Scholars disagree about the degree of involvement of the Blue Police in the rounding up of Jews.[16][17] Although policing inside the Warsaw Ghetto was a responsibility of the Jewish Ghetto Police, a Polish-Jewish historian Emmanuel Ringelblum, chronicler of the Warsaw Ghetto, mentioned Polish policemen carrying out extortions and beatings.[18] The police also took part in street roundups.[9][19] On June 3, 1942, during a prison execution of 110 Jews in Warsaw, members of the Blue Police stood and wept, while the Germans themselves executed the victims after the Poles refused to obey the orders of their overseers to carry out the shooting.[14] According to Szymon Datner, "The Polish police were employed in a very marginal way, in what I would call keeping order. I must state with all decisiveness that more than 90% of that terrifying, murderous work was carried out by the Germans, with no Polish participation whatsoever."[20] According to Raul Hilberg, "Of all the native police forces in occupied Eastern Europe, those of Poland were least involved in anti-Jewish actions.... They [the Polish Blue Police] could not join the Germans in major operations against Jews or Polish resistors, lest they be considered traitors by virtually every Polish onlooker. Their task in the destruction of the Jews was therefore limited."
Great benefits enjoyed by these United States results from being located on another continent and in the opposite hemisphere from Europe. Except our government keeps on being stupid by getting involved in foreign entanglements while the option to simply observe from afar exists.
When I saw McIntyre's tweet earlier, I was thinking-there were a lot of Jewish people killed in Poland during WW2, but they weren't killed by the Polish government. I was glad to see you touch on this today.
Mark, I mis-spoke and promptly removed tweet. What I intended to say and should have said was "Poland, the country in which the most Jews were murdered during Holocaust". I was not intending to opine on Polish history, a topic that I haven't studied and don't purport to know.
I get it, but Stephen, this is the second time you've written basically the same thing. It's hard to see this second time as a mistake. Give this some thought--Poles are far and away the largest group honored at Yad Vashem, despite the fact that war time conditions in Poland were immeasurably more brutal than in any other country in Europe with regard to sheltering Jews. I know this first hand, having studied Polish at DLI with two Jewish teachers who survived the Holocaust in Poland, thanks to Poles who risked their lives:
Regarding the liberating Red Army, it's worth noting that two Polish armies made up 10% of the troops in the final Soviet offensive against Germany, and fought with distinction. Russian troops weren't the only ones who stopped the holocaust:
That contribution was made in spite of the Soviet attempt to decapitate Polish civil society with the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers.
That's also not counting the many Poles who fought with the Western allies in the Battle of Britain, North Africa, Italy, and across France:
"Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe,[131][132][133] and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino.[134][135] Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond,[136] and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cipher.[e] In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin."
The Polish contribution to Ultra was arguably a game changer for the entire war--invaluable for the Battle of Britain and Battle of the Atlantic, and was used not only by the Western allies but was also provided to the USSR--crucially at the Battle of Kursk.
One area in which I give Putin special credit is his willingness to recognize the complicated nature of Polish Russian relations and the fact that Russians committed great wrongs against Poland. That doesn't mean Putin isn't a Russian patriot, nor that he's blind to Polish faults. However, he has consistently tried to offer a path forward.
I've scarcely ever mentioned Poles. I haven't studied Polish issues. I certainly did not intend to wade into Polish historical issues that I haven't studied. If I have made the same mistake twice, it's not because I was firmly expressing a view, but because I made the same careless mistake twice.
However, my understanding is that Ukrainian Banderistas did enthusiastically abet Holocaust. (And then murdered Poles equally enthusiastically). Without having studied the matter, I'll accept your re-assurance that Poles behaved differently than Ukrainians in this respect.
I am therefore surprised that so many Poles enthusiastically support a Ukrainian regime that honors Bandera and his collaborators. But I also understand that historical animosities in eastern Europe run deep.
My main point - and the one on which I would prefer to be judged - is that, whatever the respective grievances of the various nations in eastern Europe, it will not help the resolution of these grievances for US (or Canada or UK) to send a tsunami of military weapons or to exacerbate fights rather than settle them.
