If you have questions about Russia - come here! (Poll added!)

[Scisca]

lehamsy said:

Scisca said:

...

Your comment only proves that we, weaker countries, always tend to hate our imperialistic neighbors. For example, nowadays in Latin America there are a lot of anti-American governments because the US imperialistic actions caused a lot of trouble here, taking possession of our resources, organizing coups, etc. 

But, I don't hate the American people, I have a lot of friends over there. Besides it's not fair to make them responsible for what their government has done.  

I don't think it's the same case. The Polish-Russian history is much more complicated. Comparing the things USA has done in Latin America to what the Russians have done in Poland just in the 20th century is just inappropriate. USA is just having fun and causing some havoc to remain influencial, but is mostly hated because "they are rich, we are not and it's because of them", while Russia has invaded Poland in 1920 (though we won this war), 1939, 1944 and brutally occupied us until 1989. We are still suffering from the damage they've cause us during that occupation. Hell, I was born in a Russia-occupied Poland. I remember tanks on the streets. I was 7 when Russian army left my country. That is different than what you have in Latin America :P It's not some behind the curtains work, it's homicides and terror. And now, after the quiet 90s, Russia has returned to that policy. It has returned to that mindset and to waging war on the surrounding countries. After the invasion in Crimea, our TV broadcast a session of the Russian Parliament. It was shocking to us, but was the perfect proof that what I say about the Russian state of mind is true. The things that the Members of Parliament were saying were just unbelievable. To us they were so shocking, that the journalists  ask our former politicians from communist times, who ruled Poland on the behalf of Russia, for interviews and even they were shocked. Even they admitted that Russian MoPs still have the same mindset like in the 50s, 60s and 70s. They are repeating the same bullshit, lies and propaganda in the same twisted and wicked ways that our communist leaders were forced to brainwash us with. Seriously, even the highest former communist leaders in Poland were in a state of disbelief. Such Russia cannot be tolerated. I would say it's a timebomb ready to explode, but unfortunately it's already exploding.

Also, as Mai said (nice Polish by the way), some time ago Poland used to be a superpower and the top dog in our relations, we have been the only nation ever to successfully conquer and rule Russia for a period of time. Unfortunately, the constant pressure from Russia from East, Germany from West, Sweden from the North (quite powerful at that time) and the great Turkish Empire from the South proved to be too much after some time. Hence, we don't consider ourselves the weak little guys next to a towering giant. If we felt that way, Solidarność would have never stood up against communism the way it did and we wouldn't have destroyed that bloody iron curtain. A fun fact is that Poland has never lost a war against Russia (or Germany) which was fought 1 vs 1. Every time when we lost, Russia had help from Germany or some other country. I totally expect Poland to stand up and compete with Russia, as I know it's absolutely possible, we have all the means to do it.

 

@Ireland - when I was in Ireland, I was shocked by how rural this country is. It seems just like a vilage with Dublin being the only city. From the 4 photos that were posted here, what I remember looks much more like the "what Americans think" than like "what it really is". I mean, how many such big and advanced roundabouts like the one in the picture are there in Ireland? And how many outside of Dublin? Compare that to the lenght of these "roads that only lead to a castle or sth.". I mean, there are only 5 cities with more than 40k people... It's crazy rural :)