To be fair, the Nazis had done a very complete job of demolishing the old buildings before the Soviets made the gift of this building to the Poles. ("Gift", in the sense of forcing the Poles to build it with their own efforts and resources).

With respect to the photo, I was actually in a crowd when I took it. I had just ascended from a pedestrian subway, and I saw the lady selling flowers, and thought that a picture of her selling flowers with the Palace of Culture in the background would work. However, as I was rushed by the crowd, I got a picture of her moving that I did not expect and the hipster guy in the T-shirt appeared in the photo entirely unintentionally.

My first trip to Warsaw was in 1992, and I rather felt the oppressiveness of the building then. You couldn’t (and can’t) quite miss the fact that it is an extraordinary building. Oddly enough, every time I have been to Warsaw since, I have liked it more than the previous time. A big part of this is that it is now part of a bustling, modern, capitalist city. Warsaw seems unthinkable without it though. I think the Poles have warmed to it in much the same way.

As for what goes on inside it, it is still a Palace of Culture, in that it is full of theatres, cinemas, and what Polish music lovers tell me is an excellent concert hall. Warsaw is a city that has named its main airport after a composer (Chopin), so Poles care about this kind of thing. Weirdly, though, I have a memory of the bottom of it containing quite a nice department store in 1992. Apparently, having thrown the communists out, they initially at least partly threw the “culture” out and some capitalists in, before letting culture back in later.

For “what is going on in it”, I would also add this. One suspects that the play “Młody Stalin” (Young Stalin) is not, in fact, all that complimentary to Stalin, and not the sort of thing that Stalin would have approved to have had playing there. If was somewhat refreshing to see, given that I had spent the previous day in Stalin’s birthplace of Gori in Georgia, and the museum there actually does present Stalin from a hagiographic point of view.

Hats off to Michael Jennings for sharing these awesome pics with us and thanks a bunch to Brian for publishing here in this post. I would love to visit Warsaw if my schedule would allow me in my next visit to EU countries. One of my old fellow living over there has always been inviting me to accompany her. Yes, of course, after reading this info-rich post, I will think about it.

The notice board in red gives clear warnings. The lady selling the flowers on the street is what i like the most because it shows that still there are people who do hardship for their living.

I have polish heritage so these pictures really resonated with me. I’ve never been outside of the United States but I plan to travel one day and would love to see Warsaw. So much history, sadness and beauty in one area. Thanks for the pictures!