The PRL Museum

The PRL Museum is an institution located in the building of a former „Światowid” Cinema in the Nowa Huta district of Kraków.

The idea of the museum came from the City Council of Kraków in November of 2012.

For many years, the creation of the Polish Peoples Republic was demanded by Andrzej Wajda and Krystyna Zachwatowicz. Along with Teresa Bogucka, as well as Anna and Jacek Federowiczowie, they established the SocLand foundation, which wasd aimed to create such a museum. At the time, two location were considred – Warsaw and Kraków. Although the first attemnpt to create the PRL museum failed, there seemed to still be some hope, when in 2006 theKraków community purchased the building of the former „Światowid” Cinema from the Apollo Film Company.

The goal of the PRL Museum is to serve as a meeting place of different narrations about the Polish Peoples Republic – political, social, traditional and cultural, as well as a place of talks and discussions about the time period, which caused huge controversy in the Polish society. It ids supposed to show everything that was undoubtedly bad about the PRL, but also underline the positive attitudes and acomplishments of people who were alive at that time.

Over the years, the PRL Museum housed many diverse exhibits.

In 2014, the museum prepared two exhibits: an outdoor exhibit „The election of June 4th 1989. Wałęsa’s Kraków Team” and the the photography exhibit „framing the PRL: Henryk Hermanowicz and Jerzy Szot”

The main exhibit of the PRL Museum in 2016 was entitled „Once I gain my power, I will never give it back” and told the story of different models of communism and its fall in Poland, Germany, Romania and Yugoslavia.
Other exhibits of the PRL Museum included „Does PRL live within us? The cultue of the free time” and „The Atom Terror. Shelters in Nowa Huta”.