11 May 1980

Krakow visit and Moscow Olympics

Today we visit the city with Bogdan, who has hired a local tour guide to show us the sights. She is rather shy and underwhelming but we do learn a few bits and pieces of information as we go along.

Morning at the Wawel, impressive.

Excellent lunch at the Holiday Inn hotel. All meals for this trip are paid for by SGPiS, so we can let hell break loose and order anything that strikes our fancy!

Afternoon touring downtown with Ann, we'd like to do some shopping but it's Sunday and most stores are closed.

During dinner I have only a start of a discussion with Mat, our classmate from New Jersey, who is in a particularly bad mood. Always a sueprconservatives, he is especially belligerent today. Only a start of a discussion because it is impossible to discuss with him, so I let go. Despite his dislike for president Carter, he supports his boycott of the Moscow Olympics in light of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. I think differently, and believe that politics and sports should be kept separate. France is sending its athletes to Moscow, and they will march under the French flag at the opening ceremony. Italy is sending its athletes but without a flag, only the seal of the olympic committee. I kind of agree with my own country this time. Mat would like to inflict infernal punishment on any American athlete who would want to attend the Olympics in Moscow.

Great meal in the hotel, then we all hit the sack early, it's been a long day.

10 May 1980

Trip to Kracow

Not sure whether to spell it Cracow with two Cs or Kralow with two Ks. Somehow I prefer Krakow, it's more Polish.

After an early breakfast we meet with our professor Bogdan and Borzena. Bogdan has organized a minivan to take us to the second most important city in Poland. We spend the whole day in the vahicle, a rickety product of Czechoslovakia, I think, but I am not sure. It's got pretty hard shock absorbers and it's pretty slow, not that you could go very fast anyway on the Polish "highways" but it does the job. Reliable and not too noisy.

Short break at Jaskinia Raj to view some pretty impressive caves of stalactites and stalagmites.

Later one lunch break at Kielce, not impressive.

We finally reach Krakow by the late afternoon. The evening starts well with an excellent dinner at the "Cracovia" hotel. Lots of tasty and hearty food, especially meat.

We then decide to try a local disco, but it's a dark and stinky lair and we run away after less than five minutes inside. Much better to take a walk around the old town. The city is full of Italians, you can hear the language everywhere. This is certainly in part because of the publicity Poland got in my country after the election of the Polish Pope two years ago. But it is as certainly also because of the reputation of Poland, among other Eastern European countries, as a place to easily trade a pair of stockings with a night of love. Not love, really, just sex.

The most fun part of the night is going back to the hotel in a horse-drawn carriage that looks like it's been taken from a fairy tale.

As we go to sleep, Andrew and I share a room, Ann and Borzena another.

09 May 1980

World War II Victory Day celebrations

Polish Army parading on 9th May 1980
It's a big day today in Poland: the 35th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Many countries suffered because of the war, but Poland can reasonably claim to have endured the worst.

Victoria Hotel behind unknown soldier monument
Poland was squeezed between The USSR and Germany, Stalin and Hitler, Communism and Nazism, whichever way you look at it, it was a pretty unenviable position in 1939.

These days, of course, it is the fight against Germany that takes center stage. And for sure that is what detonated World War II. And Germany inflicted unspeakable human and economic damage to Poland between 1939 and 1945. More so to Polish Jews. The Soviet attack that immediately followed the German invasion on 1 September 1939, however, gets very short shrift. The official propaganda sings the praise of the heroic Soviet army that resisted German aggression and then moved to counterattack and liberate Poland (and Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and Romania etc.) from fascism.

Of course, all but the most naive Poles know that is far from the whole truth. But they can't talk about it, not these days in Communist Poland where no one is a Communist but censorship, and self-censorship, are tight.


08 May 1980

Foreign policy exam

Morning at home studying, then light lunch (sort of light) with bread and sausages we got from Marian and Ewa.

There is not much meat available in Poland, not expensive choice cuts anyway. But sausages (keilbasa!) have been our best friends for many meals. Cheap and almost always easily available, they go very well with hearty Polish bread and savory butter. And vodka of course, though not today, since we have to write an exam this afternoon. Not that it will make much of a difference, give the kind of exam that awaits us.

In the afternoon, written exam of Polish Foreign Policy. Easy. Too easy, not challenging at all.

07 May 1980

More studying and eating

In the morning we get a phone call in our collective corridor phone. It's the Orbis travel agent: our Soviet visa has arrived! Or rather the confirmation from Moscow that we are going to get our visa. Good enough, I hope. Apparently we are the first Western group of students in an exchange program with SGPiS to get a Soviet visa, everyone else who tried before us was turned down.

