in: ndobbs; ndobbs > 2008-05-26;
| # Posted 2008-05-27 21:07:29 | |
| BorisGr: | These days, crossing the Vistula seems to be nearly taken for granted. Things were different in 1945... |
| # Posted 2008-05-27 22:09:51 | |
| ndobbs: | The people in the traffic jam certainly didn't seem too ecstatic... I wouldn't want to give them a history lesson though.
The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising was pretty horrific, even by WWII standards. Did the Russians meet much resistance in 1945 once they finally decided to invade? |
| # Posted 2008-05-27 23:58:42 | |
| BorisGr: | My grandpa tells the story of a Polish barber slicing the throats of a few Russian officers a la Sweeney Todd when they were stationed in Poland someplace on the way to Berlin in '45. |
| # Posted 2008-05-28 00:31:03 | |
| ndobbs: | I wouldn't blame the barber... actually, do Russians have an awareness of not having been very nice to Poland in those days? I tend to get either the Polish or Western version here... in which the Germans were nasty, then the Russians were nastier, then the Germans were nasty again, then the "allies" didn't help as the Russians were nasty again.
Perhaps Russians only "remember" having fought against the nasty Germans and liberating Poland et al... I recommend "The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kosinski. And the film "Katyn", really good. |
| # Posted 2008-05-28 01:34:33 | |
| BorisGr: | I've read something by Kosinski. Being there? Can that be it? Quite good.
Yeah, the Poles didn't get the best treatment from anyone, especially Ukranians, from what I recall reading. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Poles_in_...) I can't really speak about what is believed in Russia, as I have not been there in 16 years, but I am guessing that the common belief is a less-than-objective one, just like is in pretty much any country that has committed hideous atrocities at some point in its history. (And what country hasn't? Though Russia does have a particularly impressive record in that department.) |
| # Posted 2008-05-28 01:58:37 | |
| ndobbs: | Great. Buggered backwards and forwards left, right and centre... and not blameless either...
Thanks for the link. Although I'm still not convinced the Ukrainians outdid the others... they were perhaps more brutal than efficient. The Germans and Russians seem to have been more cynical/"intelligent" about the destruction Liechtenstein? The Faroe Islands? That Island nation that is being evacuated to Australia due to global warming? |
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