Rzeczywiście, życie jest dobre

I had a very interesting and enlightening conversation last week with a woman whose family tells a story of 20th century Polish history and some of the modern complexities of Polish politics. We were having lunch and exploring each other’s backgrounds, as I’ve had the opportunity to do with a number of folks I’ve met here.

Imni is in her early 40s, born in the late 1970s in Bydgoszcz. I’ll share some of her family history, including a couple of memorable anecdotes. They inform some of the political viewpoints she shared that we touched on in our chat.

First, though, a quick summary of Poland in the 20th century. After the “three partitions” of Poland in the 1790s, there was no Poland. The region was divided among Prussia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia. So throughout the 1800s, those who lived in this area were part of one of those three empires, with various (and sometimes brutal) drives to eradicate the Polish culture and language.

Poland partitioned to Prussia, Austria, Russia

At the end of World War I, Prussia and Austro-Hungary ceased to exist. Leaders from Britain, France, Italy, and the US created a new Poland that encompassed much of what had been Poland at various times over the prior centuries as part of the Paris negotiations that led to the Treaty of Versailles. Some citizens of the new Poland had ancestors who were Polish, others had ancestors from various other nations ... the ruling sovereignty over lots of what is now Poland changed a lot over the centuries.

Map of the Second Polish Republic showing borders from 1921-1939

During what’s referred to as the “interwar period,” Poland was an independent nation. I have a new appreciation for what that meant, living here and talking to folks … The country had ceased to exist as a political entity 123 years before, so after WWI, “Poland’ had to be created from scratch. The 1920s and 1930s were a time of a lot of change – everything from running local schools to forming a national government had to be figured out.

Then came the German invasion in 1939 and the long, tragic occupation and attempt to eradicate the Polish people. At the end of World War II, Poland was again an independent nation, but not for long, as it quickly became part of the communist bloc.

Europe during the Cold War (NATO, non-aligned, Soviet)

( For anyone who's interested in more about how Poland's borders changed over centuries, there are lots of great resources online. This video animates the map starting in 966 ... or start with the 1790s partitions here. )

Imni’s family on her father’s side were of Polish heritage, from the Prussian region. Her grandfather was an officer in the Polish army, still serving after World War II. Her mother’s family was from the northeastern area of the country.

Her parents met and married in Bydgoszcz. Her father was a medical administrator and her mom, a teacher.

She shared two stories of her life that stood out. Interestingly, neither was told in a way to make a point … we were just sharing tidbits of our backgrounds, and talking a bit about the Polish politics (which brought out these stories) … but her telling was just relating interesting vignettes from her life.

The first came up as we were talking about the differences between Poland now and the country in the communist era. We’ve heard and read quite a bit about the uprisings in Eastern Europe during the 1950s and 1960s, the rise of Solidarity, and the disintegration of the Soviet Union … but Imni’s description painted a much more personal picture.

She grew up in the 1980s in Bydgoszcz, living with her parents in what sounded like a fairly typical family setting. She described how “everything was rationed” – coffee, sugar, meat, etc. To shop, her parents would send her at 6:30 in the morning to stand in queue at the market. She described her memory of waking early, going out in the dark, getting in line, and then having older women cut in front of her, pushing her aside … so sometimes when her mother came later (around 8:30 or so) to take her place waiting so she could go to school, she might have moved from being 7th in line to being 20th.

She described how little there was in the stores – they seldom had meat or fish, and often at the school’s canteen (lunchroom), the main dish of the meal was a thick mushroom cut to look like it was meat.

As she was telling about this, she mentioned how her father had gone to Denmark twice on business, and the second time, he came back with Danish candy wrapped in colorful paper. She remembered savoring the small piece of candy for more than a week and keeping the wrapper, because there were so few things that had vibrant colors.

This transitioned to the second of her memorable stories.

Shortly after her dad returned from the second business trip, he was arrested. The authorities accused him of collaborating with the West and sentenced him to prison. She said that her grandfather was serving in the army and was able to get her dad committed to a mental hospital instead of being sent to a prison. Her memory, though, was as a young girl going with her mom to visit her dad in the hospital, where “there were such strange people.” It wasn’t until years later that she learned what had happened.

The authorities also came to her family’s apartment and ransacked it. She described how scary it was – they opened all the drawers, threw everything on the floor, and when they found her candy wrapper, she was afraid something awful was going to happen to her.

I asked her how they managed without her dad’s income (a somewhat personal question, but her telling of the story really had me enthralled) … She said that they had to turn to the church for charity so they could stay in their apartment. People also helped with extra rations. She mentioned in passing that the communists gave out ration cards for cigarettes and alcohol, so “if you were fortunate enough not to have an addiction,” you could trade your ration cards for food.

This all happened in 1987/1988 … so fortunately, the collapse of the communist rule in 1989 resulted in her dad being freed from the hospital.

She went on to talk about the changes in 1989 … not only her dad’s return home, but she said that it seemed that overnight, shelves in the markets were full of food and products that she couldn’t have imagined.

Remember … this was a conversation with just a regular person like you or I … but what an incredibly different history her family has lived:

• She grew up under communist rule then a freed, democratic Poland

• Her parents grew up in post-WWII Poland, a nation scorched by war and German occupation

• Her grandparents lived in interwar Poland, with hope of a bright future for the new, independent nation

• Their parents (and a few generations before) were Poles living in Prussian and Russian nations, not knowing whether their Polish heritage and language would survive

• Her daughter? She’s a typical young teen, living a modern, middle-class life in a western democracy – cell phone, friends, homework, stability.

Our conversation continued, talking about some of the current politics in Poland and eastern Europe – in particular, about the relationship with the EU. She expressed a view held by many that Poland should be allowed to govern itself – it’s not “under” the EU. Thinking about that history I just related gives me a more visceral understanding of the ferocity of the protection of Polish independence. Imni’s daughter is living in a free, democratic, stable Poland … but that wasn’t the case for Imni, her parents, or grandparents. Being oppressed by a foreign rule isn’t something in the history books for her family – it’s life experience.

The last topic I’ll mention from this amazing conversation has to do with the place of the Catholic church. She only touched on the topic for a moment, again as we were talking about current events in Poland and controversies around the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. What she pointed out was that throughout all of that history, the one constant was the church. She wasn’t defending the church’s stand or position at all – just pointing out a fact.

As may be evident from the length of this blog, the conversation was deeply moving for me. Here I was, sitting across the table (over a wonderful bowl of hot żurek soup on a very cold day, by the way!) with a bright, interesting, professional woman of the 20th century … hearing anecdotes of her as a girl waiting for hours in a line to spend ration cards to buy a few simple items of food … seeing her father taken away by authorities … and knowing color from a foreign candy wrapper … but now raising a teen with a cell phone and ATM card. I’d love to talk with Imni’s mom, to compare the worries she had when Imni was a teen with those that I faced as a mom and Imni faces now.

Rzeczywiście, życie jest dobre! (Indeed, life is good!)