Maria Pasztor

A monograph on the social history of meat in Poland under the Communist regime (1945–1989). Based on an extensive archival research, which included the records of state institutions and the Communist party, the authors trace back the social and economic aspects of the production and circulation of meat in this period. They analyze, among other things, the problem political interventions into the meat economy in post-war Poland; abuses in meat trade, subjected to severe punishments including death; or the role of meat in the everyday life of Polish families. The dissatisfaction with shortages of meat products emerges as an immanent feature of Polish everyday life until 1989, often resulting in social unrest and becoming a popular theme of rumors and political jokes.

This book seeks to identify the most important problems in post-World War II Polish-Italian relations. The fundamental reflections come in two parts, in chronological-problematic order, from 1945 to 1958 and 1959 to 1989. The key points are: Poland and the main problems of Italian foreign policy; Italian attitude to the main problems of Polish foreign policy; the effects of cultural exchange; the functioning of cultural institutions; cooperation in pure and applied sciences, and higher education; foreign trade and economic cooperation. The key significance to the problems analysed in the book are documentary collections in the Modern Record Archive, Foreign Ministry Archive in Warsaw, the Historical Archive of the Italian Foreign Ministry, the Central State Archive in Rome.

This monograph is a summary of research in twentieth-century Polish-French relations conducted by the authors over the course of many years. This relationship is shown against the background of the dynamic international situation. The structure for arguments made in this work consists of events from the years 1944 to 1989 and thus covers the period in which communists took power in Poland and stabilized and solidified their rule over the country. In addition to sections devoted to political relations, this work contains detailed discussion of economic issues as well as of cultural, academic, scientific and educational questions. The authors devoted individual chapters to relations between the communist parties of both countries, arguing that actions taken by these parties influenced the shape of the relationship far beyond inter-party collaboration.