News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


yeah looks like Poland went on a serious conquest among it's neighbours :P - btw how many Czechs or Lithuanians ended up in Poland after the alleged conquests??

I think I will put Harry on ignore eventually cause his getting on my nerves
(by the way Harry could you please explain to me what would have been the point of keeping the whole Polish fleet in Baltic Sea in 1939 - could you for example elaborate on the fate of the part of the fleet that remained in Baltic Sea? - you should remember that infamous 'Pekin' operation)

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


then if you want to touch the times during and after I WW it was in part the policies of Austro-Hungary and Germany that antagonized the two nations (Austrians deliberately supported Ukrainian nationalism most of the time they were in possession of Galicja/Hałyczyna - even the choice of the name of the province during the partitions was purposeful) Austria-Hungary and Germany also pursued a project called Mitteleuropa which called for semi-independent Ukraine under their auspices - so after clashes for Lvov Ukranians most probably saw Poland as the main obstacle to their independence (at least those in Western Ukraine)

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


well, you have to build your national myths on something - Germany has appartently chosen the times of the Frederic for now

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


well one of the reasons was that it was also a social conflict - the Cossacks and their followers were common folk (mostly) while the nobility was polonized or Polish (Polish nobility from the Crown lands aquired large land tracts in Ukraine especiallyin Kiev and Bratslav regions through various means) - some (if not most) hetmans were 'starosta' of lands in Ukraine and also owned large latyfundia there and they had personal interests in quashing Cossack rebellions

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


oh well, and what was the size of that mighty Ukrainian army - 30 thousands - btw Harry many Ukranian officers joined Polish army after the treaty of Riga - for various reasons independent Ukraine was not sustainable after the treaty of Riga - perhaps Poland should have granted it solid autonomy within it's borders - but you can't turn the tide of time

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


yes there was - Cossacks even resolved to be independant of Rzeczpospolita under the auspices of Turkey -
and the treatment of the Ukranian population of the revolted areas by the army of the Polish crown (not only magnates) were very cruel often - even including killing all inhabitants of villages, burning places to the ground and torture - it's enough to read about the lifes of some of Polish hetmans in detail (like Stanisław Koniecpolski or Stefan Czarniecki) - there's a book on Polish hetmans by Leszek Podhorodecki in Polish available (illegally I guess) from some sites on the web

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


it was not very liberal to its Polish (or generally Slavic) subjects - perhaps even more so in those parts that it acquired before the partitions of Poland (like Śląsk where Polish was gradually removed from liturygy not to mention schooling - there simply was a policy of germanization through various means including colonization)

the topic was also Prussian and German millitary up untill the I WW (as asked by one of the posters)

here's an excerpt from Polish wikipedia :
Jeden z pierwszych dekretów Fryderyka Wielkiego z 1764 roku był skierowany przeciwko językowi polskiemu. W tym zarządzeniu germanizacyjnym nakazuje on wprowadzenie języka niemieckiego jako języka urzędowego oraz wydaje zakaz zatrudnienia w szkołach nauczycieli nie posługujących się językiem niemieckim.

Why didn't u post the English version? It is there.

Language / What does the conditional/imperative tense mean in Polish? [8]


dostać = to get, to receive

zostać = to remain; to become

Language / What does the conditional/imperative tense mean in Polish? [8]


niech płacze is a third person imperative-sort-of - it more or less means let him/her/it cry (niech word had very similar meaning in old Polish to English let)

simiarily chodźmy (a first person plural imperative of to go) is translated as let's go

History / Polish flag over the Reichstag first? [399]


that it was comprised of Polish nationals it doesn't mean it was Polish - Soviet government of Poland OK?

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


French Huguenots were thouroughly integrated by the middle of XIXth century I would presume - simple as that Poles were the biggest minority in German empire and earlier in Prussia (counting in several millions) even excluding Kashubians - I'm pretty sure you will argue Silesians were not Polish :P

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


ha ha ha - einer Schuss einer Russ, einer Stoss ein Franzos - quite apolitycal - so was Bismarck (and his remarks about Poles being wolves and that you don't befriend wolves just shoot them - well he was right to a certain extent)

Real Estate / Warsaw City in 2020 [58]


with the great help of central government and EU funds I guess - things Lech Kaczyński could only have dreamed of while in the office - I don't claim his presidency was perfect or even better than average - but there was very little corruption unlike in the present (you are witnessing one of the current presidency scams just here in this thread as suggested by Harry)

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


sure you would like to believe in that :P

btw what other minorities? the Danes? how many of them? some 50 thousand Lithuanians? a couple of thousands of Czechs?

