Russian Greatness - and its Polish Contributors

Aha! Now I get it! The russian rendering came a long time ago when the pronunciation of Polish rz was more or less like Czech Ř / ř (sort or r and ż at the same time)

Checking wikipedia..... the Czech composer Dvorak (Dvořák) is Дворжак in russian.

Now it makes sense.....

Oh, no probs. I misread that.

All in all a tragic figure, Rokossovski, perceived as a Pole in Russia and as a Russian in Poland. In different historical circumstances and under different political system he might well have been remembered as a hero of two nations. Alas, history's a b*tch sometimes. :(

"Voted out"? lol I'm guessing you didn't read that Wiki article if you think that was an option.

Much of my surrounding also finds my infatuation with Poland suspicious. I'm not Polish by blood (except a very small part), so of course I try to defend myself.

Bottom line - Poland should one day become part of a 4-Nation unity. Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia. One spiritual and philosophical continuum.

We have more in common with each other - and what will make us strong - than what separates us.

It's "bored out of his mind". Probably autocorrect - annoying stuff.


Oh, yeah? How do you think my Russophilia is perceived? You can get a hint by reading PF sometimes :D


*Paulina and Pawian freaking out in 3...2...1...* ;)

Mhmm, not easy.

If you do, you are inconsistent saying Your negative appraisals are valued at close to zero by me.
You should have said: Thank you for your informative and educational appraisals even though they sound a bit negative.
Can you decide what you want at last?


Yes, decent patriotic Poles and Polesses consider you a renegade. hahahaha There is also another option - you are crazy. hahahaha

I apologize Sensei. You are correct.

You have accurately pointed out the logical fallacy of my constructed argument.

not really afaik - Polish rz sounded more or less the same as now since the Renaisance - and Poles started appearing as part of the Russian society in numbers only after the partitions of Poland - the most probable date of Krzyżanowskis appearing in Russia is 19th century - I think this is may be just a Russian convention - confer Przewalski's surname (the same pattern)

So it happens that majority of Poles would laugh at Bobko's comment, not only a few PF Poles :)

I am a decent patriotic Pole. What people blinded by hate consider is the least of my worries.


This unity is, of course, painfully incomplete without one nation. S _ R B _ _. Would you like to buy a vowel? ;)

Neither blinded nor hate. Just realistic. Huge difference.
You are blinded by this infatuation. :):):)

@Torq
You dog!

Of course - Serbia - spiritual homeland.

Then why pick such a spelling in Polish even much less russian? I've read older descriptions that imply an r sound used to be there (which one would expect).

Yes, Mother of All Slavia. God, if we ever forget about Serbia, please forget about us.

*scores 100 brownie points with Crow* :)

I don't know about rz spelling but sz and cz spelling was borrowed from certain medieval German conventions and the spelling was present also in Czech conventions before Hus's spelling reform - I'm not sure how Polish ż (neither rz) was spelled before Polish ortography was sort of codified during the Renaisance

In another thread I clashed with certain Am Polonia member over Katyń massacre in which 22.000 Polish military and police were executed by Soviet NKVD..

It is worth mentioning that Soviet Russians spared a Polish general who as a young man fought against Japanese at the battle of Tsushima 1905 and became a hero awarded by the tsar with a high distinction for his bravery.

Jerzy Wołkowicki
In the years 1901-1904 he was a student of the Marine Corps in St. Petersburg . From 1904 he served in the rank of midshipman on the battleship " Imperator Nikolai I ", a unit of Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov 's squadron , which was part of the Baltic Fleet , and later the III Pacific Squadron. He took part in a cruise around Africa to help the besieged Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 , which ended in defeat in the Battle of Tsushima.

Many Poles serving in the Russian fleet took part in the battle, including Jerzy Wołkowicki, who later became a general of the Polish Army. In 1905, he held the rank of michman ( ensign ) . During a meeting with Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov, he and other junior officers opposed the capitulation of the remnants of the Russian Fleet. He uttered the words: fight to the end, and then blow up the ship and save yourself. For his stance, he was awarded the Order of St. George . He became a national hero of Russia. This was described by the famous seaman Novikov-Priboy in his novel Tsushima . The general's fame survived the tsarist regime and probably saved him from being murdered in Katyn in 1940.