Jazz in Poland: Totalitarianism, Stalinism, Socialist Realism

Abstract

In Poland (as in other European countries), jazz appeared after American isolationism came to an end during the First World War. The genre developed in free-market economic conditions, with independence and democracy regained after long years of partition. The founding myth that was fundamental for its further presence, significance and development, however, did not come into being until thirty years later, during the Stalin era (1948-1955). Communist totalitarianism in Stalin’s time gradually spread into and sought to control all spheres of people’s activity, including the artistic realm. The restrictive cultural policy introduced by the authorities called for institutional consent to engage in any form of art. The rapidly growing jazz movement came to halt. In 1948-1949 the Polish Composers’ Union declared this artistic genre to be ‘formalist jazz rubbish’, and its pursuit was regarded as a manifestation of hostile bourgeois ideology. Socialist ideology of the Cold War era halted the process of the institutionalization of jazz. At the same time the founding myth of jazz as the art of opposition formed. Its essence lay in the protest against the imposed ideology and a new genre in art – Socialist Realism. By symbolic abuse, the authorities strove to Sovietize culture. The authorities did not assign any social role to jazz musicians in the communist system, so they were excluded from official recognition. A stereotype of a jazzman developed– that of an outsider, a nonconformist who is free of the restrictions of the institutional world. Jazz became a synonym for freedom and independence. The forbidden fruit began to attract those who, through involvement in the field of jazz, wanted to manifest the different lifestyle that they chose and their disagreement with socialist propaganda and imposed standards. The situation began to change only after Stalin’s death, but the founding myth of ‘anti-system jazz’ lived on over the next decades, even though the genre was gradually incorporated into the official cultural profile.