What can I say - the Polish People's Republic was not a country of great opportunities. It was possible to make a career in the party, of course, but only if you had a strong enough "back". However, there was an even more profitable path to success, which did not require a PZPR ID card at all. It was enough to know foreign languages, to have a trade in hands and ... not fully efficient moral brakes. It is about the oldest profession in the world.
In the 1960s, the European restaurant was one of the popular Warsaw restaurants. Artists, students and people of culture met there. The restaurant was remembered for its atmosphere, but not only. It was also a place of profitable business even under the PRL.
Zbigniew Adrjański, in his book, "Pochody to nowhere", mentioned that girls of easy morals showed up in the place after the afternoon, so the artists moved to Victoria in a demonstrative way. Cezary Prasek wrote more about the mysterious ladies in the recently published "Życie social w PRL". As it turns out, these were not ordinary prostitutes, but real businesswomen with international connections:
As for the chicks from the European, I remember them well. They were perfectly dressed, because they earned in dollars, dealing only with foreigners, of course only from behind the iron curtain. They also spoke foreign languages, which was by no means the norm at the time. It was even whispered that it was them and their friends who bought cooperative flats for dollars in an elegant skyscraper that has just been built in Aleje Ujazdowskie near the American embassy.
Apartments in Aleje Ujazdowskie? Just think how much such real estate is worth today! If there is a grain of truth in Praga's story, the then "European ladies" in their old age do not complain about the lack of funds.
This does not mean, however, that they came to their fortune in a straightforward way. You can imagine that at least some of the clients were not easy to serve:
It was said then that the leader of the Cuban revolution [Fidel Castro], who was visiting Poland, had an enormous demand for intimate contacts with women, several at the same time. The organizers of his visits were supposed to entrust the accompaniment to this distinguished guest to those ladies from the European Union, who had, of course, been thoroughly researched and instructed beforehand. There was no doubt that they were professionals with extensive experience .
The mentioned rumor may seem unbelievable, but the international contacts of female professionals must have guaranteed them lucrative orders. Cezary Prasek himself once saw one of his university professors talk to them and ... the future ambassador to a "significant" country. So maybe there was something wrong?
Source:
The article is based on the book by Cezary Praga entitled "Social life in the People's Republic of Poland" (Bellona publishing house, Warsaw 2011).