The Decade of Luxury: The People’s Republic of Poland and Hotels in the 1970s

Notes

• Paweł Sowiński, Wakacje w Polsce Ludowej. Polityka władz i ruch turystyczny (1945–1989) [Vacations in People's Poland. The Government Policy and the Tourist Traffic, 1945–1989] (Warsaw: Trio, Instytut Studiów Politycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2005), pp. 229 and 263. See also: J. Ensztein, Z. Żupańiska, “Analiza stanu urządzeń zakwaterowania w obiektach wczasowych” [The Analysis of the Accommodation Facilities Condition in Vacation Establishments], in Analiza stanu bazy wczasowej w Polsce (na podstawie danych z początku lat osiemdziesiątych [The Analysis of the Condition of Vacation Accommodation in Poland Based on the Data from the Beginning of the 1980s], ed. Jerzy Bogucki (Poznań: Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego w Poznaniu, 1987), p. 52, quoted by Sowiński. These investments were often at odds with a rational policy of regional development of tourist resorts or any ecological standards.
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• On Orbis, see Zenon Błądek, Tadeusz Tulibacki, Dzieje krajowego hotelarstwa od zajazdu do współczesności [The History of the Polish Hotel Industry: From an Inn to the Present] (Warsaw and Poznań Albus, 2003), subsection “System hotelowy ORBIS S.A.” [The Hotel System of the ORBIS S.A.], pp. 168–74.
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• Ibid., p. 171. The authors note that in 1980 Orbis had forty-five hotel establishments, although the statistical tables published elsewhere in the book show that it in fact owned forty-six hotels.
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• Analiza jednostkowych wskaźiników eksploatacyjno-ekonomicznych zakładów hotelowych i gastronomicznych [The Analysis of Unit Exploitation and Economic Indicators in Hotel and Catering Establishments], ed. W. Kwiatkowski (Warsaw: Materiały Zrzeszenia Polskich Hoteli Turystycznych, 1972), p. 13.
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• This problem has been treated in detail by Sowiński, Wakacje w Polsce Ludowej, pp. 173–263.
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• At the beginning of the 1970s, 60 percent of tourists coming to Poland from the West were people of Polish origin living abroad who visited the homeland in order to meet with their relatives. See ibid., p. 243. Inbound and outbound tourism was controlled by Department III in the Ministry of Interior; ibid., p. 177.
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• For architecture related to leisure and tourism, as well as the health resorts' architecture, see Tadeusz Przemysław Szafer, Nowa architektura polska. Diariusz lat 1971–1975 [New Polish Architecture. Diary of the Period 1971–1975] (Warsaw: Arkady, 1979), pp. 289–328 (including bibliography of particular buildings), and idem, Nowa architektura polska. Diariusz lat 1976–1980 [New Polish Architecture. Diary of the Period 1976–1980] (Warsaw: Arkady, 1981), pp. 285–338.
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• Marek Baranowski, “Urządzenia turystyczne w ZSSR“ [Tourist Facilities in the USSR], Architektura, 1970, No. 12: 455–59.
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• See e.g. Architektura, 1970, No. 4/5, an issue entirely devoted to the Tatra Mountains region, reporting on the monumental project for recreational building development in Bukowina Tatrzańska.
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• “Miernik społecznego bogactwa. Rezolucja XI kongresu UIA” [The Measure of Social Wealth: Resolution of the 11th UIA Congress], Architektura, 1973, No. 1: 4–5.
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• K. Stangel, “Konstrukcje szkieletowe w obiektach rekreacji masowej“ [Framed Structures as Applied to Construction of Mass Recreation Buildings], Architektura, 1977, Nos. 9–10: 62–4. In 1977 the journal also published the author's reflections on the construction of “second homes” in Poland.
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• Jacek Nowicki, “Czas wolny“ [Leisure], Projekt [Project], 1973, No. 3: 2–9.
