Peasants-workers and machines in communist Poland

Abstract

In this article, I analyze autobiographies written by peasants-workers in Poland in 1969. After presenting the issues about this type of sources, I focus on the different ways machines were described by individuals who shared their time between several professional activities et were in contact with the agricultural world and the industrial or artisanal world. I analyze their relationship to machine, through four points: how machines made work easier, how peasant-worker women spoke about this easiness, how machines were opportunities to question skill and know-how and they were associated to places and mobilities.