Through the Back Door
The Black Market in Poland 1944–1989
Series:
Jerzy Kochanowski
This book analyzes the history of the black market in Poland before the 1940s and the development of black-market phenomena in post-war Poland. The author evaluates the interrelation between black-market phenomena and historical and geographical conditions. At first, the black market stabilized the system by making it more flexible and creating a margin of freedom, albeit in the short term. In the long run, the informal economic activities of the people ran counter to and undermined the official ideology of the state. The author concludes that in post-war Poland, owing to a singular coincidence of historical, political, economic and social factors, the second economy had its own unique character and an endemic presence that loomed large in the Soviet Bloc.
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- 978-3-631-70436-3
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- Frankfurt am Main, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2017. 436 pp., 30 b/w ill., 6 b/w tables
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Table of Contents
- Foreword
- 1. Terms and Methods
- 1.1 What Color was the Black Market?
- 1.1.1 Legal Markets
- 1.1.2 Semi-legal Markets
- 1.1.3 Illegal Markets
- 1.2 The Black Market in Communist Poland: Problems with Definition
- 1.3 Literature, Sources, Method
- 2. Shortage, Greed, Protest: A Short Course in the History of the Black Market in the First Half of the 20th Century
- 2.1 The Beginnings
- 2.2 The First World War and the Interwar Period
- 2.3 Second World War
- 2.4 After the War
- 3. The Polish (anti) Speculation Curve: 1944–1989
- 3.1 Commission I: 1945–1950/54
- 3.1.1 Trial Period: 1944–1947
- 3.1.2 “We Have Won the Trade War”: 1947–1950
- 3.2 Intermedium I: 1950–1956
- 3.3 Team I (and II): 1957 (and Later)
- 3.3.1 Excursus: Team II
- 3.4 Intermedium II: The 1960s and 1970s
- 3.4.1 The 1960s
- 3.4.2 The 1970s
- 3.5 Commission II: 1981–1987
- 3.5.1 The Road to “Speculation Hell”
- 3.5.2 Provisorium: The Extraordinary Commission: August 10 – October 12, 1981
- 3.5.3 The Front Line of the War on Speculation: The Central Commission
- 4. The (Historical) Geography of the Black Market in the Polish People’s Republic
- 4.1 General Remarks
- 4.2 Center – Periphery
- 4.2.1 Center – Big Cities
- 4.2.2 Periphery: Municipal and District Poland
- 4.3 The North versus the South
- 4.3.1 The South: It Is Impossible to Bring Socialism to the Polish Highlands!
- 4.3.2 The North: “The Land Fills Your Belly, the Sea Fills Your Pockets”
- 4.4 East–West
- 5. Meat
- 5.1 “Meat Is Problem Number One”: But Why?
- 5.2 Meat on the Black Market: Between Repression and Consent
- 5.2.1 “The Great Battle for Meat”: 1944–1950
- 5.2.2 “State Ribs Will Taste Better…” 1950–1956
- 5.2.3 “In Gomułka’s Times, There Are Only Crumbs…”: 1956–1970
- 5.2.4 “When There Are Pigs, There Will Be Smart Ideas…”: 1971–1980
- 5.2.5 “They Slaughter a Pig, Because They Have to Eat …”: 1980–1989
- 5.2.5.1 Meat Industry or (Creative) Relapse into Crime
- 5.2.5.2 “The Veal Woman”: A Retrospective Portrait
- 5.2.5.3 “Legalize the Illegal Just a Little”: 1984–1989
- 6. Alcohol
- 6.1 A National Hobby: Illegal Alcohol Production
- 6.1.1 The Clandestine Distilleries: Moonshine and the Authorities
- 6.1.2 “He Has a Drinking Habit but Not a Lot of Money”: Determinants, Technology, Geography
- 6.2 “Buy a Bottle, Mister!” Illegal Trading in Legal Alcohol
- 6.3 Excursus: The 1980s
- 7. Gasoline
- 7.1 Driving on Bootleg: From the 1950s to the 1970s
- 7.2 “The As-good-as Private Pump”: The 1980s
- 8. Dollar and Gold
- 8.1 Dollar and Gold: A Panacea for Tough Times
- 8.2 Power, Dollar, Gold
- 8.2.1 1945–1950–1956
- 8.2.2 1956–1981
- 8.2.3 1981–1989
- 8.3 The Greenback Game: Mechanisms and Players
- 8.3.1 Motivation
- 8.3.2 Transfer
- 8.3.3 Money Changers: A Portrait Study
- 9. The Tourist Trade in Communist Poland
- 9.1 Trading Tourism: Introduction
- 9.2 The 1950s and the 1960s: “We Are Too Poor to Vacation in Our Own Country…”
- 9.3 The 1970s: “Who Are the Smugglers? Every Single Person that Travels Abroad!”
