1 Maja Swieto Calego Narodu [Mayday, The National Holiday]
- Title:
- 1 Maja Swieto Calego Narodu [Mayday, The National Holiday]
- Alternate Title:
- Mayday, The National Holiday
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Cieslewicz, Roman
- Other Creators:
- Wydawnictwo Artystyczno - Graficzne [Artistic and Graphic Publishing House]; Dom Slowa Polskiego [House of Polish Speech]
- Date:
- 1956
- Date 2:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2301.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2301_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Communism & Cold War
Pictorial
Politics & Government - Measurement:
- 34 x 37 on sheet 86 x 60 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This poster promoting May Day 1956 in Poland features a map of the country as a red carnation, the flower traditionally worn on that national holiday to celebrate the international socialist and labor movements.
At the time this poster was published, there were substantial hopes in Poland of greater freedom and democratization. In late February 1956, at the 20th Communist Party Congress, Nikita Khrushchev denounced the “personality cult” and extensive crimes of Stalin. His speech was promptly and widely publicized in Poland. Two weeks later, while attending the same ongoing Congress in Moscow, Poland’s hard-line Stalinist leader Boleslaw Beirut died suddenly under mysterious circumstances. These two events led to widespread expectation in Poland for a rapid liberalization, further encouraged by an amnesty in April in which some 9,000 political prisoners were released. Persak 2006, 1285-86.
In fact, these pressures led after May Day to the worker’s uprising in Poznan in June and the eventual willingness of the Soviets in October 1956 to accept a more moderate Polish government headed by Wladyslaw Gomulka.
Roman Cieślewicz was a Polish graphic artist. After his graduation from the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts in 1955, he moved to Warsaw to produce posters for various state offices and agencies. In 1963, he emigrated to France, where he had a long and successful career as graphic designer, editor, art director and teacher.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.