History of Warsaw - Modern Times

Modern Times

In 1945, after the bombing, the revolts, the fighting, and the demolition had ended, most of Warsaw lay in ruins. Next to the remnants of Gothic architecture the ruins of splendid edifices from the time of Congress Poland and ferroconcrete relics of prewar building jutted out of the rubble.

On 17 January 1945, the Soviet troops entered the right part of Warsaw and on 1 February 1945 proclaimed the People’s Republic of Poland (de facto proclamation had taken place in Lublin, on 22 July 1945). At once, there was established the Bureau of Capital’s Rebuilding. Unfortunately, the architects working in the Bureau, blinded by the ideas of functionalism and supported by a Communist regime set up by the conquering Soviets, decided that Warsaw had to be renewed in modern style, with large free areas – so, they ordered to demolish still existing buildings or those which yet could be rebuilt. But not all of those crazy ideas came off – in 1953, the Old Town and the Royal Route were reconstructed, in such a form like they had looked like before the war (what was possible mainly thanks to numerous pictures of the old Warsaw, painted for example by Canaletto). On the other hand, due to the lack of the “original” residents, the houses were settled by “common people” which often did not know how to behave themselves or how to keep the houses properly. But the government did not make the decision about complicated and expensive rebuilding of the Royal Castle.

The rebuilding of the Old Town was an achievement on a global scale. In 1980, UNESCO appreciated the efforts and inscribed Old Town onto UNESCO's World Heritage list.

The symbols of the new Warsaw were: the East-West Route Tunnel ("Trasa W-Z") – the tunnel under the Old Town (1949); the MDM estate (1952) – typical example of the architecture of socialist realism; Palace of Culture and Science (PKiN, 1955) – the symbol of Soviet rule, in that time the second tallest building in Europe, very similar to so-called "Seven Sisters" in Moscow; the 10th-Anniversary Stadium (1955). Especially the construction of the MDM estate and PKiN demanded to demolish the existing buildings. But it must be emphasized that the today’s Warsaw has one of the best street nets in Europe (leaving aside a bad condition of the roads and badly planned crossroads) – what was possible only thanks to the earlier demolition of houses.

In 1951, Warsaw was significantly enlarged again to address the housing shortage: from 118 square kilometres (46 sq mi) to 411 square kilometres (159 sq mi). In 1957, the town Rembertów was incorporated. On the incorporated areas, the city’s government ordered the building of mainly large prefabricated housing projects, typical for Eastern Bloc cities.

The Soviet presence, symbolized by the Palace of Culture and Science, turned out to be very acute. The Stalinism lasted in Poland until 1956 – like in USSR. The leader (First Secretary) of the Polish Communist party, (PZPR), Bolesław Bierut, suddenly died in Moscow during the 20th Congress of CPSU in March – probably from a hearth attack. Already in October, the new First Secretary, Władysław Gomułka, in a speech during a rally on the square in front of the PKiN supported the regime liberalization (so-called "thaw"). At first, Gomułka was very popular, because he also had been imprisoned in Stalinist prisons and as he had taken up the office of PZPR’s leader, he promised a lot – but the popularity passed pretty fast. Gomułka was gradually tightening the regime. In January 1968, he forbade to put on Dziady – the classical drama by Mickiewicz, full of anti-Russian allusions. That was "the last drop of bitterness": then students went out on the Warsaw streets and gathered by the monument to Mickiewicz to protest against censorship. The demonstrations spread throughout all the country, the protesting people were arrested by police. This time, the students were not supported by workers – but two years later, when in December 1970 the army fired at the protesting people in Gdańsk, Gdynia and Szczecin, those two social groups already cooperated with each other – and that was the end of Gomułka.

The successor of Gomułka was Edward Gierek. Comparing to the grey Gomułka-time, Gierek's rules looked pretty well – also for Warsaw. Already on the beginning Gierek agreed to rebuild the Royal Castle. Gomułka till the end of his life was against this idea for he was convinced that the Castle is a symbol of the bourgeoisie and feudalism. The rebuilding started in 1971, finished in 1974. In the same year, the building of Trasa Łazienkowska (Łazienkowska Route) was completed – the route and bridge connecting the region of Warszawa Zachodnia Station and the Grochów estate; the broad street on the right bank (Praga) has been named Aleja Stanów Zjednoczonych (The United States Avenue). The next important investments from the Gierek-times are: the Warszawa Centralna Station (1975 – nowadays the biggest station in Warsaw) and the broad, dual carriageway Warsaw-Katowice, which even now is called "Gierkówka" (in a choice of the destination point, pretty significant was the fact that Gierek himself was born in Silesia – in Sosnowiec). But the prosperity of the Gierek-times was grounded on a very fragile foundation: Gierek took out lot of loans from abroad and did not know how to manage them efficiently, hence from time to time crises and workers' riots kept recurring. The first more serious was in 1976, when the workers from Radom and Ursus were striking; that latter city bordered on Warsaw from west, there has been a big tractor factory. As a penalty, Ursus was incorporated into Warsaw as a part of the district Ochota; Warsaw expanded by 10 square kilometres (3.9 sq mi).

In the crisis of the 1980s and hard time of martial law, John Paul II's visits to his native country in 1979 and 1983 brought support to the budding Solidarity movement and encouraged the growing anti-communist fervor there. In 1979, less than a year after becoming pope, John Paul celebrated Mass in Victory Square in Warsaw and ended his sermon with a call to "renew the face" of Poland: Let Thy Spirit descend! Let Thy Spirit descend and renew the face of the land! This land! These words were very meaningful for the Polish citizens who understood them as the incentive for the democratic changes.

From February to April 1989, the representatives of the Polish government and "Solidarity" were carried on the negotiations at the Round Table in the Namiestnikowski Palace in Warsaw. The result was an agreement of the government to the participation of "Solidarity" in the Sejm elections, which were appointed at 4 June. "Solidarity" won all seats for which it could compete according to the Round Table Agreement. It was the beginning of big changes for all Europe.

After the political transformation, the Sejm passed an act, which reinstated the Warsaw city government (18 May 1990).

In 1995, the Warsaw Metro opened. It had been built since 1983. With the entry of Poland into the European Union in 2004, Warsaw is currently experiencing the biggest economic boom of its history. An important stimulator of the economy is the European football championship, planned in Poland and Ukraine in 2012. 5 matches, including the opening match, are scheduled to take place in Warsaw.