Genealogy / Are Western Ukrainians mixed with Poles? [4]

yes theres a large Polish population in Western Ukraine, Zhitomir survived the ethnic cleansing with its community fairly intact.
If you're asking about mixed marriages i have no information but i assume they happen.

The few remaining Poles in Lviv use the Lwow Dialect as heard in the film Włoscegi (check it out on You tube if you haven't seen it)

Wikipedia claims that "Polish radio stations exist in Lviv" but i can't find them, in the 90's there was a Polish religious station in Lviv with a poor quality transmitter than used to drift around 1476khz

History / Churchill and Poland [121]


he said that in public a lot precisely BECAUSE he knew Stalin would break his promise, he wanted the world to see what Stalin was like

he also wanted to offer no excuse or provocation that Stalin could blame for breaking his promise

there was also the problem that after 1941 the UK Gov had to persuade the population here that the USSR was an Ally , and it would be hard to suddenly contradict that

also Churchills cabinet was a coalition featuring Pro- Soviet Labour politicians and he had to try to keep the cabinet unified

oddy the CIA & British intelligence funded the UPA after the war- yup the butchers of Volhynia received western money in 1945-47!

UK, Ireland / Cancer treatment / healthcare on NHS in UK? [8]

i'm 99.9% certain all EU citizens can get the EHIC

heres the income tax info
hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm

Good luck moving here, if you get a chance to visit the Peak district National Park (near Manchester & Sheffield) i recommend it, its my favourite part of England :-)

Cannock Chase (Near Birmingham) is nice too and thers the Katyn Monument to see

if you're ever in Congleton, Cheshire, send me an email :-)

History / Churchill and Poland [121]

as far as i've read, by the time Churchill arrived at any meetings Roosevelt & Uncle Joe had already arranged anything and Churchill was told to stop making trouble

Churchills "trouble making" couldn't be allowed to disrupt the plans for the UN that Roosevelt had arranged with that nice trustworth mr Stalin!

the 2 rising powers were in charge by '43 and the old declining power (and our Polish allies) was/were losing influence, Roosevelts hatred of British imperialism was such that he allowed himself to be deluded by Stalin

News / Poland is the source of horsemeat in burgers? [169]

Romania is the guilty party apparently, Poland is off the hook

History / Memos show US hushed up Soviet crime against Poland [97]

IMO Germany get exactly the correct level of Blame for WW2, the USSR & Japan didn't get enough

thats not to say that that the harsh clauses in the Versailles Treaty weren't partly to blame for setting us on the road to WW2

History / Memos show US hushed up Soviet crime against Poland [97]

Russia would have attacked Japan if the war had gone on longer and the bomb hadn't been dropped.
all the deals were signed and Russia were ready to declare war but the bomb was dropped
Stalin offered the use of air bases in the far east in return for access to port arthur and the kuriles
Japan got off so lightly, they never apologised like Germany did yet still they complain about the loss of the Kuriles!
they should be grateful not to have lost half their territory!
i have no problem with the USSR taking Konigsberg, Kuriles, North Romania & Moldova. since romania was an Axis state
. however i have serious problem with Allied Countries like Poland & Czechoslovakia having land stolen, and Finland losing Karelia not to mention the Baltic states being annexed

@Dan, thanks for the welcome, i was heartened to hear about the Parlimentary rebellion over the loss of Kresy etc. with one MP even resigning his seat in protest, it restores ones faith in politicians, also its the first time i've ever read good things about Alec Douglas Home! usually portayed as a borderline senile old toff

i recently found out that Churchill sought permission from Roosevelt to fight on again the USSR but Roosevelt had deluded himself into thinkin Stalin could be trusted

the wierd thing is that virtually every German POW taken by the British was certain that he'd be re armed and sent against the USSR. go figure!

they only way i can see things turning out better is if we'd cleared North Africa in 42, Knocked out Italy earlier etc, and put ourself in a much stronger position at Tehran

i wonder what would have happened if British Troops had refused to leave Czechoslovakia in 45?

why was the there no organised Polish-American lobby putting pressure on Roosevelt and preventing him from agreeing stuff with Stalin behind Churchill back?

History / What do nations of the world owe to Poland and Polish people? [58]

Holger Czukay- Can Bassist & Music genius was born in Gdansk.

thanks Gdansk!