The worst of what's going on these days in re Ukraine--the military aspect--couldn't be happening to such an alarming extent but for Poland's misguided role. And that can only be understood from an historical standpoint. Again: Putin has a deeper understanding of all this than most, but his efforts at national reconciliation with Poland over the years have sadly come to naught. Also sadly, current Polish willingness to be guided by the US's cynical manipulation of Ukraine--put on steroids by Jarosław Kaczyński's virulent and very personal hatred for Russia--has played directly into the deepest anti-Polish sentiments of Russian ultra nationalists.
I regard Polish sympathy toward Ukraine as almost entirely cynical and motivated by deep seated anti-Russian sentiment--not sympathy for Ukraine or Banderistas as such. Nor do I doubt that the feeling is reciprocated by most Ukrainians. That's another complicated topic. Real Polish grievances from the WW2 era were suppressed and denied while Poland was dominated by the USSR during the Cold War period, and that accounts for the virulence of Polish anti-Russian sentiment that has only relatively recently been openly expressed. The fact that prominent Russian nationalists continue to deny such hot button Polish grievances as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre#Legacy fuels Polish resentment.
Public opinion in the US and, in fairness, much of Europe, is guided by an almost complete ignorance of the historical dynamics. Without that history the Neocon meddling would have no point of entry, but unfortunately the ignorance of these matters allows Neocons to manipulate public opinion. This ignorance also prevents the general public in the US/CA/UK from questioning the motivations behind the war on Russia.
expressed that way, I don't think that we substantively disagree on very much. So I think that your editorial against me is a bit over-cooked, but I've endured worse. In respect to Ukraine controversy, as a Canadian, I am particularly annoyed by Canada's failure to provide constructive middle power diplomacy in a dispute which Canada is perfectly positioned to provide constructive advice as a nation that has been wrought by two Quebec separation referenda and an understanding of the importance of constitutionally vesting Quebec language rights in order for Canada to exist. And allowing the debate to descend into facile and stereotyped yelling about "sovereignty" without coming to terms with Ukraine's failure to implement Minsk accords and 8 years of low-grade by civil war by Kyiv regime on Donbas republics.
KK's comment is a very mixed bag--some truth, a fair amount of disinformation.
1. My point in discussing Poland in the current situation has never been to suggest that Poles have historically been angels. Interwar Poland--the Second Republic--managed to alienate virtually all neighboring nations, often gratuitously, based on a romanticization of the Polish past. Poland forfeited a lot of sympathy by attempting to regaind past glories. However ...
2. Poland and Hitler were never "buddies" and were never under any illusion that Germany was a "friend" to Poland. Poland consistently feared Germany for the very good reason that Germany never truly accepted the loss to Poland of formerly German areas. As a result Poland consistently sought treaty protection against Germany with France and Britain:
"Between 1932 and 1933 Piłsudski and Beck initiated several incidents along the borders with Germany and Danzig, both to test whether Western powers would protect the Versailles arrangements (on which Polish security depended), and as preparation for a preventative war against Germany. At the same time they sent emissaries to London and Paris, looking for their support in stopping Germany's rearmament effort. An invasion to Danzig by Poland was scheduled for April 21, 1933, but the amassing of troops was discovered and the invasion was postponed. At the time an invasion by Poland would have posed a serious military threat to Germany, but with the British rejecting the idea (in favor of the Four-Power Pact), and with wavering support from the French, the Poles had eventually reneged on the idea of invasion."
The Polish goal throughout the interwar period was to remain independent of both Germany and the USSR, and to that end it entered non-aggression pacts with both (1932 and 1934). In the years immediately before WW2 Poland's foreign policy was directed under the misguided notion that Germany and the USSR would never cooperate with each other.
3. Yes, anti-Semitism was a thing in Poland, which had the largest Jewish population in Europe. Jews typically preferred life under either Russia or Germany rather than a resurrected Poland. Poles regarded Jews with suspicion and associated Jews with Communism. OTOH, Polish anti-Semitism never was programmatic in the murderous fashion of Hitlerian anti-Semitism. The Yad Vashem numbers give the lie to KK's vicious anti-Polish disinformation.