- 9.4 The 1980s: “The Phoenicians Are on the Move!”
- Closing Remarks: Through the Back Door – or the Front?
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index of names
Index of names
Chapter
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Extract
A
Albrecht Jerzy 89
Albrecht Michał 318
Alessandrini Sergio 14
Alexeev Michael V. 267
Ambroziak Jacek 114, 115
Ambroziewicz Piotr 336
Anikin Andriej W. 287, 288
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Or login to access all content.- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Table of Contents
- Foreword
- 1. Terms and Methods
- 1.1 What Color was the Black Market?
- 1.1.1 Legal Markets
- 1.1.2 Semi-legal Markets
- 1.1.3 Illegal Markets
- 1.2 The Black Market in Communist Poland: Problems with Definition
- 1.3 Literature, Sources, Method
- 2. Shortage, Greed, Protest: A Short Course in the History of the Black Market in the First Half of the 20th Century
- 2.1 The Beginnings
- 2.2 The First World War and the Interwar Period
- 2.3 Second World War
- 2.4 After the War
- 3. The Polish (anti) Speculation Curve: 1944–1989
- 3.1 Commission I: 1945–1950/54
- 3.1.1 Trial Period: 1944–1947
- 3.1.2 “We Have Won the Trade War”: 1947–1950
- 3.2 Intermedium I: 1950–1956
- 3.3 Team I (and II): 1957 (and Later)
- 3.3.1 Excursus: Team II
- 3.4 Intermedium II: The 1960s and 1970s
- 3.4.1 The 1960s
- 3.4.2 The 1970s
- 3.5 Commission II: 1981–1987
- 3.5.1 The Road to “Speculation Hell”
- 3.5.2 Provisorium: The Extraordinary Commission: August 10 – October 12, 1981
- 3.5.3 The Front Line of the War on Speculation: The Central Commission
- 4. The (Historical) Geography of the Black Market in the Polish People’s Republic
- 4.1 General Remarks
- 4.2 Center – Periphery
- 4.2.1 Center – Big Cities
- 4.2.2 Periphery: Municipal and District Poland
- 4.3 The North versus the South
- 4.3.1 The South: It Is Impossible to Bring Socialism to the Polish Highlands!
- 4.3.2 The North: “The Land Fills Your Belly, the Sea Fills Your Pockets”
- 4.4 East–West
- 5. Meat
- 5.1 “Meat Is Problem Number One”: But Why?
- 5.2 Meat on the Black Market: Between Repression and Consent
- 5.2.1 “The Great Battle for Meat”: 1944–1950
- 5.2.2 “State Ribs Will Taste Better…” 1950–1956
- 5.2.3 “In Gomułka’s Times, There Are Only Crumbs…”: 1956–1970
- 5.2.4 “When There Are Pigs, There Will Be Smart Ideas…”: 1971–1980
- 5.2.5 “They Slaughter a Pig, Because They Have to Eat …”: 1980–1989
- 5.2.5.1 Meat Industry or (Creative) Relapse into Crime
- 5.2.5.2 “The Veal Woman”: A Retrospective Portrait
- 5.2.5.3 “Legalize the Illegal Just a Little”: 1984–1989
- 6. Alcohol
- 6.1 A National Hobby: Illegal Alcohol Production
- 6.1.1 The Clandestine Distilleries: Moonshine and the Authorities
- 6.1.2 “He Has a Drinking Habit but Not a Lot of Money”: Determinants, Technology, Geography
- 6.2 “Buy a Bottle, Mister!” Illegal Trading in Legal Alcohol
- 6.3 Excursus: The 1980s
- 7. Gasoline
- 7.1 Driving on Bootleg: From the 1950s to the 1970s
- 7.2 “The As-good-as Private Pump”: The 1980s
- 8. Dollar and Gold
- 8.1 Dollar and Gold: A Panacea for Tough Times
- 8.2 Power, Dollar, Gold
- 8.2.1 1945–1950–1956
- 8.2.2 1956–1981
- 8.2.3 1981–1989
- 8.3 The Greenback Game: Mechanisms and Players
- 8.3.1 Motivation
- 8.3.2 Transfer
- 8.3.3 Money Changers: A Portrait Study
- 9. The Tourist Trade in Communist Poland
- 9.1 Trading Tourism: Introduction
- 9.2 The 1950s and the 1960s: “We Are Too Poor to Vacation in Our Own Country…”
- 9.3 The 1970s: “Who Are the Smugglers? Every Single Person that Travels Abroad!”
- 9.4 The 1980s: “The Phoenicians Are on the Move!”
- Closing Remarks: Through the Back Door – or the Front?
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index of names