A whole nation builds its capital – a walk about Warsaw socialist realism

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was said to have said at the sight of the Palace of Culture "small but tasteful." A debatable statement considering that the edifice is more than 230 meters high, has more than 12 hectares of floor space, and 40 million bricks and 28,000 square meters of marble were used in its construction. To this day, "Stalin's gift" towers over Warsaw, and in the postwar years, surrounded by the bare walls of ruined tenements, it made a downright electrifying impression. The architecture of Socialist Realism is criticized for being oversized and obtrusive ornamentation in service of the "only-right" idea. On the other hand, today buildings from the early 1950s are one of Warsaw's biggest tourist attractions. Therefore, we will consider to what extent Socialist Realism has stood the test of time. We will look at the sculptures of the builders of People's Poland - "miners, steelworkers, peasants and creative intelligentsia", who together built a new, "better world". Of course, a "better world" from the perspective of socialist propaganda, although the enthusiasm of Warsaw residents for the emerging MDM housing estates was not always feigned.