History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

"The Ukraine" is a region, not a country.

Read much?

News / Poland -- Europe's only counterweight to Russia [271]

Jon isn't interested in changing Poland's borders to protect its citizens from attack, but a British citizen cannot speak for Poland! When Putin escalates in Ukraine, which he does not recognize as a legitimate state, which he clearly intends to do in the near future, all the faux Polish citizens here will sh!t their pants and run back to Mother England.

News / Poland -- Europe's only counterweight to Russia [271]

Exactly why the border needs to get moved as far East as possible for the good of all concerned, as Putin has offered to accept.


Stalin killed and deported many Catholics, non-Ukrainian Ruthenians from Western Ukraine. The Ukrainian fascists also killed more. Ethnic "Ukrainians" in Siberia are more likely to have Polish roots. Ukraine is "friendly" to Poland only so far as it is threatened and in need. What Poland gets from this relationship, other than cheaper vodka, and cheap labor, is difficult to understand. Much art, museum collections, and archives, have yet to be returned.


Don't argue with an idiot. People may not be able to tell the difference. The same must be true for a discussion with a silly sod.

History / Website about Poland's History, would anybody like to contribute? [5]

Poland has had quite a few enemies through the years, Germans, Russians, Ukrainian and Lithuanian nationalists, some Jews (not all certainly), not to mention false friends. A website dedicated to the actual history of Poland is great idea to dispel much of the communist era propaganda that is often repeated in English language sources to obfuscate the the Western betrayal of Poland after WWII.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

Hardly. Try talking to the ethnic Poles in the necropolis,The Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów, at Łyczakowski Cemetary. One guy missing from here was buried in Warsaw at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Maybe you have ben there? Some guy named Vladimir Putin also recognizes Poland's rights to reclaim its borders before Stalin's crimes against humanity. Putin isn't done with Ukraine yet. He has only started with that failed stated.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

It would be impossible for Poland to "illegally" annex its own sovereign property, art, and culture.


I could give tours in Lwów, and few other places in the Ukraine. Of note is the house on the Rynek in Lwów where Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, signed a treaty of "eternal friendship" with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poland's rights are undeniable.


The Tatars in Crimea have suffered since Putin annexed Crimea. Many drink, and some even eat pork. I know someone with roots there. They aren't a problem.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

I was referring to the Jews, Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Protestants, and yes a small Muslim minority. Being multi-religious and tolerant does not imply that Catholic values and morals get trumped. Poland historically had a small Muslim Tartar minority and it hasn't been a problem like the North African/Arabian Muslims.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

Which is exactly why Russia is expected to re-start its war with Ukraine:


businessinsider.com/george-friedman-russia-ready-to-invade-ukraine-again-by-2017-2016-4
Poland needs to be prepared for the realpolitik of the situation, and not obsessed with idealistic platitudes which were never applied to Poland by its "allies" to create the present situation.


A homogeneous Poland was a Soviet communist creation which is in the process of transforming into what Poland has historically been, an ethnically and religiously diverse nation with people living in relative harmony. That communist "mono-culture", created by Nazi and Soviet ethnic cleansing, is not anything of which Poles should be proud.

Genealogy / Where are the Lemkos now? Do they still exist in Poland? [32]

Before the war, the Lemkos were considered to have been in the process of Polish assimilation: Greek Catholic church sermons in the Lemko region were frequently in Polish, and the Lemkos had rejected the Ukrainian ethnicity. Not only had they not wanted to be communist, they clearly didn't want to become Ukrainian, which has proved to be a threat to their unique language and culture. Contrary to communist historiography, Rusyns were not really ethnically unconscience Ukrainians. They were always Rusyns. The recent conflict in Eastern Ukraine has revealed Lemko villages in the middle of the fighting:

yahoo/news/lemkos-abandoned-minority-shattered-ukraine-war-zone-152752266.html
Poland has an obligation to place repatriation of historic Polish minorities such as the Lemkos ahead of other truly foreign economic refugees.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

Hopefully, it doesn't come to that. There are enough Ukrainian citizens who want to be in the E.U. and the West, that Ukraine's financial collapse, combined with Putin's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists, can easily result in the fragmentation of Stalin's Ukraine. Pole's don't want Putin to get stronger, but no nation is going to start WWIII over Crimea. Poland can take full advantage of the situation to achieve something substantial.


The West told Ukraine not to fight for Crimea, and the didn't They can also tell them not to fight for Lwów because Stalin's Ukraine is now finished, and they won't. There are also non-Ukrainian Rusyns stuck in Eastern Ukraine (and elsewhere in the former USSR) where Stalin forcibly resettled them, who have rights to consider as well.


Ignore the delusional anti-Polonists, who also hate the broader multi-cultural mix that is the Kresy.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

Wrocław is Silesia. Lwów is the Kresy. Poland holds Wrocław as a steward of its culture and history. However, Wrocław is not compensation for the loss of 700 years of Polish art, history and culture in Lwów. No serious person would argue that Poland had consented to that. Yet, it is posited as a fait accompli. With the Poles, it is never over. Never.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

Co nam obca przemoc wzięła,
Szablą odbierzemy.

