“Alcohol is an outstanding nervous poison”. Alcohol abuse in post-War Poland on the basis of Zielona Góra 1950–1956

Abstract

This article presents the occurrence of alcohol abuse in Polish society in the years 1950– 1956 in a small community, using the example of Zielona Góra. This medium-sized city in the Western Poland was then a place where people coming from different parts of the country and from abroad settled. Such a cultural and ethnic mix caused difficulties in assimilation to the new environment and may have been an additional stimulus to reach for alcohol. Drunkenness was present in People’s Republic of Poland (PRL) from the beginning, which was largely a consequence of the war years and a number of changes that occurred in its immediate aftermath. In addition to indicating the reasons for this, attention was also paid to the effects of drunkenness both from the perspective of the individual and the whole of society. Undoubtedly it was a social, medical and also economic problem, which caused financial loss due to alcohol abuse during work. Referring to the situation in the state, the text also presents the activities of local authorities in the fight against alcohol abuse by some members of the local community. The article refers to examples from archival documents and local press. This study is an attempt to present the social problem of drunkenness in a historical context.