Re: How About It, Don Jose?



--
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

"Alexander Sharon" wrote:

"DonJose" wrote:

It was a problem, especially in the Ukraine. And Lithuanias still have
problems with Poland's takeover of Vilnus. But, all of the mistakes
notwithsanding, Poland did not introduce a totalitarian regime on
those territories.

You have omitted Byelorussians.
BTW, during Imperial Russia rule over Poland, regime was really totalitarian, even Polish cultural aspect have been nullified or severely restricted.
Russians were running Polish Provinces using implanted fro the East bureaucrats till they have completely Russified all the aspects of daily life.
Period from 1945 was successful for Soviet thanks to the eager Polish communists and accommodating population.

During the nineteenth century the Poles developed what might be called a Cassandra complex. Except for the periodic outbursts of anger, usually rhetorical, or the few fierce Russophobes among writers like Karl Marx or the Marquis de Custine, the Poles encountered among Western Europeans an inexplicable love for both Russia and the Czar who symbolized her.The Poles protested loudly about the limitless ambition and limitless possibilities that lay in the expanses of Euro-Asia. But the Allies, after hearing them out politely, went off to the Czarist embassy to get the particulars on the suspicious revolutionaries. Hence the feeling the Poles have about the West are at the very least ambivalent, and deep down perhaps even malevolent.
Polish and Russian revolutionists should have been brothers in their common struggle against Czardom. Regardless of what today's textbooks say, it was the "incompatibility of temper" arising out of the disparity between their respective historical formations that prevented a solid alliance between these people, who were equally self-sacrificing and enlightened (both came from educated class).
The bone of contention: Byelorussia and the Ukraine. The Russians spoke the truth when they reproached their colleagues for hoping to become heirs of the same R e s p u b l i c a that had gradually Polonized those territories and supported the Uniate or Greek-Catholic Church there. But those Polish colleagues were right, too, when they accused the Russians of accepting as just and proper the intended Russification of these countries and of imitating the language of official decrees by speaking of them as "Western Russia." The whole matter of this no man's land, since both sides regarded Byelorussian and Ukrainian simply as folk dialects, was foggy and uncertain.
At the beginning of the century, a number of Polish Marxists realized that nationalism weakens the revolutionary thrust by leading to an alliance between classes; they therefore opposed independence and made the overthrow of despotism throughout the whole Czarist empire their primary goal. Rosa Luxemburg was one who subscribed to this error,which backfired on her supporters and successors.
The "independence-minded" Socialist, of whom Pilsudski (lesser-evil:) was one, gained the upper hand. Sovereign Poland came into being after the First World War, thanks to the chaos in her neighbor to the east; and the Polish-Russian War of 1920 was a popular war, supported by workers and peasants - N.R.

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