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• Bĺądek, Tulibacki, Dzieje krajowego hotelarstwa, p. 50. The construction was financed by foreign currency credits to be paid back by the hotel using its prospective income.
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• Ibid. The workforce building the Forum Hotel had been quartered in another hotel.
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• See Marta Leśiniakowska, Architektura w Warszawie [Architecture in Warsaw] (Warsaw: “Arkada” Pracownia Historii Sztuki, 2005), p. 109.
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• “Warszawa na światowym szlaku turystycznym. Mówi dyrektor hotelu ‘Orbis—Forum’ Wiesław Wilk” [Warsaw on the Global Tourist Trail. An Interview with Wiesław Wilk, Manager of the Orbis—Forum Hotel], Stolica [The Capital City], 1978, No. 17: 2–3. A full list of the celebrity guests as well as other achievements of the hotel was published in the cited article.
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• Waldemar Śmiałowski, “Za kulisami wielkiego hotelu“ [Behind the Scenes of a Great Hotel], Stolica, 1974, No. 6: 2–3.
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• Ibid.
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• Leśiniakowska, Architektura, p. 70.
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• “Warszawa otrzymuje hotel na najwyższy połysk” [Warsaw is Getting a ‘Top-Notch’ Hotel], Kurier Polski, 1974, No. 125.
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• Waldemar Smialowski, “Hotel ‘Victoria’“ [The “Victoria” Hotel], Stolica, 1976, No. 37: 4–5.
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• M. Tarnowska, “Jeszcze jeden hotel“ [Yet Another Hotel], Hotelarz, 1976, No. 2: 9. See also “Szansa ambitnych” [A Chance of the Ambitious], Hotelarz, 1976, No. 12: 6–10.
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• Błądek, Tulibacki, Dzieje krajowego hotelarstwa, p. 51, 61. The Polonez was the first hotel to have been managed using a computer system, thanks to the laboratory of Electronic Computing Technology, affiliated with Orbis. From the domestic investments the authors singled out especially, among others, the Hevelius hotel in Gdańsk, designed by Szczepan Baum and Adam Matoń, of 1979, which “is a typical example of the basic standards of furnishing and finishing developed at the beginning of the 1970s.” Converse examples were: the construction of the Neptun hotel in Szczecin (designed by T. Ostrowski), which took about 136 months, and the Forum hotel (designed by Janusz Ingarden) in Cracow, which had been under construction from 1975 to 1988.
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• Ibid., p. 52. The Victoria in Warsaw was one of those thirteen hotels, whereas the remaining ones were located in the following places: Zakopane, Olsztyn, Karpacz, Sosnowiec, Poznań, Wrocław, Jelitkowo, Cracow, Gdańsk, Kołobrzeg, Szczecin.
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• Ibid., pp. 52–53, 60.
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• Ibid., p. 56. The suspension of the construction was the result of resolution no. 133 of the Council of Ministers, of January 17, 1980.
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• Jerzy Skrzypczak, “Na zachód od PKiN” [To the West of the Palace of Culture and Science], Stolica, 1974, No. 18: 5, 12–13.
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• In 1976, 10 million Poles traveled to the Communist countries, whereas only 401,000 passports were issued for travel to the West. See Sowiński, Wakacje w Polsce Ludowej, p. 242.
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• Jean Baudrillard, The Procession of Simulacra, quoted after Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations: I. The Procession of Simulacra, translated by Sheila Faria Glaser (http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/simulacra-and-simulations-i-the-precession-of-simulacra; accessed December 25, 2009).
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• See, for example, Larry Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe. The Map of Civilization on the Mind of Enlightenment (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994).
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• Śmiałowski, “Za kulisami wielkiego hotelu.” In his description of the Victoria hotel, Śmiałowski additionally informed the reader that it was intended for foreign guests “who of course, to a certain extent, will vacate places in other Warsaw hotels for domestic visitors”; see Śmiałowski, “Hotel ‘Victoria’.” In 1971 Poland had been visited by almost 2 million tourists, whereas in 1978 by about 10 million. The number of tourists from capitalist countries reached 300,000 in 1971; in 1979 the figure was 1 million. See Sowiński, Wakacje w Polsce Ludowej, p. 243.
