TY - BOOK ID - 85290114 TI - Through the back door : the black market in Poland, 1944-1989 PY - 2017 SN - 365304801X 3631704364 3631655851 PB - Bern Peter Lang International Academic Publishing Group DB - UniCat KW - Black market KW - Scarcity KW - Deficiency KW - Shortages KW - Commerce KW - History KW - Poland KW - Economic conditions KW - Social conditions KW - 1944–1989 KW - Black KW - Door KW - Hard currencies KW - Illegal economy KW - Kochanowski KW - Market KW - Meat KW - Moonshine UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:85290114 AB - This book analyzes the history of the black market in Poland before the 1940s and the development of black-market phenomena in post-war Poland. The author evaluates the interrelation between black-market phenomena and historical and geographical conditions. At first, the black market stabilized the system by making it more flexible and creating a margin of freedom, albeit in the short term. In the long run, the informal economic activities of the people ran counter to and undermined the official ideology of the state. The author concludes that in post-war Poland, owing to a singular coincidence of historical, political, economic and social factors, the second economy had its own unique character and an endemic presence that loomed large in the Soviet Bloc. ER -