even mentioning profitability, was something that could always be discussed later. As it was later coined by some economic historians, gigantic economic elephants” such “white as the largest steelworks in Europe in Katowice (Huta [Picture 3] were Katowice) constructed for the sake of demonstrating the gesture” of the new team and “grand winning a degree of prestige both at home and abroad. In addition to the quantitative growth in all sectors of the national economy and the expansion of the welfare state, there were numerous qualitative changes that took place in the 1970s. A vast majority of them was associated either with the purchases of Western production licenses or, to a lesser degree, with direct import of Western goods. An entire list of previously unavailable consumer products of the 1970s would be long and quite impressive, but it suffices to mention that they varied from civilizational breakthroughs in motorization and multimedia (colored TVs and telephones) to symbolic brand names such as Coca-Cola or Wrangler’s blue jeans, from subjects of everyday utility such as refrigerators to the potentially revolutionary tape-recorders. Mass motorization was perhaps the most ambitious task by means of which the authorities sought to offer Poles an opportunity to imitate the Western lifestyle. A widely publicized contract with the Italian Fiat was signed and the first Polish-designed (dubbed Fiat 126p or the tiny one) left the assembly lines of the Bielsko-Biala plant on 22 July, maluch 1973. Even though numerous jokes that ridiculed the small size of the vehicle circulated around, it was in fact the Polish equivalent of the that had finally motorized Volkswagen the masses. In 1970, there were around 400,000 cars on the Polish roads while in 1980 this number was equal to approximately 2,400,000 a six-fold increase. New, larger – versions of Fiat followed soon and a luxury sedan was first introduced in 1978. Polonez
even mentioning profitability, was something that could always be discussed later. As it was later coined by some economic historians, gigantic economic “white elephants” such as the largest steelworks in Europe in Katowice (Huta Katowice) [Picture 3] were constructed for the sake of demonstrating the “grand gesture” of the new team and winning a degree of prestige both at home and abroad. In addition to the quantitative growth in all sectors of the national economy and the expansion of the welfare state, there were numerous qualitative changes that took place in the 1970s. A vast majority of them was associated either with the purchases of Western production licenses or, to a lesser degree, with direct import of Western goods. An entire list of previously unavailable consumer products of the 1970s would be long and quite impressive, but it suffices to mention that they varied from civilizational breakthroughs in motorization and multimedia (colored TVs and telephones) to symbolic brand names such as Coca-Cola or Wrangler’s blue jeans, from subjects of everyday utility such as refrigerators to the potentially revolutionary tape-recorders. Mass motorization was perhaps the most ambitious task by means of which the authorities sought to offer Poles an opportunity to imitate the Western lifestyle. A widely publicized contract with the Italian Fiat was signed and the first Polish-designed Fiat 126p (dubbed maluch or the tiny one) left the assembly lines of the Bielsko-Biala plant on 22 July, 1973. Even though numerous jokes that ridiculed the small size of the vehicle circulated around, it was in fact the Polish equivalent of the Volkswagen that had finally motorized the masses. In 1970, there were around 400,000 cars on the Polish roads while in 1980 this number was equal to approximately 2,400,000 – a six-fold increase. New, larger versions of Fiat followed soon and a luxury sedan Polonez was first introduced in 1978.
undergraduate_thesis_tomasz_blusiewicz.docx