The Cold War Museum is the most impactful museum not only in Warsaw, but in all of Poland. Not only does it showcase Poland’s contribution to the American victory over Soviet communist totalitarianism, but it also promotes the traditions of the Polish Army and Poland in the 21st century as part of the NATO alliance.
It has an emotional and evocative impact on visitors, especially the younger generations of Poles.
We are located in a unique place – the basement of the former headquarters of the civic militia at ul. Jezuicka 1/3, where the high school student Grzegorz Przemyk was murdered.
The Museum’s main narrative relies on contemporary museum tools and the use of original exhibits. The Museum features more than 50 multimedia such as:
• Touch screens – with a variety of screen sizes, ranging between 32-55 inches. Besides the size, the screens differ in the number of touch points, allowing several people to operate one screen.
• VR (Virtual Reality) goggles – Although VR technology is still in ‘novelty’ status, the market now offers devices allowing us to immerse ourselves in virtual reality. There are models of portable goggles (wireless) such as the Oculus Go and Oculus Quest, as well as advanced VR helmets such as the Oculus Rift S or HTC Vive, which provide high performance and excellent graphics. Primarily, VR technology opens the possibility for the Museum to provide visitors with new, incomparable experiences. It allows us to invite visitors on a virtual tour of distant times (e.g. the fall of the Berlin Wall), of objects that no longer exist or never existed (e.g. submarines), to interview a deceased figure (e.g. Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II) or to take on the role of a hero and embark on a secret mission. VR goggle apps are linked to a narrator providing guidance.
• Holograms – a holographic wall consisting of multiple sets of displays that are interconnected and synchronised through software. This solution enables the creation of any object in various sizes, which will be indistinguishable from the original in terms of size and, above all, 3D dimensions.
• Cinema – there are a number of films, both commercial and documentary, which depict the events of the Cold War. The Museum offers the opportunity to display these films in a dedicated 50-seat cinema hall with a projection screen 4 metres wide and 3 metres high.
The exhibition covers the entire Cold War period, considering all countries involved in the fight against the Empire of Evil. Much of it, however, is based on the messages, commitment and efforts of President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and General Ryszard Kuklinski – the three leading figures of the last two decades of the Cold War, the twilight of the Empire of Evil, during which Poland accomplished the almost impossible. Also included are the figures who had the greatest positive and negative impact during the Cold War:
• Wojciech Jaruzelski
• Margaret Thatcher
• Jimmy Carter
• Leonid Brezhnev
• Mikhail Gorbachev
• Winston Churchill
• Kim Il-sung
• Harry Truman
• Joseph Stalin
• Ronald Reagan
The Cold War Museum is the only one to show the rivalry between the two blocs during the Cold War from a Polish perspective. It was the conflict over Central Europe that started the Cold War. As Churchill said, it was in Szczecin where the Iron Curtain descended, and we found ourselves on its eastern side. It all started in Poland, from where Pope John Paul II and Solidarity emerged, alongside continued resistance to communism throughout the Cold War. It was a Pole who provided the Americans with key information about the Soviet Union and its strategy.
How did he accomplish this? By what means?
Come and see for yourselves!