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• Alexander Kiossev, “Notes on Self-Colonizing Cultures,” in After the Wall. Art and Culture in Post-Communist Europe, eds. Bojana Pejić and David Elliott, exhibition catalog (Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1999), p. 114.
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• Ibid., p. 115.
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• Ibid. On postcolonial studies with regard to the art history of Central Europe, see Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, “Unworlding Slaka, or Does Eastern (Central) European Art Exist?,” in Local Strategies, International Ambitions. Modern Art and Central Europe 1918–1968, ed. Vojtěch Lahoda (Prague: Artefactum, 2006), pp. 29–40.
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• Architektura, 1978, No. 3–4, back cover.
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• “ ‘Victoria’ z placu Zwycięstwa” [The “Victoria” of Victoria Square], Polska, 1975, No. 9: 40. Notable are also the names of the hotel's eating and entertainment establishments: the Canaletto Restaurant, Hetman's Tavern, Boryna's Inn, the Opera Cafe, and the Black Cat nightclub.
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• Błądek, Tulibacki, Dzieje krajowego hotelarstwa, p. 56.
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• Ibid. In 1970 the Peasants' Self-Help Cooperative owned seventy hotels, whereas in 1980 it had already 168 hotels.
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• Ibid., p. 153. According to 1976 estimates, 683,000 people were to benefit from all kinds of services provided by the fund in that year. See Okrasa, “FWP w sezonie 1976 r.” [The Employees' Vacations Fund in the Season of 1976], Hotelarz VII—VIII, 1976, No. 7/8: 25.
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• Quoted after Dariusz Jarosz, “Masy pracujące przede wszystkim.” Organizacja wypoczynku w Polsce 1945–1956 [”The Working Masses Above All. “The Organization of Vacations in Poland 1945–1956] (Warsaw—Kielce: Instytut Historii PAN, 2003), pp. 21–2. The international exchange concerned the Eastern bloc countries.
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• Ibid. On the history of the FWP, see Chapter 1: “Fundusz Wczasów Pracowniczych w latach 1945–1956“ [The Employees' Vacations Fund in the Years 1945–1956], pp. 20–86. On the connections between vacations and ideology, see Sowiński, Wakacje w Polsce Ludowej, pp. 210–20.
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• See Table 8: “Detailed Categorization Requirements for Vacation Homes and Establishments Owned by the FWP,” in Romuald Okrasa, Organizacja, finansowanie i formy wczasów pracowniczych [The Organization, Funding, and Forms of Employees' Vacations], (Warsaw: Instytut Wydawniczy Związków Zawodowych, 1988), pp. 50–53.
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• Okrasa, “FWP w sezonie 1976 r.” For the following quotations, see ibid., pp. 26–28.
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• Ibid., p. 28. See also a full list of specialist vacation programs, including, for example, the vacations for philatelists and tennis players, in Table 10: “The Participants in Specialist Vacations Organized by the FWP in the Years 1974–1984,” in Okrasa, Organizacja, finansowanie i formy, pp. 86–87.
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• Okrasa, “FWP w sezonie 1976 r.,” pp. 24–25.
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• Ibid., p. 28.
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• In the 1970s the FWP no longer was the sole organizer of such vacations and did not develop as dynamically as it had done in previous decades. Its services were gradually being replaced by vacations organized independently by individual companies for their employees. See Sowiński, Wakacje w Polsce Ludowej, p. 182, and Romuald Okrasa, Wczasy pracownicze. System organizacyjny [Employees' Vacations. Organizational System] (Warsaw, 1979).
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• Szafer, Nowa architektura polska. Diariusz lat 1971–1975, p. 315.