4. "lots of Polish elites just flat-out hate anything and everything Russian." This is partially true. It's not just Polish elites but the vast majority of all Poles harbor fear and resentment of Russia. In my experience that doesn't translate into hatred for "anything and everything Russian." However, leaving pre-WW1 history aside, Polish fear and hatred of Russia is based on four decades of subjugation during the Cold War. That isn't easily forgotten--not by Poles, anyway. That is also the basis for fear of Russia throughout Eastern Europe--Poles are hardly alone. Hungarians do remember 1956, Czechs do remember 1968. Even if Russians prefer not to remember.
5. "a reasonable thinking person would realize that at some point you need to move on and leave the past behind." This is also true, but is much easier said than accomplished. Russians don't leave the past behind, either--that's what the May 9 celebrations are all about: the past. Poles are in the position that they need to accomplish the difficult feat of "moving on" far more than their powerful neighbor, Russia, does. As always, I give full credit to Putin for seeking national reconciliation with Poland throughout his years in power. I have described Kaczynski as possibly mentally unbalanced. For further context, there are reasons why all Russia's Easter European neighbors fear Russia and have--unwisely in my opinion--joined NATO. For example, Finland and Sweden are now considering joining NATO. Neither country has been entirely angelic, in differing degrees, although few people are conversant with Finnish or Swedish history vis a vis Russia, but the current reality is that they fear Russia. These are simple realities, whether justified or not. The Cold War was a tragedy in many ways, but definitely for Russian relations with its neighbors.
6. OTOH, just as many Poles detest most things Russian, the same is true for Russians--anti-Polonism has always been part and parcel of the Russian mentality. The Katyn Massacre denialism does in fact illustrate this attitude (which is also expressed in Russian Pan Slavic ideas). KK says bringing up Katyn is "just an excuse to hate Russia" and that "Russian nationalists hold no power in Russia." This is disinformation. I consistently give credit to Putin re Katyn. Nevertheless, the fact that Russian Communists and nationalists "hold no power" does not mean that they have no influence--not least on the Russian psyche. Thus, while Putin took extraordinary steps to acquaint the Russian public with the true facts re Katyn:
"In 2021, however, the Russian Ministry of Culture downgraded the memorial complex at Katyn on its Register of Sites of Cultural Heritage from a place of federal to one of only regional importance. ... More important, the Ministry altered the descriptive text to say, once more, that the "Polish officers were shot by the Hitlerites in 1941".
That is a direct denial of history and very naturally fuels Polish resentment. Nationalist thinking remains powerfully influential in Russia, and some of its exponents are close to Putin. I do not maintain that Russians have no right to their national pride, but to the extent that that has historically got in the way of better relations with neighboring nations it has sometimes been counterproductive.
7. "Current Polish-Ukrainian love-affair is just a marriage of convenience. My enemies enemy is my friend kinda thing."
This is true.
8. The fact that Poland is currently on the wrong side doesn't mean that Poland is always wrong. The fact that Russia is in the right in defending itself against Western aggression--no matter how tragic the results--doesn't mean that Russia is or has always been right. Putin, in my view, has done as much as one man can do to avoid this tragedy. The weight of history and historical resentments has worked against him and has enabled Western aggression to manipulate Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Finland, Sweden, and other nations in the area.
First, I would take issue with the notion that Poles harbor a "blind hatred" of Russia. In point of fact, I've known many Poles to express admiration for Russian literature and for the Russian people--just not for the Russian state. On the other hand, I've never encountered a Russian who expressed admiration for anything at all about Poland. I have known Russians to express the view that the Polish language is simply a Germanified type of Russian, that Russian is the real Slavic language and that Poles should stop being embarrassed for being Slavs and get used to the idea that they're really just Russians.
The distrust of Poles for Russia as a country is simply explained by reference to the centuries long conflicts between the two countries which ended in the partition of Poland. Poles naturally see the Cold War as a fairly seamless continuation of that long history of conflict. Hungary and Czechia simply don't have that long history of conflict with Russia.
