The term ("propaganda sukcesu" in Polish) has been used with reference to the
propaganda in the People's Republic of Poland of the 1970s (particularly from December 1974), during the rule of
Polish United Workers' Party secretary
Edward Gierek. Poland was portrayed as a modern country with bright economic future, even though much of Gierek's reforms were based on unsustainable international loans. Common phrases from the Polish propaganda of that era included "building a second Poland" and "Poland - the 8th industrial power of the world." An instrumental figure in Gierek's administration was
Maciej Szczepański, in charge of
Polish Radio and Television. Propaganda of success spread to many media; for example all contemporary Polish
television series had to respect its ideas. To support the propaganda of success, Polish official statistics, promoted by the media, were often highly selective. Any difficulties, often resulting from the
shortage economy, were constantly labelled as "temporary". The era of propaganda of success in Poland came to an end with the 1980s with the wave of strikes and demonstrations against the government which resulted in the
rise of the Solidarity trade union. Propaganda of success, contrasting grim, everyday reality with an idealized fictional vision of it has been described as achieving contrary results to the intended and has been named as one of the factors responsible for growing social unrest in Poland. The term has also been used to describe
Soviet propaganda before the era of
glasnost. ==References==