The all-encompassing Stalinist vision propagated by the Soviet Union was best exemplified by the new Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science (Pałac Kultury i Nauki imienia Józefa Stalina) constructed in Warsaw between 1952 and 1955.

[3] Socialist realism in Polish art was confined to portraits of party leaders and various depictions of muscular labourers and battle scenes, with special attention paid to popular taste.

Formally inspired by Neoclassicism as well as the local folk art, socrealism served strictly political and pro-Soviet propaganda purposes; however, its most notable artists, such as Wojciech Weiss and Włodzimierz Zakrzewski were educated before Stalinism and inadvertently adhered to traditional Western techniques and technologies.

In sculpture, there was a trend toward stone-carved allegories elevating the common worker, used mainly for architectural purposes, such as those surrounding the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, including mostly plaster busts of communist apparatchiks.

Socialist realism was a considerably short period in the history of Polish literature marked by public fear caused by the gross abuses of power by state security forces.

Following Stalin's death, there were some critical opinions expressed about such literature, but Socialist realism was still being practised until the 1956 Polish October, when the policy was finally abandoned.

But most of writers and poets obeyed the government's new cultural policies and were willing to describe the People's Republic of Poland as a land of happiness and freedom living under the benign dispensations of the Communist Party.

Because of that they joined the Polish United Workers' Party and became political activists like Leon Kruczkowski (playwright) who became a Member of Parliament, or the poet Julian Przyboś - who entered diplomatic service and was posted to Switzerland.

One writer and publicist, Jerzy Putrament, was made a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party in recognition of his loyalty to the communist cause.

The second generation of writers was known as The Spotty-Faced (the origin of the nickname is a matter of dispute, with sources variously attributing its coinage to Julian Przyboś, Jan Kott or Zofia Nałkowska).

Some of them, like Wiktor Woroszylski, Andrzej Braun and Witold Wirpsza, dominated literature and had a strong political impact locally, provoking a degree of anxiety in other writers because of their zeal and self-confidence.

There was also a small group of writers which included famous authors and emerging names who refused to write socialist realistic novels, and chose to remain silent.

The plot of a typical socialist realist novel or short story was usually set in the workplace, so this kind of book is often referred to as "factory literature" (Polish: produkcyjniaki).

The villain detests communism and hates the workers; he is typically a nasty, merciless piece of work, prepared to inflict unflinching harm on all around him, like committing acts of sabotage or conspiring against the hero.

In 1955 poet Adam Ważyk (a member of the Polish United Workers' Party and a staunch supporter of Communism) published A Poem for Adults ("Poemat dla dorosłych"), which described postwar Poland in a critical way.

Ważyk was strongly criticised for this long poem which appeared in Nowa Kultura, an official publication of the Association of Polish Writers controlled by the Communists.