Quote from: Nemo1024 on February 18, 2015, 07:44:59 PM

A lot of things would make more sense if people started to use Soviets instead of Russians, when talking about the time when Russia was under Soviet Union. It would create a better foundation of historical understanding.

About Soviet (not Russian) bases. Isn't is much the same as NATO bases now? Wink

There are many things that Russians remember about Poles, that are not good, so as tee-rex said - it cuts both ways.
One does not even have to go as far occupation of Moscow in 1612. Poles came into modern Russian territory in 1918-1920 during the Soviet-Polish war, when Polish army occupied most of today's Ukraine and was stopped by the Red Army after a lot of bitter fighting. That operation, by the way, was performed with the blessing of USA, GB and France.

As for Putin, what is it that Putin did to Poland to worsen the relationships (except, of course, from the fact of still breathing)?

So far I've seen quite a lot of negativity coming against Russia from the Polish top brass. Interestingly, I didn't feel the same negativity from the citizens, when I visited Poland. So, maybe people just need to come together and talk

I found an echo of it in the following article in a Russian newspaper, that I translated
http://stanislavs.org/the-sorrow-of-a-warsaw-woman-why-poland-is-not-happy-to-be-liberated-from-fascism/

The modern Russian territory you're talking about did not belong to Russia at that time. Those were Polish lands, taken from them during the partition (1772-91), so when the country regained independence it had to establish borders, and both the Ukrainians and the Soviets didn't want to give it up without a fight. Thus we had a war with both of them. Actually I don't blame any side for that war, they had to duke it out and finally came to terms. Lvov used to belong to Poland along with a large part of todays Ukraine, so the conflict was inevitable.

The relations worsen since Poland joined NATO. Putin's answer was an import ban imposed on Polish food and later he decided to transfer gas to Germany around Poland (Nord Stream). On top of that when the Polish plane crashed in Smolensk, Russians were so sloppy with the autopsies that they mixed up the bodies and names and sent them back to Poland in sealed coffins. People buried their loved ones just to find out months later they buried someone else and had to do it all over again. And of course the wreckage has not been returned up to this day, although Polish government asked for it a couple times.

You're right people would come to terms much easier than our so called leaders. Most of them were raised and educated in completely different times, just like the brass that you mentioned. Times when you couldn't learn English, but everybody was taught Russian and members of the communist party were prioritized.