Paradox of post-communist Poland

AS ONE POPULAR joke has it, two trains arrive at Warsaw station, one going from Paris to Moscow and the other from Moscow to Paris. Those in the first train look out of the window and ask: Is this Moscow? Those in the second look out and ask: Is this Paris?

The answer depends on which side of the station the visitor emerges. On one side is the skyscraper Marriott Hotel - built for foreign business people who have flocked to Warsaw since the end of communism in 1990 - and a row of elegant buildings that would not be out of place on the Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.

But take the other exit and you can see the Palace of Culture and Science - built in 1952-55 to resemble the Socialist Reality tower of Moscow - 230 metres high, making it the tallest building in the city and the second highest in Europe when it was constructed.

This contrast aptly symbolises the paradox of Poland today, a country rushing from communism to capitalism, a transformation which some have adapted well to but for others has proved long and painful.

The imposing palace has 40 million bricks, four cast-iron water fountains, marble corridors and staircases and 28 stone sculptures of model workers from Europe, Africa and Asia around the wing that houses the Congress Hall, where the ruling Communist Party used to meet.

One of the workers stares out with an optimistic expression and holds books by Marx, Lenin and Engels. Children nearby giggle as they see this reminder of their communist past. The basement of the hall has been converted into an up-market nightclub, the Quo Vadis, where a ticket on Saturday night costs 300 zlotys (about HK$540).