Anna Nowak - "Nowa Huta - the paradox of socialist realist architecture".

18 of April '20

We publish more student works selected in the preselection in the competition for press reportage on architecture. We invite you to read the text by Anna Nowak entitled. "Nowa Huta - the paradox of socialist realist architecture".

Anna Nowak - a final-year Master's student in art history at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow. She works at the John Paul II Museum at the Fear Not Center and is an active member of the Scientific Circle of Students of the Institute of Art and Cultural History at the Pontifical University. He is interested in socialist realist architecture and urban planning and 20th century pop culture.

Nowa Huta - the paradox of socialist realist architecture

Every work of art, including architecture, in some sense becomes a form of political pressure. This has been the case since ancient times: the ruler demonstrated his power by subjugating his subjects, including through impressive and overwhelming architectural structures.

Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz defined art by the three main reactions it was supposed to evoke in its audience: it was supposed to delight, move, or shock. Under Socialist Realism, it was given a new task: to subjugate. The terror of the communist regime made shock alone seem an insufficient form of pressure, so creative explorations were made that led to the creation of one of the greatest works of the Socialist Realist era - Nowa Huta.

historical context

The idea of building a metallurgical combine and an organically connected urban layout emerged in 1945 as a new strategy for developing the country's economic hinterland. The removal of Wladyslaw Gomulka from power, the pursuit of a program of rapid industrialization, and the economic agreement concluded with the USSR in 1948 - all these factors meant that the Soviet authorities had the final say on the investment - from location to technological solutions. Construction was driven by Joseph Stalin's imperialist ambitions: he sought to fulfill a promise he had made that his superpower would surpass the US in terms of steel production.

It was decided to build on raw root, in the Pleszow area, near Krakow. The decision was explained by practical considerations, including the undeveloped terrain allowing free development, favorable land characteristics and groundwater levels. Unofficially, it was said that the new city was to become a center of the working class and to provide a counterbalance to Krakow intellectuals hostile to the authorities.

Nowa Huta was to be an independent city, home and place of employment for 100,000 proletarians. Tadeusz Ptaszycki, a graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology, was appointed director of the project. Construction of the first block of flats began on June 23, 1949, on the Wandy estate. Almost immediately, blocks of flats also began to be built on the Krakowiaków and Górali estates, as they were located at the opposite end of the city - these sites were close to transportation routes. The first stage of construction assumed buildings included in the triangle delineated by Kocmyrzowska Street, Bulwarowa Street and Six-Year Plan Avenue.

The ideological dimension acquired by the construction of the combine, which was proof of Polish-Sovietfriendship, was sanctioned by creating numerous founding myths. The most popular one says that Vladimir Lenin himself walked on the Nowa Huta meadows and was visited here by Stalin. It was also said that Tadeusz Kosciuszko spent the night on these grounds, heading to the battlefield at Raclawice, which was supposed to strengthen peasant traditions. Reference was also made to the tradition of smokestacks from the time of the settlement of the Lusatian culture, which was then portrayed as pre-Slavic, which was supposed to prove the centuries-old smelting tradition.

Not only architecture, but also administrative names were meant to glorify the power of the time. Names of streets, avenues, squares - semantic links were embedded in political contexts, sometimes weaving in elements of history. History, rewritten by the communists.

In 1953, the names of the main streets were approved, with extremely propagandistic overtones: Lenin Avenue, October Revolution Avenue, Six-Year Plan Avenue (the construction of Nowa Huta was part of its assumptions), Workers' Union Avenue. Central Square, the heart of the entire establishment, was renamed Stalin Square.

Central Square, pictured is the author's grandfather, photo taken in the early 1960s.

Also the names of the first settlements were not left to chance: the Wanda estate, named after the legendary princess whose mound is located nearby. According to legend, she was the daughter of Krak, who preferred to commit suicide by throwing herself into the current of the Vistula rather than marry a German prince.

The Krakowiaków and Górali estates are adjacent to the Teatralny estate, which is home to the People's Theater, which opened in 1955 with the premiere of Wojciech Boguslawski's play "Krakowiacy i górale."

the role of architecture

The time of Nowa Huta's existence as an independent city was not long - on January 1, 1951, the area was annexed as one of Kraków's districts. However, it was a crucial time that most influenced the separatist and unique character of the place. Undoubtedly, the architectural form itself weighed on this. Design documents still used the already anachronistic term for the city of Nowa Huta until the mid-1950s.

The new social realist city had a task before it that had not previously been set for urban layout or architecture. It was to formulate a new citizenry committed to socialist realism. The construction of the urban fabric was to determine the behavior, tame and subjugate its inhabitants.

The center takes on the strongest propaganda dimension: designed as a setting for marches and parades, created as a place that could accommodate and unite, and most importantly, subjugate the united mass of workers. The Central Square is located at the southern edge of the overall establishment, with five main thoroughfares emerging from it. The buildings of the center have the highest height, gradually diminishing, reaching the single-story houses of the peripheral settlements, which wreath around the core of the city. The estates surrounding the square have compact buildings, in the form of screen-like sequences - the further away from the center, the more dispersed the buildings become.

Post Square, pictured is the author's grandmother and uncle, photo taken in the early 1960s.

Eclectic patterns, drawn from the most distinguished times for architecture, namely the Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism, are subjected to strong simplification. Undivided symmetry reigns supreme. All housing developments are homogeneous in character, characterized by a uniform standard, which provides a sense of equality for its residents.

paradox of Nowa Huta social realism

On the grounds of the city, whose architecture was designed to become a form of pressure, a strike broke out on April 26, 1988, which, in the opinion of many historians, began the dismantling of communism in Eastern Europe. The development of the Solidarity movement, the construction of the Ark of the Lord church and the Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II - all credit to the people of Nowa Huta building their identity on exactly the opposite values to those that the authorities tried to force upon them.

These events made the architecture of Nowa Huta a witness to history, a difficult and turbulent history. One could say that it not only became a witness, but also a participant in it, giving birth to a sense of patriotism in its residents, including local patriotism, and creating a strong and well-connected community.

View from the window in the apartment of the author's grandparents, Stalowe estate, photo taken in the 1960s.

Due to its difficult past, Nowa Huta had to struggle for many years with the stigma of a difficult heritage, the effects of which are still felt today. The invaluable values of architecture, perceived as an unwanted souvenir of times justly past, were overlooked. To be sure, changes occurred in 2005, when Nowa Huta's architecture and urban layout were entered in the register of monuments, but the changes in the process of awareness of the residents of Krakow, positively influenced, among other things, by the gentrification process that has been going on for the last few years, are an open question, left for new generations.