Socialist realism in Poland
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Socialist realism in Poland (Polish: socrealizm) was a social, political, and esthetic doctrine enforced by the pro-Soviet communist government in the process of Stalinization of the postwar People's Republic of Poland. The official policy was introduced in 1949 by a decree of the Polish United Workers' Party minister (later, Minister of Culture and Art) Włodzimierz Sokorski. As in all Soviet-dominated Eastern Bloc countries, Socialist realism became the main instrument of political control in the building of totalitarianism in Poland. However, the trend has never become truly dominant. Following Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, and the subsequent De-Stalinization of all People's Republics, Polish artists, writers and architects started abandoning it around 1955. De-Stalinization process peaked during the Polish October.
The policy was enforced in Poland between 1949 and 1956 amidst the wave of gross human rights abuses committed by the state security forces. It involved all domains of cultural politics including visual, music and literary arts, though its most spectacular achievements were made in the field of architecture. The objectives of this new trend were explained in a 1949 resolution of the National Council of Party Architects. Architecture was declared a key weapon in the creation of a new social order. It was intended to help spread the communist ideology by influencing citizens' consciousness as well as their outlook on life.
During this massive undertaking, a crucial role fell to designers perceived not as merely architects creating streets and edifices, but rather as "engineers of the human soul". The idea extended beyond aesthetics and into principles of urban design meant to express grandiose expectations and arouse feelings of stability and political power monopoly in Stalinist Poland.
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