17 | Subversive Utopia: the use of propagandistic cinema in people's republic

"Kierunek Nowa Huta; Destination Nowa Huta" is much more associated with its role in the era of its production rather than the artistry and mastery of its director Andrzej Munk.
The movie was made in 1951, during the post war communism dominated Poland. It is a documentary which functions as the narrative of constructing a supposed to be; satellite town on rural lands of east Krakow, a mere propaganda heavily influenced (if not dictated) by the soviet ideology. Elements of socialist realism school of art are visible throughout the feature. "Nowa Huta", meaning "the new steel works", would be the name of the under construction town strongly associated with its neighboring steel factory.
 

Nowa Huta's three large industries made it strictly an industrial town which inhabitants' survival was largely dependent on the industries. Those included Vilademir Lenin steel works (which later became the largest of its kind in entire Poland), the largest Polish Tobacco factory and a huge cement factory. These amenities made this factory town one of the largest of its kind in his era. The location of over scaled factories as the fuel in city's engine of development was quite controversial though. The raw material needed for the factory had to be imported from far areas such as Silesia and Soviet Union, which made the locational choice of this infrastructural investment yet more of an ideological nature. We can track down the origins of this project in post WWII events. That is when the soviets encounter substantial resistance to their newly set government from middle class Cracovians. This is manifested in the results of the referendum held by the authorities that resulted in their severe defeat. Thus in order to gain legitimacy and "correct the class imbalance" (Karnasiewicz, 2003), the authorities started to build this industrial satellite town (which later becomes a district of Krakow) in order to attract people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to the area. 

Certainly such an ideological project required public attention in order to be implemented, inhabited and sustained by people. "Destination Nowa Huta" is definitely an attempt to fulfill this exigency to its best. 



In the beginning of the feature we are told about the previous state of the district, a shrinking village of crumbling shacks, where many residents leave their home village to look for work in foreign and better off countries. Showing a scene in which the kids are feeding the chickens and playing with the straw, the narrator with a deterministic tone, tells us: "(in the village) childhood joys were alien to its children." Later on the movie unfolds to a scene where new buildings are being constructed on the former village, that is where "Nowa Huta" is being built, we see a scene in which kids at the threshold of their puberty, are doing group morning exercises, stretching their hands to the sky, having smiles on their faces, getting ready for construction works, they seem happy, they seem free. 
As a typical characteristic of a propaganda feature; the main intention of carrying out such a massive project is shrewdly concealed in the movie, i.e. deliberately populating it with working class masses, making it function as a counter force to Krakow middle class intelligentsia who were continuously opposing the system. The steel factory of the "Nowa Huta" would hire many of the future inhabitants, guaranteeing them job and shelter. At the same time, the production and the surplus would feed not only the polish industry but they would go beyond the borders of Poland yet inside the Soviet Union ones. 
Even though the district eventually was populated with two hundred thousand inhabitants, but it seemed that the authorities never saw the fruits of the seeds they sowed. Following the subversive actions of the inhabitants, later the district got renown as "anti-communist district". It even contributed significantly to the overthrown of communism. Becoming renown as the anti-communist quarter in 70's and 80's, it was the locus of many antigovernment clashes. The motivations varied from the demand for constructing a parish to more generic civil rights.
 

