Warsaw, Stalin's Culture Center

On our first visit to Warsaw in 1985, the most prominent building in the city center was the 34 story Cultural Center, a gift from Stalin. People said the best place to see Warsaw was from the top of this building, since you can’t see this building from there. That’s more their opinion of the giver, then the gift.

In 1991 we found a Holiday Inn and a brand new, expensive Marriott Hotel (we were told one night could cost about one and a half months salary for a Polish school teacher), one on each side of the railroad station, right in downtown. We found a parking place next to the Culture Center, and had lunch in the RV. Inside the building there were large halls lined with marble, pillars, and statues, and the most expensive department store we saw in all of Poland.

Many hundreds of small metal “boxes” were lined up in the open space around the Culture Center. Most were approximately two yards wide, two yards high, and one deep. The top half of the front lifted like the hood of a car, and stuck out like a roof. The bottom half was pulled out to enlarge the kiosk so there was room for the operator inside. Most of the booths contained (usually new) clothes of some kind, radios, tapes, videos, and food items. What would Stalin think of that!

We decided to ride the to the 33th floor to see the city-view. At the ticket booth a father with two young daughters were on an outing and were having a lot of fun, fun that is until the father was given the bad news that admission to the observation floor would cost 10,000 Zolties ($1) for each of them. His face fell, he turned and explained to his daughters that it was just too expensive. Well, there was no way that would happen, so guess who bought five tickets (two for us), and guess who enjoyed the smiles of the two excited girls, and the thanks from the happy father.