What nation do Poles feel closer to?

But my attention span is not like from here to Koluszki, please.. Tomorrow I might get interested in the real differences between Shia and Sunni, or whatever. I know it's none of your business, but, please?

Thanks for the sources, but I'm in London. Greater London, just between the two of us...


Just don't say this is an explanation.

Free spirit? Easily excited? Not holding grudges? Direct in speech? Not to mention the drink-readiness...

From my experience I would say slavic people and slavic/catholics.


Don't listen to fascho's bs. He was 45 years behind bars. ;)

Bavarians to ITALY
Northwestern region close to SCANDINAVIA. Dutch is because of historical reasons for them not an option.

Western Germany to France and Belgium and Luxemburg.

Saarland was a historical argue spot. They are since a longer time German again, but who knows...

East Germany has 45 years of communism so maybe the closeness for them to others is based on that. For the northeastern part I would say Baltics and Scandinavia.

Excuses, excuses...

I'm quite sure that Polish Post (bad as it is) is capable of delivering two books to London :)

I can understand laziness, but come on - it's only two books (about 250 pages each) so surely it is
within the scope of even your limited attention span to read them ;)

There's a country, which is mentioned in the Polish National Anthem. The funny thing is, this country's National Anthem mentions Poland too.

Maybe because of similar history and some similarity of character, I'm under the impression these two nationalities do consider themselves quite friends, even if they aren't so close.

I think it depends where in Poland. In the South it will be Czechs, east - Ukrainians. Poles in general share majority of their traditions with the rest of Europe. Culture in Europe is linked to Christianity and all traditions that come with it. Even pre-Christian traditions were shared by many nations. I personally noticed german, russian, czech, jewish influences in polish cuisine, but again we can not be certain if they originally realy are german or czech because people in this part of Europe eat similar foods. This area is too small to differ that much. Many Poles seem to like Hungarians for historical reasons.

This country is Italy.

although I live not far from the border with Czech Republic I think I have more feeling towards our eastern neighbours Belarusians, Ukrainians and Russians - it's not that I don't like the Czech language - I do know much Czech and I like it - I just have such a feeling Czechs are a bit more foreign to me than East Slavs

maybe it is because my family on both sides comes from eastern Poland (Lwów area and Podlasie)

What about Ukrainians - i am not talking about history now - what a modern Pole think about modern Ukrainian?
Here in Ukraine i see normal attitude to the Poles.
But how close/far we are?
I think we don t know each other well enough.
Not too many Poles visit Ukraine & not many Ukrainians visit Poland.
Our history is close and we had very tragical moments.
But i am sure that today we have a very good chance to become friends!
Let s not waste it.

I think you are quite right we don't know each other very well-although there are are quite a lot of Ukrainians working in Poland (illegally)

Some Poles visit Lwow because it seems somewhat familiar, but I suspect that beyond lviw the rest of Ukraine would feel quite alien to them.

I think that the Polish government is working quite hard to develop good relations with Ukraine, although I get the feeling that many Ukrainians feel a greater sympathy towards Russia.

Sure,as soon as you return our land we can become some kind of friends,but still our bff are Hungarians and it's not going to change any time soon.

to hague1cmaeron:
Mostly, Ukrainians are kind people, so i don t think that Poles can be treated badly in other regions of our country.
I agree that many Poles visit Lviv, but not, for example, Kyiv! On my opinion, they loose a lot!
As for "pro-russian" - we do have partly pro-russian south and east and pro-ukrainian west and centre regions.
But far GREATER part of Ukrainians are so-o-o positive to all foreiners (i mean they feel warm to them)!
& Russia - is country #1 with whom we have problems! I mean their government s policy.
So, about Poland & the Poles: we really don t know each other well enough!

to grubas
? it s not constructive.
what land? i m not talking about history now.
i am talking about today.

i am really glad that Poles are such a great friends with Hungarians!
& i am not talking about replacing them - only about becoming friends.

I am sure they are, and I am sure that relations with Poland will continue improving. Provided that Ukraine can maintain its democratic trajectory and strive for entry into the EU, Ukraine's economy becomes more open and transparent and Poland increases its investment in the country and vice versa things should be OK.

What's the type of press the Poles get in the Ukraine, how is the country and people viewed in the media if at all?

With former President (V. Yuschenko) the Poles & Poland got very good press!
Like brother-nation, example in many things for Ukraine & Ukrainians and so on.
Currently we have more press about Russia...
But real people have real ideas & real problems.
In fact, people know that our country have problems with Russia.
On the other hand Ukrainians have very little info about modern Poles & Poland.
You know, we need visas to visit Poland etc. ...
But the attitude to the Poles is mostly neutral - like to other nations.

Ok, I can be your friend now too, if you wish ....and please forgive me it is almost two years after your post....

But the whole talk about nations-best-friends, IMHO is a bit stereotypical. Everybody likes whover they feel closer to on a personal level.