Word: warsaw
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While most Eastern Europeans regard the Soviets with scorn or even hatred, Bulgarians have been unwavering Russophiles for a century. Bulgaria is one of two Warsaw Pact countries without Soviet troops on its soil, and its state security apparatus keeps a low profile. Says one diplomat: "The obvious signs of repression aren't there." Economic growth was 6.5% in 1979, highest among the satellites. A new system of wage incentives and decentralized planning was also introduced. President Todor Zhivkov, 68, tolerated by an apathetic people, heard little more than a grumble when he hiked prices sharply last year...
...children in a gray high-rise apartment complex at Ursynow, a suburb south of Warsaw. The flat has three rooms and a bath, which is often out of order because of faulty workmanship. Jan and his wife had to wait ten years to get the apartment. Most days Ewa rises first, before dawn, in order to catch a bus into downtown Warsaw and be in line at the meat market when it opens at 6 a.m. The early trip to town is annoyingly inconvenient but necessary: typically, their housing complex contains few shops and other services for its residents. When...
...clerk in a government import-export company in Warsaw at 8 a.m.; his status as a white-collar worker means little, in fact, because the same frustrations are shared by all. The morning bus ride takes only 40 minutes, but the congestion at rush hour is suffocating. Thus he often rides with...
...payment is made in dollars rather than zloty. The plumber, whose services are normally difficult to obtain, comes immediately if the bill is paid with a pair of nylon hosiery. Hard-to-get meats like veal are available, at six times the official price; wealthy nightclub patrons in Warsaw are occasionally pounced on by flashers who pull open their coats to offer for sale not their bodies but hunks of fresh meat...
...After this year's flooding and low crop yields, many Poles have a premonition that things can only get worse," says Irena Lasota-Zabludowska, 35, an emigre from Warsaw, now studying at Columbia University in New York City "People are beginning to say, 'This winter we're going to starve.' " In a society where the trade-off for the lack of individual freedom was to have been a steadily improving standard of living, the potential for a political explosion is always present. Explains Teacher Kowalska "The mood in the country is worse than...