So many young people want to move to the cities. That is where the jobs, nightlife, and other young people are. Developers only want to build posh buildings that only the old and established can afford. Once the communists showed a different way. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Brutalist architecture is quite imposing in size and detail. They are thought of as angry looking. This was intensified when done on this stamp as a row. To see them go up must have been a sight compared to modern construction. They went up fast as the were constructed often of pre fab sections. Yet this Polish stamp takes all this to an even bigger level. Seeing a large prefab section being lifted not by a construction crane but by a Soviet Mi-6 helicopter. It was then the biggest in the world. Incredible, if it happened and not just a projection from a fanciful 5 year plan.
Todays stamp is issue C54, a 10 Zloty airmail stamp issued by the Peoples Republic of Poland in 1976. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations displaying then contemporary aviation in Poland. To date, it is Poland’s last air mail issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used.
Brutalist architecture is most famous from then communist countries but the architectural style was also used on some mainly government buildings in the west. After Stalin’s death in the 50s there was more freedom granted to communist architects to allow more modern styles. There also had been some progress in the communist world and city planners had to house many families of workers. Instead of suburbs that required commuting by car, large swaths of land near city centers were set aside and public transportation was in place. The developments were somewhat self contained with schools, shopping, and parks contained on the grounds. They were by no means fancy, and the apartments were small but such buildings went up fast throughout the big communist cities. I believe the buildings on this stamp is the Smolna development in Warsaw that still exists. An updated 350 square foot one bedroom apartment rents for US$ 1020 a month.
These style of buildings quickly fell on hard times after 1990. Many were not well constructed and many former residents moved to the suburbs to have a house and car as soon as possible economically. For those buildings that survive, many are now experiencing a Renascence. They are so well located to the city center and the small units often have reasonable rents. I doubt a major undertaking like these will ever happen again under any stripe of government.
The Mil Mi-6 helicopter was the largest helicopter in the world when it first flew in 1959. It had a payload of 26,000 pounds or 90 passengers and had both civilian and military purposes. It is a good deal larger than the American Chinook helicopter. The Mi-6 went out of production in 1980 when it was replaced by the even larger Mi-26, which is still in production. The Russian aviation authorities withdrew the certificate of airworthiness in 2002 for the Mi 6, though a few are thought to be in military service in the third world.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the brutalist city planners of the 1960s and 1970s. In retrospect, there was a certain style and there was never doubt about dreaming big. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.