What the alien force has taken from us,
We shall retrieve with a sabre.

A pity that Tusk and company handed out citizenship to foreigners without true allegiance to Poland, and Polish culture.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła,
Kiedy my żyjemy.
Co nam obca przemoc wzięła,
Szablą odbierzemy.

Poland has not yet perished,
So long as we still live.
What the alien force has taken from us,
We shall retrieve with a sabre.

No true Pole would argue otherwise.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

No, the issue is the restoration of the victim of totalitarian regimes' crimes against humanity, which were condoned by so-called Western democracies despite the undemocratic change in the border. There is no statute of limitation for crimes against humanity and recovery of stolen property.


Stalin's crimes against humanity included deporting ethnic Poles from the very Polish city of Lwów. The city was repopulated with ethnic Russians and Russian speakers from Eastern Ukraine since the local peasants were unable to hold more important jobs. Thus. the city was renamed in the Russian style, Lvov. While the language and the population in recent years is more likely to be identified as "Ukrainian", the Russians still remain there.


Poles now forced to live in the failing Ukrainian state would no longer need to wait at the Polish consulate like a communist toilet paper queue for a visa. Silly question!


Denial isn't a river in Egypt. Many Poles from Lwów were forced to relocate in Wroclaw. Others who fought in the West were unable to return after the war. Lwów's Jews and their families never received compensation from the commies or the present band of Ukrainian nationalists. Clearly, you don't give a damn about justice for these victims of crimes against humanity. It isn't popular in Warsaw's alternative life style crowd.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

The fact is that the U.S. and other Western powers are not providing Ukraine with military aide, nor will they. Nothing else matters. Ukraine's president has been caught evading taxes while he tries to rally the masses against the Russians. He represents the dysfunction of the failing novel state of Ukraine perfectly. The scandals in Ukraine from its ruling elite continue and will only stop when the Western money backing them, which they are embezzling shamelessly, stops. That day is coming soon.

Ukraine's time as a buffer state between Russia and the West is ending.

Since when have the people of Lwów been consulted about the border? 1944? 1945? 1946? So, the discussion you want to have is about squatters' rights? Why should the Russians that Stalin moved into Lwów get a say on the border?

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

Since the international community doesn't try to cross these borders or interfere with the Russian occupation in any meaningful way, they are clearly recognized by the international community. The U.N. is powerless to change anything, and the U.S., U.K. and NATO decline to start WWIII over any of this. That is the fact.


Really? Your grandparents could speak Polish and another language from the Kresy? You have friends and cousins from the Kresy who aren't ethnically Polish? You lived with people who returned to Belarus, Ukraine or Lithuania every November to reunite with family members and remember those in their families who passed on? You know people who witnessed the massacres of women and children by the Ukrainian fascists? Is that why they don't want to return to a beautiful Polish city?

Or maybe you just didn't meet these people in alternative lifestyle circles in Warsaw?

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

First get a life. Then get a grip on it.

No one has suggested anything about the modern rump state of Lithuania. It is a fraction of its former size!

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

The Russian occupations of Crimea, Trans-Dniester, and parts of Georgia aren't at all flimsy. They are quite stubborn reminders of how the world actually works. Pretending that treaties that you don't like aren't valid is quite a British art, but the Russians are much more blunt about renouncing treaties. Of course, neither the Budapest Memorandum nor the Helsinki Accords were actual treaties.


And who the hell are you to presume to speak for them? A Brit who claimed Polish citizenship without renouncing British citizenship?

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

Factually incorrect. Russia, a nuclear power and permanent member of the U.N. Security Council with veto power has already begun the first partition of Ukraine. That is the Realpolitik. It is simply a matter of what other borders will be changed before stability is achieved. A comprehensive solution with Russia would include restoration of Poland's former third largest city, return of lands seized from Romania by Stalin, and the reemergence of an independent Trans-Carpathia.


I should note that the issue of Trans-Dniester can also be resolved with the Russians only as part of a larger regional deal.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

Ukraine is not presently a sovereign state. See Crimea and Donetsk, etc. See above comment on the Budapest Memorandum being void, and the lack of legal consideration for the Helsinki Accord.

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

The Polish-American lobby is far more numerous in the U.S. Ukies are more populous North of the border in Canada. The fact remains that Ukraine, in its present de facto borders isn't going to be accepted into whatever is left of the E.U. (Ukraine's claim to Crimea is now just a fantasy, which even Germany and France are ignoring in the Minsk accords.) Only by moving the borders will Catholic Galician Ruthenians gain access to the E.U.'s labor markets.

The Russians voided the Budapest Memorandum, so the U.S. has a free hand to recognize other borders as well. Considering that the U.S. recognized Ukraine's present Western border in exchange for the promise of the U.S.S.R. recognizing fundamental human rights at Helsinki in 1975, that contract was void for a lack of consideration. Thus, nothing "illegal" about reversing Stalin's border. With the acquiescence of the U.S.and Russia, Poland can ignore the rest of Europe if it so chooses, including Brits still in denial about their role in the loss of the Kresy.

