This book analyzes the history of the black market in Poland before the 1940s and the
development of black-market phenomena in post-war Poland. The author evaluates the
interrelation between black-market phenomena and historical and geographical conditions. At
first the black market stabilized the system by making it more flexible and creating a margin
of freedom albeit in the short term. In the long run the informal economic activities of the
people ran counter to and undermined the official ideology of the state. The author concludes
that in post-war Poland owing to a singular coincidence of historical political economic and
social factors the second economy had its own unique character and an endemic presence that
loomed large in the Soviet Bloc.