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


I am pretty sure these weren't made up of Poles - they were elite cavalry units - you wouldn't expect such units to be made up of some (despised and not trusted) minority of an empire

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


I wonder Torq if you sometimes read Ziemkiewicz or Michalkiewicz - in his last column in interia.pl Ziemkiewicz pointed out why he thinks Aleksander Kwaśniewski never received any international office (which he really aspired and craved for (he wanted to be the secretary of the UN for example)) - you would then be less optimistic about creating such a pro-Ukrainian lobby - this all is not to mention the internal problems of Ukraine which are a real obstacle for her to join the EU

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]

well I have just found condradicting statements here
bryk.pl/teksty/liceum/historia/xix_wiek/11225-prusy_w_pierwszych_latach_xix_wieku.html
the site claims that up to 40 per cent of Prussian troops in the Franco-Prussian war of 1806 were Poles - I would tend to think Prussian military would deem Poles not trustworthy enough to fight among their ranks but seems I am wrong - this may have changed after Napoleonic wars (when Poles supported the French) for some time - there is little read on the subject on the internet

Poles (forced recruits) were definitely part of the Prussian army in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 - Wojciech Kossak depicted their attack in the first line of Prussian army in the battle of Gravelotte - the Prussian military orchestra played them the Dąbrowski Mazurka for their charge

agraart.pl/cgi-bin/obiekt.cgi?act=1&qt=1073520697&nr=1004

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]

I don't think they were conscripted at all by the Prussian Army at the time - it was very different story to what happened during the I WW

Real Estate / Warsaw City in 2020 [58]


what do you expect of a PO+SLD run local government?

USA, Canada / Polish Media in the US. Propagandistic, biased, and brainless tool? [4]

I doubt it - they are simply not fed the Poland based media propaganda which is anti-Kaczyński and this probably proves to be enough

News / "Poland is flourishing" [62]


the article is from 2009 - these good times are about to end soon SeanBM - I'll try to find some respective links


advantageous moves cannot be made by comparisons to others but by recognizing realities

bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ahlP2z11ukIY

News / "Poland is flourishing" [62]


I know what it means - still comparisons don't make much sense when you see some difficult times ahead - CO2 quota lowering for Poland - heard about that - in general it means Poland being not in very favourable economic position faces challenges it may not equal to in near future - and there are people who are responsible for it

News / "Poland is flourishing" [62]


the public debt already reached the level of 55 per cent of the GDP - and econimic forecast for Poland is not very bright (European coal tax anyone? the most expensive natural gas in Europe ( Mr Pawlak's (in)famous Russian gas deal) - think all artificial fertilizers and some other chemical industries in Poland may collapse in a few years, the growing burden of debt, growing unemployment among the youth)

News / "Poland is flourishing" [62]


You sure we will?? Our current government does not much to avoid the Greek scenario (read national debt is quickly rising). Sure thay only think of the next election (this autumn)


I don't frankly get your point :)

News / "Poland is flourishing" [62]


with the education standards rapidly falling how long do you expect it to last? Poland's strength was it's basic and high school level professional/technical education - now it is mostly gone

Life / Need Some Advice about life in Poland (vehicle, fuel) [24]


the number of these is constantly rising and is actually supposed to double this year and they are introducing new types that calculate your speed on a certain stretch of the road

you may find this link useful - mobile.de - I never used any such pages - just used google

Life / Need Some Advice about life in Poland (vehicle, fuel) [24]

AUSPOL - i never heard about 'trade plates' in Poland and after a read from wikipedia I don't believe there exist such in Poland

yes it is true that a car imported from the EU does not need a 'homologation' in Poland regardless of the car's country of origin (checked that on the web)

I think you should have no problems driving a UK-registered car while living in Poland (many poeple do from what I can gather)

still, somehow I don't believe you will enjoy driving a RHD sport car in Poland - it is not Germany that you can use an extensive net of autobahns - and overtaking on Polish roads in a RHD car can really prove to be a nuisance (and you should expect plenty of overtaking) - also the sparse motorways in Poland do have a speed limit in contrast to Germany (140 kmph)

Life / Need Some Advice about life in Poland (vehicle, fuel) [24]

I can't answer most of your questions tbh

as for importing sport cars of the Nissan kind you mentioned there was once a need for so called 'homologation' - the vehicle needed to approved by an official authority to be allowed to use public roads in Poland - I can think it is still valid for Japan (and US) made vehicles - it was a serious nuissance for Poles coming back from the US and bringing their cars with them (there is a cost involved)


I wouldn't worry about theft that much - more about intentional damage

yes practicallity would be a serious issue - that's why the better off Poles (especially those who live outside of big cities) tend to buy SUV's (the state of the roads)

Life / Need Some Advice about life in Poland (vehicle, fuel) [24]


if you worked in a city that beast would kill your wallet (unless you are a managing director of a bank branch) - second hand cars are not that expensive here -(we have this big German neighbour who love to sell us their old wheeled stuff) - if you go for a 15 year old VW Golf (a decent one can cost you around 5000 PLN which is like 1300 euro) you have plenty of reasonably cheap spares

my opinion is why should you settle for a language teaching job if you can work in your field (like teaching biosciences in English) - such a job definitely won't make you rich however (will teaching English do it?)

News / "Poland is flourishing" [62]


what trade barriers - do you mean mental ones? cause I don't see too many official ones