Regarding Poles, Jews, Germans, and Russians. Israel appears to enjoy warm relations with Germany, but not so much with Poland--despite all those Righteous Gentiles listed at Yad Vashem. Poles, certainly the current government, have very prickly relations with Germany but, in any event, if Jews can get along with Germany I don't see why Poles shouldn't. I think the difference with regard to Russia is that Poles feel a sense of Russia Pan Slavic cultural imperialism that rubs the wrong way. The other aspect is that Germans have spent the decades since WW2 doing penance for their existence (while also conquering Europe by economic means). Russia hasn't done that type of penance for Bolshevism--not to the outside world and certainly not to Poland. Russians tend to see their victory in the Great Patriotic War in fairly simple terms--Russia through sacrifice and heroism overcame evil. Poles can't see the Red Army's victory in those black/white terms because in Polish history the end of WW2 was the beginning of another national tragedy, one that was imposed on them by Russia.
I'm not saying any of this is fair. I'm just saying that Polish attitudes are at least understandable in purely human terms. They are also self defeating, in my opinion. I agree that Poland should find a way to move on, but the proper target for rectifying the current situation isn't Poland--it's the US/UK alliance without which Poland would not be acting as it is. But for the US/UK war on Russia, Poland would be forced to find some way to live with Russia.
"Russia is a multi-ethnic country. Ethnic Russians are a minority."
Wikipedia tells me that Russia is demographically 81% ethnic Russian.
Yes, I just read that. The real point, however, is that Morawiecki wouldn't be saying those things but for US backing. Sooner or later Poland will pay the price for thinking that the US truly has its back, just as others have paid the price before.
Think about it. When was the last time you heard anybody say: Poland murdered more Jews than any other country. Yes, Nazism was far more programmatic than any garden variety anti-Semitism that came before.
in virtually every country occupied by Germany, SS units created local auxiliary units that did much of the dirty work; that includes Poland.
You should be ashamed of such exaggerations as "much of the dirty work":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Police#Historical_assessment
Brief excerpt:
Scholars disagree about the degree of involvement of the Blue Police in the rounding up of Jews.[16][17] Although policing inside the Warsaw Ghetto was a responsibility of the Jewish Ghetto Police, a Polish-Jewish historian Emmanuel Ringelblum, chronicler of the Warsaw Ghetto, mentioned Polish policemen carrying out extortions and beatings.[18] The police also took part in street roundups.[9][19] On June 3, 1942, during a prison execution of 110 Jews in Warsaw, members of the Blue Police stood and wept, while the Germans themselves executed the victims after the Poles refused to obey the orders of their overseers to carry out the shooting.[14] According to Szymon Datner, "The Polish police were employed in a very marginal way, in what I would call keeping order. I must state with all decisiveness that more than 90% of that terrifying, murderous work was carried out by the Germans, with no Polish participation whatsoever."[20] According to Raul Hilberg, "Of all the native police forces in occupied Eastern Europe, those of Poland were least involved in anti-Jewish actions.... They [the Polish Blue Police] could not join the Germans in major operations against Jews or Polish resistors, lest they be considered traitors by virtually every Polish onlooker. Their task in the destruction of the Jews was therefore limited."
Great benefits enjoyed by these United States results from being located on another continent and in the opposite hemisphere from Europe. Except our government keeps on being stupid by getting involved in foreign entanglements while the option to simply observe from afar exists.
When I saw McIntyre's tweet earlier, I was thinking-there were a lot of Jewish people killed in Poland during WW2, but they weren't killed by the Polish government. I was glad to see you touch on this today.
Mark, I mis-spoke and promptly removed tweet. What I intended to say and should have said was "Poland, the country in which the most Jews were murdered during Holocaust". I was not intending to opine on Polish history, a topic that I haven't studied and don't purport to know.
