“We Want to Be More Like the West”: Skiing for All in the 1950s–1970s Poland

Abstract

Skiing emerged in Poland as a sport and tourist movement in the 1880s, and from the beginning, its development was connected with two ski resorts: Slawsko (now Slavske in Ukraine) and Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains. The interwar period between 1918 and 1939 was characterised by the organisational development of skiing and its growth as a physical activity. Skiing developed as a physical recreational activity in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and was associated with extended leisure time, especially among the middle class, and with intercultural transfer from West to East. This chapter illustrates the evolution of skiing in Poland as a manifestation of physical recreation and amateur sport and the important role of newspapers and magazines devoted to sport, tourism, and recreation. Jedrzejewski analyses the discourse related to recreational skiing between the 1950s and the 1970s, notably in Polish state-owned newspapers focused on sports and tourism.