History / Association of Lovers of Lwów and Southeastern Kresy [27]

Exactly. Those educated under the communists don't know much about history, especially about the ethnic composition of pre-war Ukraine and what happened to the Ruthenians who rejected the novel Ukrainian ethnicity and political movement. Only recently has that history started to be published by post-communist social scientists. Hopefully, PiS will force out whatever remaining communists remain pushing the communist party line in the Polish universities. Eventually, the truth comes out.

History / Association of Lovers of Lwów and Southeastern Kresy [27]

The present is that "other people" from the Kresy are relocating to Poland to take jobs due to Poles working in the West of the E.U. They are remixing into Polish society and culture. Poles still sing Hej Sokoły at karaoke nights about leaving a girl in the green Ukraine. It is very much alive in the present.

History / Association of Lovers of Lwów and Southeastern Kresy [27]

No, I don't plagiarize. The word was used by authors Llana and Rębała as published by The Christian Science Monitor. Read much?


I have been to Lwów, Ternopol, Kowel and other places across Stalin's border. I think the countryside in the Kresy is a beautiful sight, although I am not happy to see the desecrated Polish cemeteries used as cow pastures now. Why would Poland be obligated to industrialize these places any more than the forests near Białystok? The issue is: Can Poland increase the standard of living of the region's population? There is no requirement that Poland turn the region into Western Germany. The hope for the present population of Western Ukraine lies with Poland, not Ukraine'e corrupt government, which has proved time and time again that it is hostile to real political reform and anti-corruption efforts.

News / Poland -- Europe's only counterweight to Russia [271]

Trump is open to renegotiating the existing order. Why does the U.S. still have bases in Western Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism? That doesn't make any sense anymore. If Trump invests in Poland, we will want to defend it. Trump won't take the nuclear option off the table, and the defense of the U.S. nuclear umbrella is all that Poland needs to prevent a war with Russia. With that, Poland no longer needs to worry about the fickle Germans as a major ally. Russia unilaterally abrogated the Budapest Memorandum, and the borders of the failed novel Ukrainian state are open to renegotiation. Trump will renegotiate that, and it is an opportunity that Poland would be foolish to miss to regain Lwów. It is a beautiful Polish city!

History / Is 5th partition of Poland possible? What kind? How? When? [73]

The partition of the novel state of Ukraine is now underway. It is being propped up with Western financial support, which it is exhausting with its corruption. A President Trump may well come to an agreement with Putin about changing Ukraine's formal borders to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. With the blessing of the U.S., Poland could again include the beautiful Polish city of Lwów. Poland may need to leave the E.U. to become whole again, but it is not Poland that is in danger of shrinking.

Travel / The best and inexpensive way to travel from Prague to Warsaw? [15]

It is also possible, and maybe cheaper and faster, to take a minibus from Cieszyn to Krakow. From there many train options exist to get to Warsaw quite quickly and conveniently. However, don't expect to be able to find those minibus schedules online!

Travel / The best and inexpensive way to travel from Prague to Warsaw? [15]

Yes, the bus is cheaper and the train is more comfortable. However, due to the commissions, cross border travel gets much more expensive by train. I would suggest taking the bus to Wroclaw and then taking a train to Warsaw. The bus station is right next to the train station so it is an easy transfer. Another option would be to take a train to the Czech side of the border somewhere, walk across the border, then get on a train on the Polish side. I did that a few years ago, but not from Prague. Please note that more local trains are crossing the borders now, so check the schedules online:

rozklad-pkp.pl/en

History / Teaching our kids about Poland's History [57]

Charles de Gaulle fought with the Poles against the Russians in 1920-21. It was there that he, along with Polish officers, learned that the next war would be fought with an emphasis on tanks and airplanes. All were ignored by the French high command in 1940. Undoubtedly, de Gaulle, who stated that the U.S. and U.K. gave away too much of Europe to Stalin, is a hero in Poland.


British, and other Western historians, have a tendency to use criticism of the Second Polish Republic to mask the complicity of Poland's Western "allies" in:

1) permitting the rearmament of Germany,
2) failing to make war on the Germans in September 1939 in fulfillment of military self-defense agreements,
3) abandoning the Poles fighting in the West to exile from Stalin's puppet regime, and
4) shifting Poland's borders and government without the consent of the pre-war Polish citizens of the Kresy.
It is far easier to bash Poland and Poles than to address their own disingenuous promises and complicity in the disaster that befell the citizens of the Second Polish Republic.

[quote-rozumiemnic]"the only British historian that says a lot of truth in his writings about Polish history,"
illogical sweeping statement surely? the only one? Really goofy?
Anyway I read that he is far from impartial in his treatment of who suffered in WW2, and that this has been a contentious issue.[/quote]