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• See Jeremy Howard and Andrzej Szczerski, “Ships in the Night along the Coasts of Bohemia? Modern Design Aesthetics and the Turn of the Liner,” in Local Strategies, International Ambitions, pp. 111–23.
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• Szafer, Nowa architektura polska. Diariusz lat 1971–1975, p. 313. The pyramids, each with 200 places, became the symbol of the town and feature in its emblem. According to information on the official Internet site of Ustroń (www.ustron.pl), the last of the sixteen pyramids was completed as recently as 1990. See also: Irma Kozina, “Obok tyskiego eksperymentu” [By the Tychy Experiment], in Sztuka Górnego Śląska od średniowiecza do końca XX wieku [The Art of Upper Silesia from the Middle Ages to the End of the Twentieth Century], ed. Ewa Chojecka (Katowice: Muzeum Śląskie, 2004), pp. 464–66.
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• Ibid. Szafer asserts that the building broke with the old models of vacation establishments and that the hotel was characterized by “the volume corresponding with function, the rational terrain configuration, and the unified spatial and architectural solutions,” as well as an equally high standard for all inhabitants. On the consequences of the wasteful tourism industry in Szczyrk, see Wojciech Błasiak, Marek St. Szczepański, and Jacek Wódz, Szczyrk—miasto w sytuacji inwazji turystycznej [Szczyrk—A Town in the Situation of Tourist Invasion] (Katowice, 1990).
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• See Kazimierz Foltyn, Na Pogórzu Beskidu Małego. Przewodnik po gminie Porąbka [At the Foothills of the Beskid Mały Mountains. A Guide to the Porąbka District] (Porąbka, 2001), pp. 68–69, and Bogdan Wasztyl, “Jaka piękna ruina …” [What a Beautiful Ruin …], Dziennik Polski (Magazyn “Piątek”), 2006, No. 94: 24.
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• Mikhail M. Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, translated by Hélène Iswolsky (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993). See also: Teoria karnawalizacji. Konteksty i interpretacje [The Theory of Carnivalization: Contexts and Interpretations], eds. Andrzej Stoff and Anna Skubaczewska-Pniewska (Toruń: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2000).
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• On the alleged power wielded by the “working class” in real socialism, as well as on their “working-class” dreams about the West and its material attributes, see Marcin Kula, “Biedny Marks. Pośmiertne losy idei” [Poor Marx. The Posthumous Fate of an Idea], Europa 2007, No. 9: 12–13.
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• Tomasz Gryglewicz, “Płeć i grafika. Tematyka erotyczna w twórczości Alfreda Kubina w kontekście niemieckiej i austriackiej grafiki przełomu XIX i XX wieku” [The Sex and the Graphic Arts. Erotic Themes in the Work of Alfred Kubin Against the Background of German and Austrian Graphic Art at the Turn of the Twentieth Century], in Sztuka a erotyka. Materiały z sesji Stowarzyszenia Historyków Sztuki, Łódź, listopad 1994 [Art and Eroticism. Proceedings of the Association of Art Historians' Conference, Łódź, November 1994] (Warsaw, 1995), p. 294. On the grotesque, see: idem, Groteska w sztuce polskiej [The Grotesque in Polish Art] (Cracow, 1984).
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• On such understanding of the grotesque, see: Wolfgang Kayser, Das Groteske. Seine Gestaltung in Malerei und Dichtung (Hamburg, 1957), pp. 278–9. [English translation: The Grotesque in Art and Literature, translated by Ulrich Weisstein (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957).] Quotation after Gryglewicz, “Płeć i grafika,” p. 296.
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• Slavoj Žižek, The Plague of Fantasies (London and New York: Verso, 1997), pp. 3–4.
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• Ibid., p. 18.
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• Ibid., p. 21 (original emphasis).
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• Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, translated by Ken Knabb (London: Rebel Press, 2004), p. 7, 12.
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• Ibid., p. 29 (original emphasis).
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