History / How come Poles like Russians but not Germans? [216]

I wouldn't say that I like or dislike neither Russia or Germany, but I definitelly have a different attitude towards each of them.
I grew up near the eastern border where you could meet Russian people on everyday basis usually selling smuggled cigarettes and it was easy to establish a business relationship with them. They were happy to make some money and we were happy to save some money and not paying taxes. There was something about it like two groups of people in (financially) underprivileged positions helping each other a little bit. They were open and nice and spoke similar language so it was easy to communicate with them. On the other hand, I remember watching a Polish documentary by a Polish female journalist who went to Russia and spoke to people asking questions about Polish Russian relationship. When she said that many Polish people feel that Russia should have entered Warsaw earlier that what they did in January 1945 (and before that Russia waited for Germans to kill as many Polish people as they were able to and only then entered Warsaw which by that time was practically empty as the German troops had already left - in history books is says that Russians wanted to be seen as the only ones who freed Warsaw, and that is why they waited for the Polish uprising to fail and postponed entering Warsaw for as long as they could). Anyway, when she said that, they become physically aggressive towards her and said that Polish people are ungrateful.

For me Russians would never criticize their government or the leader of their country or would never be able to accept the fact that someone else does. They are not ready and I think they will never be ready to acknowledge that there were lots of bad things that Russia may be responsible for. I do not say that it is completely their fault - they do not have free media and are indoctrinated when they are at school. (We had that in Poland too - the history books my mother had to read at school were different than the ones I read.)

Whereas German people admit that the bad things that happened were bad. So when I imagine myself having a conversation with a German person, somehow I think I would be easier and I think I could say what I want without a kind of self-censorship which I would definitely have to apply when speaking to Russians.

Have a look at this:
youtube.com/watch?v=BTPQRwltpeY
'Stalin is still one of the most popular historical figures in Russia nearly 19 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.'
A German person would not wear a T-shirt with Hitler on it, would they?
Or erect his monument, unlike Russians do with Stalin monument here:
youtube.com/watch?v=h2f8btGdCb0
Is there anyone less worthy of having their monument erected than him?
And if you can't come to an agreement on basic things like what is a good and a bad thing to do, having a closer relationship with a Russian person would be challenging.

So for me the biggest difference between the two nations is not what they did in the past but how they evaluate it now.

Real Estate / Sweeping powers? What rights do chimney sweeps have when inspecting rented properties in Poland? [8]

You are not supposed to pay them anything. They are sent by your local housing estate and I think it is them who decide how often it happens - usually it's once or twice a year. This is for safety reasons because an accident in one flat could potentially affect all the residents of that block of flats. You have to let them in otherwise they will bother you until you do. What happens normally where I live is that they announce those visits by hanging a notice by the staircase on the ground floor saying when they are going to come.

And yes once a year on 4th May they can come in order to collect some cash, selling calendars or something like that. But this is when you do not have to let them in.