History /
Would you classify the Poland's Communist years as a "Soviet occupation" ? [221]
it shows how Moscow wasn't anywhere near as dominant as the Western media pretended
Yugoslavia wasn't in the Warsaw pact...
The point is that the Soviet Union simply didn't have as much of an iron grip over Poland as Americans seem to think.
Directly or indirectly did it matter? The Soviets occupied Polish lands either you like it that way or not so it is proper to call the Communist years as Soviet occupation!
and many former peasants were very happy with the idea of guaranteed work, guaranteed flat and so on.
Had they worked hard and seen that as number one priority in their life then they would eventually get it! But there was very few tries at best! Having the commies almost force people to move...
Actually - it's more that they encountered massive opposition to the plans.
Yes and their opposition was not wished for
another example where Poland didn't toe the line.
PRL or Soviet influenced commies
Doesn't change the fact that it was a Polish general who ordered the crackdown on Poles.
He doesn't even deserve his own last name his family denounced him if I remember correctly.
Jaruzelski himself was actually quite popular
By whom?
The elite was destroyed in WW2
The elite was halved, made into sheeps or petrified to death. But the destruction came after ww2.
The social barriers in the II RP were tremendous
Maybe in finding government jobs, but not in making your life better...
Unfortunately, they were as Polish as they came.
Your problem is that you think of them in a ethnocentric way... What language they spoke or what tradition they had around the table or what kind of food they made didn't give a damn to people like my family! They were traitors to Poland! They lost their nationality and any mingling with them was downgraded to an absolute minimum.
The elite were often made up of people who came from generations of villagers - people who were as Polish as they come. And don't forget the ultimate example
heh... Well one says: Potatoes? They shouldn't even have the audacity to call it a vegetable! While others say: Oh POTATOES! How wonderful!
And don't forget the ultimate example - Jaruzelski, born into a family of Polish Catholic patriots.
a szlachta family which denounced him, he can be what ever you want but a Pole? I strongly object
Heck - what about Jaroslaw Kaczynski's father - former AK turned PZPR.
Shameful and thank god I never voted for PiS
Communism couldn't have survived for so long without the collaboration of a vast amount of Poles.
Do you really think an Irish would call any of the soldiers that shot at them in their attempts for independence: Irish? No matter that he was born in Dublin and moved to London or had a strong Irish accent? They would call him a Brit. And rightly so!
Just like that I call all those traitors commies! Their a different nationality for me which doesn't count for anything.
Yes - for instance, the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 was only made by the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary. Romania notably kept out of it, as did East Germany.
Honestly what ever PRL ever did with Moscow's permission or not doesn't neglect the fact it was occupied by the Soviet Union. Even the fact that it indeed participated in the invasion of Czechoslovakia points in that direction.
The reason behind East Germany not participating is obvious. Just like the Soviet Union halting them from intervening in Poland.
