Strongmen and hooligans. Positive and negative heroes of the fifties in the articles published in the "Po prostu" magazine between 1954-1957

Dominika Rafalska-Kuś

The article elaborates on the attitude of the "Po prostu" magazine towards major role models of the PRL period. The communist authorities easily labelled people by dividing them into, for example, "enemies of the people" and "true socialists". The terms were as vague as they were broad. The first one embraced both a soldier of the AK (Home Army) and a pre-war landowner. The latter one represented a man of idea who blindly believed in the ideals of socialism. '56 thaw brought changes also in that issue. The aim of the article is to show the changes which took place in the social consciousness as far as defining what is right and wrong, evaluating reality, searching for a new point of reference and role models are concerned. Who was a positive and who was a negative hero in Poland of the mid-fifties? Who and why was put on a pedestal and fell off it? The author will look for answers to those questions by quoting few chosen articles published in the "Po prostu" weekly, which as one of the first magazines broke with convention, tried to objectively look at reality and not to give too simple answers to complicated questions.

KEYWORDS

press articles, "Po prostu", press hero, press history