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province of Katowice in Silesia ranked second, and Poland's ancient cultural center of Krakow third; all provincial cities, however, publish at least one local daily newspaper, most of them public two or more. Publishing of newspapers and periodicals has been centralized since 1957 in the Workers Publishing Cooperative or Prasa (Press), which directs a network of publishing cooperatives. Distribution of newspapers and periodicals, including foreign imports, is handled by a state monopoly, Ruch (Motion), which is subordinate to the Ministry of Communications. In November 1972 legislation was introduced to centralize the activities of Prasa, Ruch, and the book publishers KiW under one cooperative supervised by the Ministry of Culture and Art. Details on selected major newspapers and periodicals are presented in Figure 56.

Since World War II the government has systematically stimulated book publishing through expansion of printing and distribution facilities, extension of the library system, low prices, and publicity and pressure for the sale of literature approved by the regime. Overemphasis on ideological works and propaganda literature in the pre-1956 period resulted in heavy reader resistance and a significance percentage unsold books. Since that time, the production of nonpolitical and general popular literature has been separate from that of books

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