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The policy of communist authorities in Poland as seen through rumors in the years 1949-1953 The article deals with the image of the Polish Communist authorities during the period of deep Stalinism (1949-1953) in the light of common knowledge and rumors circulating among the ordinary people in Poland. The study is based mainly on information collected by the Polish political policy (bezpieczeństwo) and local committees of the Polish Communist Party. 1. The common knowledge reveals much about the fears and the hopes of Polish society during the Stalin era. 2. The main factor which accelerated gossips and rumors was the difficulty in acceding to credible information about the real situation in Poland. However the circulation of rumors was also partly favored by censorship as a means of controlling society. The Polish speaking radio stations existing in the West during the Stalin period (first of ail Radio Free Europe) were very important sources of knowledge about Poland and the rest of the world, but listening to those broadcasts was banned by Communist law. 3. Among the major themes studied by the authors are the collectivization of agriculture, the expected outbreak of the third world war, the provision of food, the limitations of human rights and the persecution of the Catholic Church. 4. Rumors show that a remarkable increase of optimism in Poland follows Stalin's death in Mardi 1953.

Unlike literature, Russian art enjoyed only marginal interest in France throughout the 19th century. The lack of intermediaries, ignorance of Russian artistic traditions, and the global perception of Russia as a backwater, kept on hindering the discovery of Russian art. The World Fair organized in Paris in 1900 marked a renewed contact with and a reinterpretation of Russian art. Consequently considered in its dual dimension both historical and contemporary, this art has been clearly defined and has contributed to identify the essence, spirit and characteristics of Russian culture. Actually, the go-betweens who recognized the value of an art widely considered until then as unexceptional were Russians: artists, collectors, entrepreneurs. In 1914, Russian art largely contributed to the renewal of European artistic forms and trends. Its acknowledgement by France, following the example of the constituent nations of 'old Europe', was definitive.