I get it, but Stephen, this is the second time you've written basically the same thing. It's hard to see this second time as a mistake. Give this some thought--Poles are far and away the largest group honored at Yad Vashem, despite the fact that war time conditions in Poland were immeasurably more brutal than in any other country in Europe with regard to sheltering Jews. I know this first hand, having studied Polish at DLI with two Jewish teachers who survived the Holocaust in Poland, thanks to Poles who risked their lives:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_Among_the_Nations#Number_of_awards_by_country
Regarding the liberating Red Army, it's worth noting that two Polish armies made up 10% of the troops in the final Soviet offensive against Germany, and fought with distinction. Russian troops weren't the only ones who stopped the holocaust:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Polish_Army_(1944–1945)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Army_(Poland)
That contribution was made in spite of the Soviet attempt to decapitate Polish civil society with the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers.
That's also not counting the many Poles who fought with the Western allies in the Battle of Britain, North Africa, Italy, and across France:
"Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe,[131][132][133] and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino.[134][135] Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond,[136] and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cipher.[e] In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin."
The Polish contribution to Ultra was arguably a game changer for the entire war--invaluable for the Battle of Britain and Battle of the Atlantic, and was used not only by the Western allies but was also provided to the USSR--crucially at the Battle of Kursk.
One area in which I give Putin special credit is his willingness to recognize the complicated nature of Polish Russian relations and the fact that Russians committed great wrongs against Poland. That doesn't mean Putin isn't a Russian patriot, nor that he's blind to Polish faults. However, he has consistently tried to offer a path forward.
I've scarcely ever mentioned Poles. I haven't studied Polish issues. I certainly did not intend to wade into Polish historical issues that I haven't studied. If I have made the same mistake twice, it's not because I was firmly expressing a view, but because I made the same careless mistake twice.
However, my understanding is that Ukrainian Banderistas did enthusiastically abet Holocaust. (And then murdered Poles equally enthusiastically). Without having studied the matter, I'll accept your re-assurance that Poles behaved differently than Ukrainians in this respect.
I am therefore surprised that so many Poles enthusiastically support a Ukrainian regime that honors Bandera and his collaborators. But I also understand that historical animosities in eastern Europe run deep.
My main point - and the one on which I would prefer to be judged - is that, whatever the respective grievances of the various nations in eastern Europe, it will not help the resolution of these grievances for US (or Canada or UK) to send a tsunami of military weapons or to exacerbate fights rather than settle them.
Unfortunately ...
The worst of what's going on these days in re Ukraine--the military aspect--couldn't be happening to such an alarming extent but for Poland's misguided role. And that can only be understood from an historical standpoint. Again: Putin has a deeper understanding of all this than most, but his efforts at national reconciliation with Poland over the years have sadly come to naught. Also sadly, current Polish willingness to be guided by the US's cynical manipulation of Ukraine--put on steroids by Jarosław Kaczyński's virulent and very personal hatred for Russia--has played directly into the deepest anti-Polish sentiments of Russian ultra nationalists.
I regard Polish sympathy toward Ukraine as almost entirely cynical and motivated by deep seated anti-Russian sentiment--not sympathy for Ukraine or Banderistas as such. Nor do I doubt that the feeling is reciprocated by most Ukrainians. That's another complicated topic. Real Polish grievances from the WW2 era were suppressed and denied while Poland was dominated by the USSR during the Cold War period, and that accounts for the virulence of Polish anti-Russian sentiment that has only relatively recently been openly expressed. The fact that prominent Russian nationalists continue to deny such hot button Polish grievances as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre#Legacy fuels Polish resentment.
Public opinion in the US and, in fairness, much of Europe, is guided by an almost complete ignorance of the historical dynamics. Without that history the Neocon meddling would have no point of entry, but unfortunately the ignorance of these matters allows Neocons to manipulate public opinion. This ignorance also prevents the general public in the US/CA/UK from questioning the motivations behind the war on Russia.
expressed that way, I don't think that we substantively disagree on very much. So I think that your editorial against me is a bit over-cooked, but I've endured worse. In respect to Ukraine controversy, as a Canadian, I am particularly annoyed by Canada's failure to provide constructive middle power diplomacy in a dispute which Canada is perfectly positioned to provide constructive advice as a nation that has been wrought by two Quebec separation referenda and an understanding of the importance of constitutionally vesting Quebec language rights in order for Canada to exist. And allowing the debate to descend into facile and stereotyped yelling about "sovereignty" without coming to terms with Ukraine's failure to implement Minsk accords and 8 years of low-grade by civil war by Kyiv regime on Donbas republics.
