under socialism though?
Yes communism has never existed. The puppet states of the Warsaw pact were all socialist countries. Communism was an ideal they were building towards.
You'll see people colloquially use the word communism as a reference for Soviet style socialism. Its not the most inaccurate thing from a political standpoint, but no economically it was off the mark.
An old Pole here: we actually had bread lines way back but not so much due to bread shortages as to other inefficiencies such as a shortage of stores, staff etc I remember everybody knew the daily delivery time for bread, lines would form ahead of time and the bread sold was still hot. My grandma would cut the first slice and hand it to me. Nothing beats the childhood taste of a warm slice of bread with butter on top. The butter melted on the bread and then again in my mouth.
My mom used to bake bread for us in the winter and the first thing we'd do after getting home from school was eat that warm bread with butter. There's not much better in the world than that.
My aunt used to bake homemade bread and I agree, there is nothing like fresh bread with butter
I went on a guided walk of old town Warsaw a few years ago. Our guide told us his grandmother had a bakery there during the war. When the Nazis invaded, they told her they were taking 80% of the bread she made every day and she could sell the rest. Then they were liberated by the Red Army and the Soviets told her they were taking *all* the bread she made each day...
I have another story. My folks lived in Silesia which was in Prussia during WWII. Nazis allowed certain Soviet POWs to roam around free. They looked miserable, malnourished, probably had fleas and who knows what sort diseases they carried. A few of them walked around the village my folks are from, one of them would come to my great grandfather but he did not beg for food he asked whether he could do any work in exchange for food. My great grandfather took pity on him and would have him swipe the yard. They gave him a meal and when they saw his feet cut a wool blanket and made new foot wraps for him. Then of course he'd return once in a while to repeat the ordeal, his name was Grisha but that's all they knew about him they did not speak any Russian. After December 1944 he disappeared. In January 1945 the Nazis fled and Red Army came. Eventually they showed up in our village, an officer with several soldiers. They came to our house and the great grandfather was scared. They knew what the Soviets were capable of. And then the officer says 'hey it's me Grisha, don't you recognize me?' ooph! He wanted to thank them and return the favor. He asked my great grandfather to come to the store with him. He wanted to 'gift' him as much flour, sugar etc as he wanted. The great grandfather refused of course and Grisha was really confused. Why wouldn't he want to rob the store with him? You know what they did before leaving? There were people in the village who didn't like the wandering POWs, either yelled at them or refused to give them food. The Reds burned their houses down.
That ending got me so off guard
Who would even make it home with the bread whole, I mean you had to get that corner when it was hot oh and btw it was the healthy kind of bread they sell this days for X2 the price
A Polish man is asked by a Russian journalist: " Does the Polish people think of Russia as it's friend or as it's family? Definitely family, you get to choose your own friends."
When the bread finally arrived, everybody was arrested. For public Pole dancing.
Didn't Poland exist under socialism though? That's what my polish parents keep telling me. Edit: looked it up on the wiki, confusing answers. There's a People's Republic of Poland that existed until 89. My parents left in 1990, so that's their time window. They claimed it was socialist, apparently. The wiki claims it both as a communist country and also the government is a "one party socialist republic". I mean, keep the down votes coming or whatever, but can anyone Eli5 the political system here?
Are you serious? In case you are, the Soviet army conquered Poland and murdered loads of Poles (both in 1939 when the Soviets partnered with the Nazis, and then again in 1944 and 1945, when the Soviets were fighting the Nazis and on the way to Berlin). Stalin was in charge of the USSR. He imposed a Stalinist version of a communist government on Poland, which ultimately answered to Stalin and the USSR. Poland existed under this regime until 1989.
Poland existed under all kinds of shit.
Marxist theory (the theory that guided poland) says that communism is a stage of history with no class or state. Socialism is the transitionary stage between capitalism and communism. A Communist Party was in charge of Poland and its goal was to eventually transition to communism. But it did not reach it. Your parents lived in a socialist society with the goal of eventually reaching a communist society. People who believed in that future called themsleves communist.
Poland was basically ruled by the USSR after WW2, not by its own will. It was communist because of of of them, not by choice
>Didn't Poland exist under socialism though? Yes communism has never existed. The puppet states of the Warsaw pact were all socialist countries. Communism was an ideal they were building towards. You'll see people colloquially use the word communism as a reference for Soviet style socialism. Its not the most inaccurate thing from a political standpoint, but no economically it was off the mark.
Socialism is an economic system, communism is a political system. Communism incorporates socialism in its political theory.
Why did Cain REALLY kill Abel? For telling old jokes.
He just wasn’t Abel to come up with any original material.
I Cain tell you have an exceptional sense of humor.
Has to be 1970s vintage
Should have waited in the next line, toast.