Organized leisure in the 1960s: Holiday homes for residents of Nowa Huta as reported by the weekly Głos Nowej Huty

Abstract

The Vladimir Lenin Steelworks and other state-owned enterprises in  Nowa Huta, the eastern district of Cracow, ran a number of holiday centres all over Poland and encouraged their staff to spend their leave in those places with their family members and colleagues. This form of organized leisure was also promoted by the press. So for example Głos Nowej Huty, a weekly issued by the Workers’ Council of the VL Steelworks, published articles showing the attractions and, occasionally, problems of individual holiday homes. At the same time readers were encouraged to file in their application in good time. The publicity contributed to the success of this type of organized leisure — the number of people who took up this offer increased year on year throughout that period.