Cold War Museum

The museum documents the history of several decades of international tensions and conflicts from the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences in 1945 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Poland and the expansion of NATO to include Eastern European countries.
You will learn how, after imposing the communist system on Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the “evil empire” sought to introduce its rule around the world. You will become acquainted with the details of the world’s division into two hostile blocs, the nuclear arms race, the rivalry between the USA and the USSR in space, and track how the informal alliance of President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher finally led to the taming of Russian imperialism.
An array of multimedia showcases the heroism of oppositionists, statements by the most important actors on the political scene, and unusual events such as the detonation of the most powerful nuclear bomb ever created (the Soviet Tsar Bomba). Through the periscope of a Soviet submarine, you’ll spy on American ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when a nuclear conflict and World War III almost broke out.
You will also learn about the dramatic fate of Ryszard Kukliński—a colonel in the General Staff of the Polish People’s Army. Knowing Soviet plans for an attack on Western Europe, including the use of nuclear weapons, he was aware that Soviets predicted NATO’s nuclear counterattack would  target Polish territory. Driven by a desire to prevent war and the destruction of Poland,  Kukliński risked his life and that of his family to pass classified information to the Americans, at a time when tens of thousands of Soviet troops were stationed in Poland.
You will comprehend the reality of the threat thanks to secret maps of the planned attack by the armed forces of the Warsaw Pact using nuclear weapons stored in Poland, signed by Soviet commanders and Poland’s leader at the time, General Wojciech Jaruzelski. You will feel the thrill of playing the role of agent in one of the virtual reality games.
Test your knowledge by taking a quiz containing over a dozen questions about the era. The museum’s headquarters also have a Cold War history of their own. During the Polish People’s Republic, the tenement above it housed a notorious communist militia post. During martial law in Poland, it was there that Warsaw high school graduate Grzegorz Przemyk was beaten to death. The museum commemorates him in a special room, alongside Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, Ryszard Siwiec, Czech Jan Palach, and other victims of communism worldwide.
The transition from painful and difficult themes to hopeful moments—such as papal pilgrimages to Poland, the rise of the Solidarity movement, the elections of June 4, 1989, and the Autumn of Nations—is symbolically reflected in the changing color schemes of the museum’s rooms, from black to white.