In June 2014, for just a few days, a statue of Lenin returned to Nowa Huta, close to the spot where once a huge monument of Lenin used to stand, dominating this socialist city visually (but not only so). 1 The statue that 'returned' was small, less than half-a-meter tall and made of bright kitschy, greenish plastic: 2 it was peeing in the same manner as the Manneken-Pis in Brussels. And yet the installation of the statue which proved popular with passers-by, was enough for two members of the main opposition Party in Poland, the Law and Justice Party, 3 to file a complaint that this green 'pissing' Lenin 'promotes' Communism; and promoting Communism in post-1989 Poland is considered a crime. Even earlier, in 2008, representatives of the Law and Justice Party argued that 'any official commemoration of Nowa Huta's founding would be tantamount to proCommunist propaganda', 4 suggesting to what degree Nowa Huta's past was still a thorny issue for many Poles. How could the insignificant event during the summer festival of street art called ArtBoom 'awake the Polish demons' 5 and cause such a heated response? In some postsocialist countries that are troubled by their own Communist legacy (Russia being a separate case 6) references to the Communist past can prove popular, even attractive: suffice it to cite the example of the revival of a sausage in Lithuania named 'Soviet sausage' and promoted by large, Soviet-style advertisements. 7 Why not in Poland? And specifically, why not in Nowa Huta? This article investigates not only what such incidents suggest about the identity of postsocialist spaces 25 years after the collapse of Communism, but also, more importantly, what is necessary for a successful, i.e. generally acceptable and coherent,

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MY examination of colours in post-war Polish literature divides the literature into four phases between 1948 and the 1990s. The fi rst phase is that of Socialist Realism (1948-56), when the easily visibly propagandistic element affected all aspects of a literary work, including its use of colours. The second phase is the post-1956 years, when propaganda played a lesser role and when colour was used in a realistic manner, in contrast to the preceding period. The third phase covers the period 1976-89, the poetry of the Nowa Fala (New Wave), and the poetry written during the period of martial law that concerned itself extensively with the social and political problems of the day. These were the years when colour again become closely associated with the mood of the society and the ethical attitudes of the writer. The fi nal section refers to the use of colour in the literature of the phase between 1989 and 2000, when the sheer range and intensity of colour symbolism became closely connected with freedom, both political and individual.