Will Poland help defend Greenland against US Imperialism

yeah, I made a mistake in my last line - I looked the things up in google

yes, of course I understand that you feel like Poles should be grateful to the Soviet Union for killing hundreds of thousands of Poles in the purges of 1937 and 1939-40, for sending hundreds of thousand of Poles to GULAG, and for "resettling" next hundreds of thousands to the hospitable lands of winter Kazakhstan et al. of which large proportion died of cold, illness and starvation - and finally for killing or sending to Gulag tens of thousands of Poles who rose up against Germans in 1944 when your Soviet armies approached

if you think we should be grateful for these, don't you think we should preserve the memory of them vivid and strong

I was talking about industry...


Of course this is true.

Even America can't make you rich - if you just sit on your ass. Certainly not the departed USSR.

I was making a simple point - that the reason the Warsaw Pact was underdeveloped in contrast to Western Europe and North America, was not due to the predatory/extractive nature of Soviet hegemony. But due to the fundamental inefficiency of the prevailing economic approach.

If you would like to make more an argument like Ironside, that Russians have arms that grow out of their dupas and that they are consequently genetically incapable of making quality items - that's a different discussion.

@Bobko
I had a Russian watch (actually a couple cause the first time started going late after some time) - I also had (for a moment) a Russian made bycicle (Russian made bicycles were a lot more respected than Russian watches) - we also had a Russian mechanical alarm clock (can't remember if there were problems with it) - so yeah Polish-Soviet trade was not as one sided as I made it seem in my previous posts - as far as I know we bought a lot of cotton from the USSR and then we sold textiles and clothes in the opposite direction

Soviet Uzbekistan was a world leader in cotton production - producing more than the USA and India. This is what led to the drying up of the Aral Sea - unfortunately.

So not only you, but the world bought Soviet cotton.

-//-

Since yesterday, I found some papers on USSR-PRL trade, and it was actually quite interesting. Learned a good bit about what "trade" between socialist economies was supposed to look like. Basically - it always had to balance, more or less.

Within COMECON, the USSR specialized in providing Poland with raw materials, energy, and heavy capital goods.

Poland was socialized in producing processed consumer goods, light industrial output, and transport equipment.

So... the USSR sent:

1) Agricultural goods: first and foremost cotton. But also grain (mostly for animal feed).

2) Raw materials: oil, natural gas, coal (yes coal! I was surprised too), iron ore, non ferrous metals.

3) Heavy industrial equipment: turbines, mining equipment, steel plant components, machining equipment for defense industry

Poland provided:

1) Light industry products: clothes, furniture, cosmetics and toiletries

2) Shipbuilding: Poland was the COMECON shipbuilding giant. Gdansk, Gdynia, Szczecin produced cargo ships, oil tankers, fishing trawlers, icebreakers, and military ships.

3) Transport: railcars, trams, diesel engines, buses.

4) Industrial components: bearings, tools, electrical equipment.

Both sides would get f*cked. USSR supplied raw materials for a fraction of their global market cost, and Poland sent back goods for a fraction of their actual worth.

I guess the best stuff, compatible with the world best, was all exported and sold for much sought after and needed western money....as it was in the GDR!

I have a few things in the house from Soviet times - 3 watches, a sort of lathe, some deck chairs and a kind of cast iron pot you put in a fire

We also have a typewriter with Cyrillic letters but no idea where it came from.

Quite a few DDR products - some scales, a really great leather briefcase, 2 watches, binoculars and quite a lot of fishing gear

Carl Zeiss Jena - the best optics in the worlds :) - I have an aunt who married a guy from the former GDR - I visited a number of times and bought a simple GDR photo camera

@cms

I've never had you pegged as a hoarder. More like a businessman living in a minimalist but luxurious villa. :)

Why do you keep all the Soviet and DDR stuff? Sentimental value?

Ehhhh? Most interesting...

Could you upload some photos of this fishing gear?

Might go for a lot of money now, depending on what it is.

Do you know the brand? Is it Neptun?

It's up at the dacha but when the snow clears I will go there and take some photos. Don't think it's Neptun though. My brother in law is using it more than me.


I can hoard with the best of them. I love watches so have a lot. The deck chairs and lathe still worked so why replace them ?

The briefcase - sentimental value and difficult to find something of that quality unless you pay a lot of money at an airport for some Italian stuff

@cms neuf
I'm convinced that some pieces of furniture from that era have become classics today. Unused pieces can certainly fetch high prices, just like old cars.