Why are Polish so obsessed with Russia

Russia has traditionally good relations with Bulgarians and Serbs. It traces back to the 19th century when the Russians helps us against the Ottomans. Maybe you do not know, but in the Russian imperial court there were several marriages with princesses from Montenegro, tightly connected with Serbian kings. In Bulgaria Russians were respected even during the communist regime and still you could find the monument of the Russian tsar Alexander II opposite the Parliament building in Sofia.

The viewpoint towards a concrete nation is a result from the historical relations. I also know that Czechs dislike Russians, and it is historically justified (if we remember Prague 1968).

Poles are maybe obsessed with Russia... but not with Russians...
Anyway I think that we still cann't get around with the fact that ex KGB agent rules in Russia... I mean I do understand circumstances, Smuta of Jelcyn times and general collapse of the Russian state in 90'... yet as I remember it, after fall of the communism in the begining of 90' there was this popular felling of hope and change in the entire CEE block, regardless of hardships and doubts in the next years most people in Poland and some other CEE countries were quite sure that the very good thing happend in the 1989... yet out of the sudden all started to change in Russia with Putin era, starting with the hymn, with assessment of SU, with supporting Lukashenko rule in Belarus, etc... it was full ideological change in completely different direction. Poles didn't live in 90' Russia, and don't know how wrongly democracy and capitalism were implemented there and it was hard to understand this. Additionally, already during Jelcyn era and later, Russian state tried to undermine Polish ambitions to integrate with the West.

So it was big "WTF moment" in Polish society when Putin came to power there and started to build empire again... From post historic dream of eternal peace, democracy, cooperation and wealth for all, we got back to hard reality of uneasy neighborhood with big Russia which beatifies SU, has some strange political system of democratic tzar and tries to rebuild some form of Russian Empire by meddling in the neighbouring countries affairs, Poland included...

Well, maybe in a way Poles still think in the spirit of 89' peace revolutions and looks at Russian state as a counter-revolutionary state...

We have to remark here that Stalin was not Russian.He spoke Russian with hard accent all his life.Neither was Lazar Kaganovich.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazar_Kaganovich

Nor was Feliks Dzierzynski.

Very interesting read. But ultimately what percentage of Russians back Putin? When I look at modern day Russia I see immense new wealth at the top and ''strong directional leadership'' but a rotting society underneath. Maybe as Poles (centuries removed from the Commonwealth) we will never be able to comprehend the ''Empire'' mindset ingrained in Russian culture. It is hard to argue that it's not for global show, at the expense of their own people. Russia is hosting the Olympics and World Cup in the next decade, while none of us would choose to live there.

pierogi2000
"Maybe as Poles (centuries removed from the Commonwealth) we will never be able to comprehend the ''Empire'' mindset ingrained in Russian culture."

I dont know... pilskudski was pretty empire-minded, in fact I believe it was said Hitler looked up to him or learned for, him in some ways. I personalY like them, because again they are straight to the point and dont bullshet you like Americans. They tell you like it is. Even Russian doctors willtell youthat you are exaggerating or making a big deal of thins when theyre not instead of sugercoating you or pretending to be your therapists like American doctors. I think Polaks and Ruskis are more similar than Polaks and Americans or Polaks and the French Fries.

wait.. great Russian empire??

And Polaks are more similar to Czechs and Slovaks than Russians, why don't you focus on these countries instead? Are you that obsessed with Russia that you can't see there are closer cultures than the Russian one in Europe?


? Fries are actually supposed to be Belgian, but you can't know that, you're a (Polish-)American, obsessed with Russia.

Maybe these countries are just not populous enough to focus on them?Ethnic Czech + Slovacs who live in their homeland countries are
probobly no more numerous than 10 mln. While ethnic Poles in Poland are close to 35 mln.People are prone to compare something equal
in size.Poland and Ukraine is probably more adequate comparison.

Then clearly not Russia ;)


Probably, even tho they have that weird cyrillic alphabet too... ;)

This is modern Polish alphabet wich non-suitable for Polish language,cyrilic for Ukrainian works much better.
For example: When Poles use four caracters "szcz", Ukrainians use only one - "щ". Poles use two caracters - "ja", "ju","sz",

while Ukrainians only one "я", "ю", "ш".So which alphabet takes it longer to write?

I didn't say it was long, I said it was weird. Half seriously of course.
I'm used to the Latin alphabet, that's the difference. But of course, I'm sure Polish could be written with the Cyrillic alphabet too.

But that's also the difference between Catholic and Orthodox countries.
Anyway, it's getting late, talk to you later.

What are you talking about son? Polish has always been written in Latin alphabet


LOL maybe English should use Cyrillic alphabet too? instead of "you" and "sh" they would have "ю", "ш" and so on...

Personally,I prefer cyrilic alphabet for reading.Latin alphabet is too vertically oriented.Cyrilic letters are wider
and easier to read.And yes,they use smaller amount of characters to describe some sound.

Alphabet is just mapping of sounds onto symbols... so it doesn't matter actually which one you use as long as everybody sticks to it... since 1000 years Poles use latin alphabet. Anyway, regarding similarities it all depends, for example as I was told by some German friends, they are unable to distinguish between spoken Polish and Russian...On the other hand some Ukrainian guy said that Ukrainian language is much closer to Polish than Russian, as a Pole I have an impression that I can actually hear that.


I agree, popular theory that Poles somehow understands better Russian soul is overinflated in my opinion... maybe part of the older generation expatriates from areas close to Russia have/had that ability. But current reality is that Russia is far far away country. Bordering with small Kaliningrad Oblast doesn't change that much (maybe recent border opening and influx of Russian guests into Gdansk will). Moscow is as far from Poland like Paris or even Istanbul, centralization of Russian politics only accelerates this feeling of the distance.


Well... speak for yourself :-) I could use a year or two in Moscow or Sankt Petersburg...

It definitely is much closer - I can understand some Ukrainian and I can talk to people there - but I wouldn't have a clue in Russian.