Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread

The Polish cavalry did not attack German tanks. For that they had mobile anti-tank guns and, for those times, very modern anti-tank rifles.

There was a cavalry charge against (I think) a mechanised infantry unit however the stories of cavalry charges against tanks are due to a film of a real cavalry charge made shortly before the war and shown by Pathé in cinemas worldwide.

Graj, piękny Cyganie: 2015

Gypsy keyboard maestro is playing for the newlyweds as they exit the bride's house in Rakowo, a small village near Gniezno.

Jarocin: late 1980s

Choose life.
Choose a job.
Choose a career.
Choose a family,

Choose a f*cking big Soviet 'Rubin' TV,
Choose Polish Fiat 126p
Choose meat and sugar ration cards...
Choose life.

Young people found many ways of dealing with the overwhelming hopelessness and bleakness of late PRL. Apart from kompot, a homemade drug called "Polish heroine", they found refuge in music. One of the best known music festivals for youth back then was Festiwal w Jarocinie. The festival was sometimes visited by MO (Citizens' Militia) but they law enforcement officers weren't welcomed very warmly by the youngsters.

First to run...

Funny parody of Trainspotting. :):):)

Your pics reminded me of Wrocław and Orange Alternative movement which made fun of communism and its Polish regime in such a way that communist police was helpless coz they couldn`t arrest tens/hundreds of Santa Clauses or leprechauns even in a totalitarian country that Poland was so close to after WW2.

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Hilarious. They were trolling before it became fashionable. :)

Raze it to the ground!: 1944

There is one city in Poland that suffered proportionally more than Warsaw in WW2. Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the razing of Jasło. It wasn't destroyed by war but as an act of blatant war crime. German authorities gave inhabitants three days to leave their homes and began total destruction: the city was almost totally razed and looted; 97% (!) of buildings were destroyed and 1020* railway wagons of loot were transported to Germany (mostly Dusseldorf).

* - some historians estimate that if railway wagons with the works or art, machines, cars and other loot stolen in entire Poland by Germans during WW2 were put in one railway track, the last wagon would be still in Warszawa Zachodnia whilst the locomotive would be at Berlin Hauptbahnhof!

Yes, but it was rebuilt and Poles/Polesses still reside there.
While Germans were punished severely for their crimes - they lost their Eastern lands with a few major cities. Irrevocably.

Польско-русская дружба: forever

To gratuitously stir some sh*t on this lovely Wednesday evening - a couple of photos on the theme of eternal Polish-Russian friendship. :)

@GefreiterKania

Is that relief of the soldiers from Poznan?

It is indeed! What an eye!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have an expert on all things Poznań here.

Damn, I'm impressed!

Don't be too impressed, I've walked past that thing at least 100 times over the past 20-odd years.

Blue Blood, White-and-Red Heart: 1923

With his money and connections Count Władysław Zamoyski could have been the king of life, wallowing in luxuries and fulfilling all his desires. He had, however, only one love: Poland. His father was a November insurgent who was forced to emigrate to Paris; there he became the right hand of Adam Czartoryski and one of the most important members of "Hotel Lambert". He raised his son with an iron hand and military drill and his wife, Jadwiga z Działyńskich, instilled in him zealous patriotism.

Being an heir of one of the richest Polish noble families, after inheriting a thriving estate of Kórnik (on top of the estates of Głuchów, Janusz, Babin and Bargów in the Grand Duchy of Poznań), Zamoyski came back to Poland and started working for the noble cause of Polish independence. He is probably best known for acquiring estates on the Polish side of the Tatra Mountains and in Zakopane (including Morskie Oko, over which he won a boundary dispute with Hungary at the International Tribunal in Graz) and gifting them to the newly reborn Poland.

He was a great philantropist all his life. He never married and left all his properties to the Polish nation in his will.

Very close to Józef Retinger.

Zamoyski was an interesting person. His first language was French, not a rare thing for people of his class at that time.

A big mistake.

My maternal grandparents spoke perfect French, just like my wife's grandparents who came back to independent Poland from France. Generally, among educated people, it was a bit like English today. My granma taught me prayers in both French and Latin in mid 1980s! Cultural changes used to happen at a much slower pace in the past.


Depends how you look at it. He could hardly have predicted the WW2, PRL and all that, but still - Morskie Oko would definitely be outside Polish borders if it wasn't for Zamoyski and that's his lasting heritage. Nobody will remember current politicians in 50 years time, but people will still mention Zamoyski's name with respect in a 100 years and more.

The thread continues here: https://polishforums.com/history/poland-historic-photos-context-88662/