History / A view of Poland from far far away [14]

Hi, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Jean (Jan in Polish I guess?) I'm from New Orleans in the US. I do not speak a word of Polish (except maybe to say 'Thanks') and I cannot pronounce or even type most Polish names, a deficit I hope to rectify.

But I think I can relate to Poland in one sense. By American standards New Orleans is an old city (very young by European standards of course) is somewhat apart from the rest of the nation and not very understood or appreciated. We too, have been occupied by foreign governments, the French, the Spanish, the Americans, the Confederates, and the Americans again who we do not consider really the same as us, at best distant cousins. Also I think the terrain in the Baltic is something like a much colder version of our bayous and cypress swamps, though I know you lack alligators.

In the 1980s during the Cold War, I was stationed in Germany in the US army and we were supposed to think of the Eastern Europeans as our enemies, but I knew they in the same bind, young soldiers under the authority of political masters we did not understand.

I like Eastern European literature, particularly Polish and Czech. I have been reading Stanislaw Lem since I was about 14. I liked Jersy Kozinsky (especially "being there"). I am a big fan of the novels of Henryk Sienkiewicz and of the films made based on his novels. People tell me this is Polish nationalist propaganda but by American standards it is very accurate history; no American film even comes close to these films, even the ones done during the Communist era, in terms of showing ancient times close to what they were like. Krzyżacy is a more realistic depiction of Medieval warfare than any western film I've ever seen. The 'With fire and Sword' films were introduced to me by a friend in the Historical Fencing community who had spent some time in Poland. The Deluge is particularly well known in HEMA circles due to the famous saber duel scene, again one of very few accurate (if somewhat dramtic) depictions of European fencing in a modern film. What I love about these films is how well everyone dresses.

I think Eastern Europe in general and Poland in particular have been behind a veil of a language barrier and the propaganda of the Cold War and have been hidden from the history books of the English speaking world, which in the US means English history (with a little French history thrown in seen through an English filter). This makes the Medieval period seem quite boring to Americans since very little happened in England. My family were in the French resistance and I grew up with stories about the Polish pilots in the RAF and Polish agents who stole the Enigma code from the Germans. My family respected the Poles.

But I am not as much interested in WW II as I am interested in the history of pre-industrial Europe. Before Napoleon scared everyone into forgetting the past. Before the treaty of Westphalia created the modern nation State. Before the 30 years war ravaged the continent and made the scars of religious / ethnic conflict which are so hard to heal.

And though I have a keen interest in ancient times, I'm not a real big fan of religion, or of Aristocracy, or feudalism.

I'm interested in the art and science of the Renaissance, the independent trading cities. I'm interested in the confederations and republics, like the Lombard League, the Republic of Venice, the Swiss Confederacy, the United Provinces, and the Prussian Confederation and the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Cossacks. The Hussites. The Szlachta. These seem to me to point to another way of doing things, which can be found in pockets all over Europe.

Such pan-Europeanism may not be popular in Nationalist Europe I know, where people prefer to emphasize their differences due to all the baggage of recent history. But this is where I am coming from.

I'm also interested in pre-Christian European culture. In the Pagan religions of the Baltic, the Lithuanians, the Prussians, the Poles themselves. The times of the Kieven Rus and the Vikings.

I'm specifically interested in two subjects right now.

1) I'm doing a project based on the Medieval Baltic, specifically on the events surrounding the Prussian Confederation and the West Prussian Hanse cities joining with Poland in the mid 15th Century.

2) I'm into Historical Fencing as I said, and this is based on some very old martial arts manuals which were found or kind of rediscoverd in the 1990s. There are two major systems in HEMA, a "German" system based on German language manuals, and an Italian system based on Italian manuals, both pretty similar initialy. The "German" system was primarily founded by a guy called Lichtenauer, apparently, and was the focus of middle class burghers who had fencing clubs . But the interesting thing is, many of their activities took place in Eastern European cities such as Prague and Gdasnk / Danzig. In fact a list of the names of the early Masters, you can see many names which are from the East.

here is an example of a video from one of the Polish HEMA schools which have sprang up in the last ten years (you'll have to add the other standard parts of the web address due to the spam filter)

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But it's hard to find out about any of this from within the US. I believe there is still an amazing amount of residual prejudice in the West toward Eastern Europe. When I first travelled to Prague ten years ago I half expected to find a dark, sooty village under a cloudy sky, overlooked by a castle on a stark hill ruled by Vampires with peasants toiling miserably in the mud. I was a little bit surprised to see a stunningly beautiful city full of striking women, excellent beer and amazing architecture. I thought I was open-minded for an American but it struck me how much I had been subject to propaganda myself, why is this so little known about in the Western media? But it reminded me of my own town in that sense.

I have come to the conclusion lately that there is too much cultural prejudice in the West, and too little understanding of Eastern European languages, to find out much of anything about the intriguing history I've seen glimpses of, especially in these areas where German and Polish (and Dutch, and Swedish, and Lithuanian, and Estonian, and Czech etc.) culture are so mixed together in such complex ways.

I'm hoping people here will forgive my ignorance, perhaps my misguided zeal, and Yank status, and help me gain some insight into this part of the world of beautiful women and wild rivers and ancient cities, and many mysteries.

G.