However the plan was not executed completely and accordingly. We can witness a shift in architecture and design of the district; this is a direct consequence of a greater shift in art trend in so called "people's republic" countries. In 1949 main guidelines of a unique school of thought in arts and especially in architecture was introduced by National Council of party Architects, which became the foundations of "socialist realism" doctrine. The main idea was to lead citizens form a new type of consciousness and outlook on life, thus the architect became not only a mere engineer of constructions, but "an engineer of the human soul" [1]. Until 1956, the general architectural form of the district could be identified as Renaissance as it was the most honored and frequent polish architectural style, which was later blended with socialist realism doctrine and developed a general classicist form in the district. However following the political liberalization of Poland in October 1956, it became possible to introduce modernist style in architecture. This was followed by post-modernist influences from 70's onwards.
The current district plan manifests different legacies. This is due to initial plans as well as modifications that occurred through the drastic changes mentioned above. The city plan is based on a half of a classical Renaissance city, a concrete radial structure. The city lay out is based on Anglo-Saxon concept of "district units", with infrastructures such as Catering, schools, kindergartens and shops. The units are closed quarters with the gates leading within, the spaces between blocks is filled with greenery. Nowa Huta was built looking at the garden city model; greenery was planted simultaneously with the construction of the district. It is still the greenest district in Krakow. Low, detached buildings that stand among lush greenery is another type of housing that we can find in the district. They were constructed when the entire plan was not approved yet.
The communist government was really ambitious about this district and enjoyed a determination in implementation of his ideology. The best evidence to this was the project's principal designer statement; Tadeusz Ptaszycki, described Nowa Huta as "a town of significant transformations of people and citizens in new conditions of urban planning and architecture, of new economic and social processes" (Ptaszycki, 1959). The most striking element of Nowa Huta, its old square, is orderly arranged, compact and harmonious, transferring the impressions of the designers' vision. Old Square, the "supposed to be" heart of the district is another witness to the ideological planning of this project; the square was intended to become the city core, the center of political life with the crucial political, administrative establishments, a place that determined the architectural and political view of the city. According to Dr. Lothar Bolz, the theoretician of socialist realism; "The center is the core forming the city. It is the center of political life of the people (...) Demonstrations and marches are held in such squares as well as celebrations and people's festivals on holidays. (...). The measure of the center's magnitude is not a passenger rushing through the city in a modern car but a pedestrian, a political demonstrator and the pace of his march. (Bolz, 1952)" 



The movie is broadly divided into two parts, while the first part focuses on the background and the executive aspects of the undergoing project; the second part focuses more on the leisure and general well-being that such a project brings about for its constructors.
In this feature, Andrezj Munk, the director, seems to stall between a personal view of reality and a top down one dictated by the socialist system. The scene of the trumpeter guy on top of the tower situated in main square of Krakow could be a contribution of his own personal view. The legend behind the man playing Hejnal Mariacki (which is still played every our in Krakow, and is very much associated with the city's culture) says that, once upon a time there was a horde of tartars approaching the city, so the player blew in his trumpet thus people got to know about the aggression and closed the gates of the city. Doesn't this scene in socio-historic context of the movie try to tell us something? Could the trumpeter being warning us of a new aggression, this time by an ideology?
However the heroic style of filming and editing of the movie is something that could not upset the authorities. An omnipresent low angle camera with sky backgrounds makes each individual a hero! Be it a man, a woman or a child. The ending of the film in which people and cars are going toward "Nowa Huta", with an aurora light shed on the road, it seems that they are going toward the source of light, toward the source of energy and life. The narrator reads: "Destination Nowa Huta!"

In time of production of "Kierunek-Nowa Huta" definitely propagandistic cinema could function as a fierce tool, to promote a project as well as creating consensus among people beforehand. This was thanks to the monopoly of TV and cinematic production instruments by the authorities. The nature of this kind of cinema was prevalently authoritative and was commissioned by official agencies. Referring to this kind of urban planning cinema nowadays is less relevant. Upon the advent of information age, ever increasing use of internet and independent broadcasting video streaming websites, and presence of private TV channels, the power of propagandistic cinema is considerably reduced as we consider the propagandistic cinema of those days a monologue that was dictated to people, in todays circumstances this cinema could hardly work so, it's more probable that planning cinema today creates a dialogue rather than a monologue. Thus remembering this kind of obsolete artifact, is reviewing the history of planning, cinema and political power, a kind of cinema that has noticeably lost its influence and propagandistic function. And by doing so, we can revise this tool and implement it not in a propagandistic but still very effective manner.

[1]  A term used by Stalin and later adopted and developed to the idea of socialist realism. 

References
Bolz L., The basic principles of city planning, 1952, Telepulestudomanyi Kozlemenyek (Journal of Urbanism) n.1, pp. 115-134
Karnasiewicz J. A. et al., Nowa Huta: Okruchy życia I Meandry Historii (The Crumbs of Life and the Meandering of History), 2003, Wydawn. Tow. Słowaków w Polsce, Kraków
Lebow K., Unfinished utopia. Nowa Huta, Stalinism, and Polish society, 1949-56, 2013, Ithaca - Cornell University Press
Ptaszycki T, '10 lat Nowej Huty' (10 years of Nowa Huta), 1959, Miasto n.7


Arman Fadaei
PhD Candidate Urban Planning, Design, and Policy
DASTU - Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano
E-mail: arman.fadaei@gmail.com