If only the MSM could have such conversations. That however would require both humility, and an absence of guile.
KK's comment is a very mixed bag--some truth, a fair amount of disinformation.
1. My point in discussing Poland in the current situation has never been to suggest that Poles have historically been angels. Interwar Poland--the Second Republic--managed to alienate virtually all neighboring nations, often gratuitously, based on a romanticization of the Polish past. Poland forfeited a lot of sympathy by attempting to regaind past glories. However ...
2. Poland and Hitler were never "buddies" and were never under any illusion that Germany was a "friend" to Poland. Poland consistently feared Germany for the very good reason that Germany never truly accepted the loss to Poland of formerly German areas. As a result Poland consistently sought treaty protection against Germany with France and Britain:
"Between 1932 and 1933 Piłsudski and Beck initiated several incidents along the borders with Germany and Danzig, both to test whether Western powers would protect the Versailles arrangements (on which Polish security depended), and as preparation for a preventative war against Germany. At the same time they sent emissaries to London and Paris, looking for their support in stopping Germany's rearmament effort. An invasion to Danzig by Poland was scheduled for April 21, 1933, but the amassing of troops was discovered and the invasion was postponed. At the time an invasion by Poland would have posed a serious military threat to Germany, but with the British rejecting the idea (in favor of the Four-Power Pact), and with wavering support from the French, the Poles had eventually reneged on the idea of invasion."
The Polish goal throughout the interwar period was to remain independent of both Germany and the USSR, and to that end it entered non-aggression pacts with both (1932 and 1934). In the years immediately before WW2 Poland's foreign policy was directed under the misguided notion that Germany and the USSR would never cooperate with each other.
3. Yes, anti-Semitism was a thing in Poland, which had the largest Jewish population in Europe. Jews typically preferred life under either Russia or Germany rather than a resurrected Poland. Poles regarded Jews with suspicion and associated Jews with Communism. OTOH, Polish anti-Semitism never was programmatic in the murderous fashion of Hitlerian anti-Semitism. The Yad Vashem numbers give the lie to KK's vicious anti-Polish disinformation.
4. "lots of Polish elites just flat-out hate anything and everything Russian." This is partially true. It's not just Polish elites but the vast majority of all Poles harbor fear and resentment of Russia. In my experience that doesn't translate into hatred for "anything and everything Russian." However, leaving pre-WW1 history aside, Polish fear and hatred of Russia is based on four decades of subjugation during the Cold War. That isn't easily forgotten--not by Poles, anyway. That is also the basis for fear of Russia throughout Eastern Europe--Poles are hardly alone. Hungarians do remember 1956, Czechs do remember 1968. Even if Russians prefer not to remember.
5. "a reasonable thinking person would realize that at some point you need to move on and leave the past behind." This is also true, but is much easier said than accomplished. Russians don't leave the past behind, either--that's what the May 9 celebrations are all about: the past. Poles are in the position that they need to accomplish the difficult feat of "moving on" far more than their powerful neighbor, Russia, does. As always, I give full credit to Putin for seeking national reconciliation with Poland throughout his years in power. I have described Kaczynski as possibly mentally unbalanced. For further context, there are reasons why all Russia's Easter European neighbors fear Russia and have--unwisely in my opinion--joined NATO. For example, Finland and Sweden are now considering joining NATO. Neither country has been entirely angelic, in differing degrees, although few people are conversant with Finnish or Swedish history vis a vis Russia, but the current reality is that they fear Russia. These are simple realities, whether justified or not. The Cold War was a tragedy in many ways, but definitely for Russian relations with its neighbors.