News / Amb. W. Sobków's response to G. Coren's "Today I am make first column in Polski" [59]

thanks CB88, i missed it in my excitement

his dad Alan Coren was such a great author, i read his "D-Day" article on the 50th anniversary of 6/6/44 and i was laughing so much i couldn't breathe!

i don't think it'll translate well without a load of explanation of all the old UK Brands, i can't find it online anyway

That is a really good reply from the Ambassador, i hope its widely circulated

History / "Westerner's" most ridiculous beliefs about the time of communism in Poland [73]

Check out Krist Novoselic's account of Cultural life in Communist Yugoslavia
Last Tango in Paris was considered peak time family viewing!
sos.wa.gov/legacyproject/oralhistories/KristNovoselic/pdf/complete.pdf

i was annoyed to See The Bundesarchiv have banned all East German tv clips from you tube, theres one cinema advert uploaded

News / Predictions about Poland for 2013 [85]

thanks for the link
i was thinking this thought last night, and then spotted it put into words in that interesting Guardian article:
"It is probably the closest to the central and eastern European cultural melting pot from between the wars. Let it stay that way."

we can build a new Lwow in England People!, (but with uglier buildings and more depressing weather!)

dragging my post back on to topic:
i'm keen to get your economic predictions for Poland, BBC Radio were praising the state of the Polish Economy. but Dziennik, Angora & FT are very concerned.

re: "Don't forget about Poland!" article

so i predict that Poland will allow Fracking, and the EC investigation into Gazproms pricing will free Poland of dependance on Russian Supplies.

Maybe Poland will become an exporter and can help Ukraine free itself from Gazprom?

Polonia / What are qualites of Germans? [60]

Your histories are so intertwined like England & Ireland, theres so many Polish Surnames in Germany, and before '39 the reverse was also true.
its good that relations are so strong at the moment.
I think it shows real political maturity and courage that the authorities in Opole have made German an official language of the locality

as I've mentioned in other threads i have good German friends i find them easy to talk to, and a calming influence on me.

when i get wound up about some trivial post someone makes online, i can rely on my mate Jurgen to tell me to ignore it etc

i'm amazed that some English people born in the 60's still have a residual suspicion of Germans, which i assume they inherited from parents who fought in the war.

my Dad was born in 1938 but was never indoctrinated with that anti-German mindset possibly because his own father was a foundry/munitions worker and never fought. however their home town was bombed by the Germans.

News / Amb. W. Sobków's response to G. Coren's "Today I am make first column in Polski" [59]

The times apologised for the Netanyahu cartoon very quickly, any sign of an apology for Corens piece yet?
I'd love to see the Polish Ambassadors comments, anyone got a link?

write to the times, let them know what you think of them

this seems to be getting worryingly common (anti-polish content in UK press), after reading this thread last night i ordered one of those little Anglo-Polish friendship badges with crossed flags from amazon, a small thing but wouldn't it send a nice message if enough English people wore them?

i'm a little involved in local politics, i declined a chance to stand as a councillor due to health problems. if i get a chance to do anything for the Polish community here, you can rest assured i'll do it

ps: actually may i suggest it may do more good to complain to the press complaints commision than just the times

News / Amb. W. Sobków's response to G. Coren's "Today I am make first column in Polski" [59]

[*************************** there is no understanding of what patriotism is and it gets confused with racism.[/quote]
indeed, because patriotism (especially English) was frowned upon for many years and equated with the far right, its improved a bit now.
but especially under Blair we were told Scottish & Welsh nationalism =good, English Nationalism = bad
our dear old St George flag was tainted.

i got a st georges day t-shirt when i worked in a charity shop, i forgot i was wearing it when i was in Malta, i was just about to go out with my Maltese GF and i saw this worried look on her face, and she said: you're changing first right?

i did, but perhaps i shouldn't have!

History / What do nations of the world owe to Poland and Polish people? [58]

Torun Gingerbread
Przewalski's horse, and the subsequent preservation of it made possible by the interest caused by Przewalski's "discovery" of it

History / What do nations of the world owe to Poland and Polish people? [58]

Copernicus, 'nuff said
how to stage an insurgency, AK tactics were probably studied by liberation movements everywhere, Kosovo even had a Polish style underground state

News / Amb. W. Sobków's response to G. Coren's "Today I am make first column in Polski" [59]

well let me tell you first of all that as a writer he's not worthy to lick his Dads boots.

I've noticed a decline in the times for a while, we just haven't found a decent newspaper to replace it with, they used to have excellent world news coverage and correctly predicted Kosovo. but now all i read in the times world news is the love life of French politicians.

shame on them for printing this rubbish.

History / What do nations of the world owe to Poland and Polish people? [58]

86% spoke Polish in 1910

News / Poland leads nations in raising 90 million euros for Belarus opposition [73]

what do people think of external broadcasts like European Radio for Belarus (68.24mhz)?
i've come to be very sceptical of the "radio free europe" type organisations calling for people to rise up while knowing that no help will be given and the protestors will be massacred.

don't get me wrong Lukashenko is a cancer on Central europe and his treatment of Belarus' Poles is disgraceful

History / What do nations of the world owe to Poland and Polish people? [58]

everyone is western Europe owes Poland a debt for stopping the advance of the Soviet Union in 1920 ,and paying the ultimate price when the NKVD got hold of the heroes of 1920.