Written exam on CMEA. Nonsense, but easy. All we have to do, really, is to praise the glory of the socialist brotherhood of nations. We also interject some mild criticism to make it more credible. What a joke.

Then another lunch at Borzena's home. Her hospitality is really incredible. Yes she obviously has much to gain from her friendship with us, but still, she goes far beyond what would be expected or even hoped for. It is difficult to think of reciprocating. Her mother almost moves us to tears every time for her efforts in the kitchen. But that is not the point.

After another pantagruelian lunch back home to pseudostudy Polish foreign policy with Ann. We then go for a cosy dinner at the Canaletto restaurant of the Victoria hotel.

06 May 1980

Exams and study

In the morning we go for our Political Systems exam, very easy.

Afternoon to study the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, or Comecon. This was once believed to be the USSR's response to the Western European Common Market. But it's always been anything but. Anyway, relations are mostly regulated bilaterally.

Moreover, many countries wanted to join the Common Market, there was a waiting list and no country ever left once they joined. While no other European country I was aware of wanted to join the CMEA, while more than one member state would have likely left already if they had had a chance to do so. Albania actually did.

Never seen so much nonsense concentrated in so few pages like in our course material.

05 May 1980

Informal lecture on the real political system of Poland

In the morning we have our history exam. The question is "Communist takeover in Eastern European Communist countries". The wording is a bit convoluted, even recursive.

In the evening I am in my room studying for the next exam on "Political Systems" when Stefan pops in and tells me not to waste any time with this nonsense. Things are not like what they teach us. He sits down and goes on for a long time with a most interesting monologue on "real politics" in Poland, ie on how the HQ of the Communist party decides everything and sends orders down the chain of "democratic centralism", all the way to the lowliest head of a small party cell in the countryside.

Most interesting indeed, even if I won't be able to use this material in the exam tomorrow. But who cares? I learned more tonight about Poland's political system than in all of our classes put together.

04 May 1980

End of an era in Yugoslavia

Full day at home studying for our exams.

Except for a longish lunch break at Borzena's. As usual, we are treated to a wide array of hard to find animal proteins, tasty bread and veggies though I try to be careful with the alcohol so as not to endanger the prosecution of my reviewing later in the afternoon.

We hear some news which is very relevant to our studies: Jozif Broz Tito, the long-time ruler of Communist Yugoslavia, has died today. Things will never be the same in Yugoslavia, and are likely to change between Yugoslavia and the rest of the Socialist camp, not necessarily for the better. I wonder whether the USSR, strong of its initial success in Afghanistan, might be tempted to reassert its control in neutral, but nominally Communist, Yugoslavia.

03 May 1980

Telephone in the dorm house

Full day at home studying with Ann for our upcoming exams. Easy stuff.

The afternoon is interrupted by Ewa's call: they need the apartment's keys back for the landlord. Oh well, too bad but I could see it coming. But we already got quite a few free days. Apparently Marian had come by the apartment in the afternoon, but we were not there. We should have been there!

We don't have a private phone in our dorm rooms of course, only a common telephone in the corridor. When we receive a call someone of goodwill must pick up and alert the person being called. Or take a message. We never pick up the phone because we hardly ever receive a call, and anyway it would be difficult to understand unless the calling party speaks English. So in a way we are phone free riders. But most colleagues seems happy to do us this favor, and guessing the content of calls makes for some good gossip among the students.

Andrew and I deliver the keys in the evening. Always a good opportunity to have a chat with Marian and Ewa and catch up on their vision of the world.

01 May 1980

1 may: International Workers' Day celebration

Unfortunately today my folks have to fly home. So they will miss the great celebrations of international workers' day, especially important in a socialist country. Preparations have been underway for several days and the city is full of fancy decorations, ideological banners, red flags and big stars.
















Andrew at the HQ of the Communist Party


Marco with the school's flag



After taking them to the airport I return to school and join the SGPiS students for a long walk to downtown. Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life converge to the Marszalkowska avenue and parade in front of a grand stand with General Secretary Gierek, the Politburo of the communist party, the government, foreign diplomats etc. Stefan is with them, as representative of the students!

Warsaw is red today.

I take lots of pictures. At one point I want to take a picture of Andrew with his arms raised up in a parody of surrender in front of the headquarters of the communist party. It looks a bit ironic, we have been mocking the party aloud and maybe they heard and understood us? Anyway the zealous officer wants the roll of my camera. I am a bit upset and start arguing when Borzena comes along and persuades him to let us go. Phewww...

Romek
In the evening back to the parents flat to study for exams with Ann. At 11pm I prepare some spaghetti arrabbiata to appropriately see off a very red day! And a hot evening...