Sensacja i polityka. „Głos Stolicy” – popularny dziennik socjalistyczny

Abstract

The first half of the 1930s was marked by the crisis of the Polish socialist movement. After political failure in the parliamentary elections in November 1930, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (the Polish Socialist Party) fell into deep apathy and internal arguments. Some critics of the party leadership argued that the changes in political activities as well as new patterns in PPS’s propaganda are necessary. In result, in the first quarter of 1932 a group of Warsaw socialist activists began to prepare for launching a new socialist daily. The first issue of “Głos Stolicy” (The Voice of the Capital) was published in September 1932. It was a cheap, popular newspaper modeled on “yellow journalism”, officially independent and nonpartisan. However, “Głos Stolicy” combined sensational news and eye-catching headlines with straightforward but emotional criticism of capitalism. The editors and creators of the daily expected that it would win a lot of new readers and, as a consequence, new adherents of socialism. In fact, only 108 issues were published and “Głos Stolicy” was closed down at the end of December 1932. It could not win in the market competition with economically stronger and deep-rooted newspapers which were published by press syndicates, especially at the very peak of the Depression in Poland. But in some way it was an instructive experiment for Polish socialists – the failure of “Głos Stolicy” clearly indicated how difficult it would be to combine the “yellow press” style with socialist messages.