The headquarters of the former Polish Communist Party has become a monument

Warsaw - The building that once housed the Polish Communist Party has officially become a state-protected monument today. The relevant decision was signed by the head of the Mazovian heritage protection agency, Barbara Jezierska. The fact that the enormous white structure in the center of Warsaw has been included on the list of monuments is not welcomed by many people. The state protection of the Palace of Culture and Science, built in the style of socialist realism, has also long been controversial.
A proposal to classify the former headquarters of the Communist Party alongside monuments such as the Wawel Castle in Kraków was submitted this April by leftist councilor Sebastian Wierzbicki. The palace, nicknamed the White House, according to him, is part of Polish history, whether people like it or not. Jezierska initially disagreed with his proposal, but later learned that the building, which is now a financial center, was at risk of being sold and demolished.
"As an architectural work and historical place, it has its value," explains Jezierska. Among the supporters of listing the Communist Party headquarters as a monument is Waldemar Baraniewski, an art historian from the University of Warsaw. According to him, it is a work of modest and elegant architecture that connects to the style of buildings constructed in France at the end of the 1940s. He regrets that the building was only added to the list of monuments now, as part of its interior has been destroyed and its original furnishings partially discarded.
However, Lukasz Kamiński from the Institute of National Remembrance does not understand Jezierska's decision. He says that there is no point in preserving the building if it serves its current purpose. It would be different if there were a museum of communism in the "White House," he added. "True Warsaw is the pre-war one," claims Warsaw councilor from the conservative Law and Justice party, Marek Makuch. "Structures are being included on the list of monuments that are not symbols of the city but of the past regime," he lamented.
Unlike the Palace of Culture and Science, the headquarters of the Polish United Workers' Party is not a building in the style of socialist realism, but of modernism. It was erected between 1948 and 1951, and its design was by a trio of Polish architects. The building was handed over for use on Labor Day in 1952. The former party headquarters is therefore a few years older than the palace, which the Poles received as a gift from Soviet leader Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and which was completed in 1955.
During the communist era, it was officially stated that the construction of the party headquarters was funded by the party members. In reality, however, it was financed from the state budget and from the sale of bricks, which ordinary people had to buy. Therefore, the first non-communist government transferred the building to state ownership after the dissolution of the Polish United Workers' Party in 1990.
The controversial landmark of central Warsaw, the Palace of Culture and Science, received official state protection in February 2007. However, the ranks of opponents of this building remain broad. Among them is also the head of Polish diplomacy, Radoslav Sikorski, who suggests that the palace should be demolished because it is not environmentally friendly and will require expensive renovations in the coming years. Sikorski would like to see a park with a pond on the site of the communist palace, where the residents of Warsaw could go for picnics.