6. OTOH, just as many Poles detest most things Russian, the same is true for Russians--anti-Polonism has always been part and parcel of the Russian mentality. The Katyn Massacre denialism does in fact illustrate this attitude (which is also expressed in Russian Pan Slavic ideas). KK says bringing up Katyn is "just an excuse to hate Russia" and that "Russian nationalists hold no power in Russia." This is disinformation. I consistently give credit to Putin re Katyn. Nevertheless, the fact that Russian Communists and nationalists "hold no power" does not mean that they have no influence--not least on the Russian psyche. Thus, while Putin took extraordinary steps to acquaint the Russian public with the true facts re Katyn:
"In 2021, however, the Russian Ministry of Culture downgraded the memorial complex at Katyn on its Register of Sites of Cultural Heritage from a place of federal to one of only regional importance. ... More important, the Ministry altered the descriptive text to say, once more, that the "Polish officers were shot by the Hitlerites in 1941".
That is a direct denial of history and very naturally fuels Polish resentment. Nationalist thinking remains powerfully influential in Russia, and some of its exponents are close to Putin. I do not maintain that Russians have no right to their national pride, but to the extent that that has historically got in the way of better relations with neighboring nations it has sometimes been counterproductive.
7. "Current Polish-Ukrainian love-affair is just a marriage of convenience. My enemies enemy is my friend kinda thing."
This is true.
8. The fact that Poland is currently on the wrong side doesn't mean that Poland is always wrong. The fact that Russia is in the right in defending itself against Western aggression--no matter how tragic the results--doesn't mean that Russia is or has always been right. Putin, in my view, has done as much as one man can do to avoid this tragedy. The weight of history and historical resentments has worked against him and has enabled Western aggression to manipulate Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Finland, Sweden, and other nations in the area.
First, I would take issue with the notion that Poles harbor a "blind hatred" of Russia. In point of fact, I've known many Poles to express admiration for Russian literature and for the Russian people--just not for the Russian state. On the other hand, I've never encountered a Russian who expressed admiration for anything at all about Poland. I have known Russians to express the view that the Polish language is simply a Germanified type of Russian, that Russian is the real Slavic language and that Poles should stop being embarrassed for being Slavs and get used to the idea that they're really just Russians.
The distrust of Poles for Russia as a country is simply explained by reference to the centuries long conflicts between the two countries which ended in the partition of Poland. Poles naturally see the Cold War as a fairly seamless continuation of that long history of conflict. Hungary and Czechia simply don't have that long history of conflict with Russia.
Regarding Poles, Jews, Germans, and Russians. Israel appears to enjoy warm relations with Germany, but not so much with Poland--despite all those Righteous Gentiles listed at Yad Vashem. Poles, certainly the current government, have very prickly relations with Germany but, in any event, if Jews can get along with Germany I don't see why Poles shouldn't. I think the difference with regard to Russia is that Poles feel a sense of Russia Pan Slavic cultural imperialism that rubs the wrong way. The other aspect is that Germans have spent the decades since WW2 doing penance for their existence (while also conquering Europe by economic means). Russia hasn't done that type of penance for Bolshevism--not to the outside world and certainly not to Poland. Russians tend to see their victory in the Great Patriotic War in fairly simple terms--Russia through sacrifice and heroism overcame evil. Poles can't see the Red Army's victory in those black/white terms because in Polish history the end of WW2 was the beginning of another national tragedy, one that was imposed on them by Russia.
I'm not saying any of this is fair. I'm just saying that Polish attitudes are at least understandable in purely human terms. They are also self defeating, in my opinion. I agree that Poland should find a way to move on, but the proper target for rectifying the current situation isn't Poland--it's the US/UK alliance without which Poland would not be acting as it is. But for the US/UK war on Russia, Poland would be forced to find some way to live with Russia.
"Russia is a multi-ethnic country. Ethnic Russians are a minority."
Wikipedia tells me that Russia is demographically 81% ethnic Russian.
Actually, if you want an example of virulent hatred for Russia, look no further than the Baltics. Again, I don't say their actions are smart, but ...
It's very difficult to change deep seated attitudes based in centuries of history.
Yes, I just read that. The real point, however, is that Morawiecki wouldn't be saying those things but for US backing. Sooner or later Poland will pay the price for thinking that the US truly has its back, just as others have paid the price before.
Think about it. When was the last time you heard anybody say: Poland murdered more Jews than any other country. Yes, Nazism was far more programmatic than any garden variety anti-Semitism that came before.