Lwow gave us the first street lights and the typhus vaccine at a time when the population of that city was majority Polish.
Poles fought for the Paris Commune in 1871

theres already threads for WWII stuff so i won't repeat that stuff here.

History / Powstanie styczniowe (The January Uprising) [5]

wow!, you can't leave it at that after tantalising us like that :-)
i'd love to hear any of the stories you remember

Language / "Niemal" & "Konkurs" do they mean the same as in German? [8]

it means Bankrupt in German, which would have altered the article in Angora in a very amusing way!

UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]


surely i can brand my own country after living here all my life?

as for Italy i don't think its a particularly new or controversial idea that they're one of the most child-friendly countries in Europe..

i had a real insight into how Brits are seen today, it wasn't meant maliciously but it was clear enough.
i was really taken with a cartoon in angora so i used it as my signature on another forum, when a Polish forum member pm'ed me to find out why i was using a polish sig, he was friendly enough but he was amazed and surprised that a Brit would want to learn Polish, he was very pleased but said "you must be in a minority"

a Ukranian friend was similarly bemused when i said i wanted to visit Lvov, i had to convince him by namedropping Petlura, the Polish childrens choir and the Armenian cathedral!

re: British ignorance
it almost seems to be that some Brits had never encountered Poles before 2004, i guess i took for granted that everyone had the same experience as myself.

my town is close to a mining area in North Staffordshire that employed many many Poles since 1940, they were just always around.
i didn't meet any Black people til (iirc) the final year of primary school. but i knew Poles even before Mum went to work for some. i probably once asked my parents why a boy at school had a "funny" name, it was explained to me and i said "oh, ok" i think i thought of them like Welsh people, not exotic at all.

there were people with Polish names on TV, like (gardening expert) Stefan Buczaki (sp?) (Cancer specialist) Dr Karel Sikorski and writing in the papers like Nina Miscow. there were Polish teachers at school and every street seemingly had at least one elderly Polish man with a heavy accent and an intriguing history!

my Dad was/is pro-Polish as a result of his army experiences with displaced Poles in Germany and having them around when he was a kid but even before i was old enough to absorb that, they were just a part of normal everyday life. even my maternal Grandmother who to be honest hardly knew what day it was and had zero interest in the world could be heard saying things like "the Poles suffered terribly" like a lot of her generation she could be pretty racist, but the Poles were a special case!


#spot the stupid mistake

UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

its interesting, my friend from Latvia thinks Latvians & Russians are Cold, she likes England because she finds people friendlier.
i do indeed find Germans & Finns orderly, calm, precise in the way they use language and that is something i really appreciate.

i had a very positive experience of Italians when i was young, they love kids
we visited Rimini in'88 and it had been raining, but i was a silly kid and went out to play on the slippery wet climbing frame, so of course i fell off and badly banged my head and spent the rest of the holiday vomiting, we went to a little family cafe thinking i had recovered but i started vomiting all over the table, floor, chairs etc.the matriarch of the family bought a bucket and mop and when she'd cleaned up, she bought a cushion for me to put my head on "por la bambini". i will remember that act of kindness and the concern and sympathy on her face for the rest of my life.

i can't imagine that happening in England
i think it was almost worth bashing my brains out to get that insight into the Italian Character!
i think its the little things like that which stay with you and affect you

UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

sorry to hear about your experience CB88, but i have to admit most of my online friends are from outside England,(i love talking with Finns & Germans)

i find that British people online are just looking for a fight and the politeness i was taught as a child is just seen as weakness these days.

now i think about it My GF's have mostly been Non-English: Maltese, American, Turkish. wierd

feel free to remind the miserable gits about 303 squadron ;-)

when i visited Czech rep in '93 there was obviously still a lot of poverty but the people had dignity and they were resourceful, making their own clothes etc,

not like the tracksuited hordes of violent "Chav" scum here in England, they need to be kicked up the arse and shown what real poverty and hardship is

sorry, i think its time for my medication, nurse!

History / BEATS OF FREEDOM - A HISTORY OF POLISH ROCK MUSIC [106]

thanks for the link
"the show was ended halfway when management of the house disconnected electricity" Brilliant! just like the pistols!

Language / Popular simple children's books in Polish? [11]

Merged: Fikus (Childrens book) by Wanda Mycielska. do your kids like it?

I used to know the late author, and i'm really interested to find out what your children think of it.
is it too dated for them or still fun?
all the very best
Tim

History / BEATS OF FREEDOM - A HISTORY OF POLISH ROCK MUSIC [106]

Merged: Punk Rock in the PRL & Music censorship in general

were Punk albums like the Sex Pistols Nevermind the bollocks, released in the PRL?
it wasn't pressed in Russia until 1993

UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

thanks, are the UK residents combined into a seperate electoral seat like the French system, or are the votes counted in their home constituencies?

i don't suppose there's any chance of Wałesa canvassing in south cheshire ?, we have at least 1 Polish Pharmacist here :D