BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture Who likes who in Eastern Europe

Pieter asked the question in one of his e-mail.

I guess - neighbors usually did not like each other - so Poles and Russians as well as Poles and Germans were usually in conflict. But... Russians and Germans liked each other since they were not neighbors, they hada common interest (in splitting Poland etc),

Poles were more or less in OK relations to its Southern neighbors, since the mountains divided us. But Slovaks and Hungarians have long history of conflicts since Hungarians were the rulers over Slovakia for some time.
Until now, there is quite a Hingarian minority in Slovakia.
On the other hand Poles and Hungarians liked each other a lot, they even shared the same king.

The reasons why Poland and Hungary or Russia and Germany were better partners is not only the fact that they were not direct neighbors but also their political systems.

Poland and Lithuania - strange relations today in spite of the common history. Poles look at Lithuania with sentiment, many Poles live in Lithuania still. Lithuanian feel as like all Poles in lithuania are really polonized Lithuanians etc.etc...

anybody has something else to add?

Poland and Sweden also have a considerable mutual history. do you know if there is a significant Polish community there?

Interesting. I have a few Lithuanian friends here. Their comments are: Lituanians and Poles - - - Not one bit of difference. They are one and the same people.

>Lituanians and Poles - - - Not one bit of difference. They are one and the same people.<

John: Agreed! My wife: Fran's parents were born in USA of Lithuanian olish descent. Carl

The Polish-Lithuanian relations are strange. Poles would like to see Lithuanians as brothers whereas Lithuanians seem afraid to be... polonized.

As for the Sweden - it was just one accident during thousands years - since Swedes tried to migrate Southward, it was becoming too cold for them to stay in their own county!
We also shared the king (one of Wasa's), who pitifully moved the capital to Warsaw, because it was closer to him

Hi Jaga,

This is easy for my self as a person to answer. Poland by far, then Sweden and Russia. Russians for some strange reason, lead to easy friendships. They are very good business people and if, politects are simply left out. It usually will go well.

Swedes, perosnally, I do like Stockholm. Other then the language, it is very close to here as home. I do feel comfortable there.

Poland: Across the boarder, close near, over the boarder, it is like home. Just the langauge again. Very suprisingly so, German is widly spoken and makes new friends very easely made. Polish people are friendly in their nature, at least as so it would seem.

As a person, I do have difficulty in languages, as a linguist, not one of my strong points (that is, if any).

Karl

My mum told me about polish ukraine conflicts when she used to live in poland 30 odd years ago.

i have a ukrainian friend, who i met through university. we are both born in england my parents are both polish while hers are father-ukrainan and mother a mix pol-ukrainian. although she had never heard that there were conflicts

Jo

Joanna,

welcome to the forum! I heard lots of bad words about Ukrainians... but after I saw the Southeastern corner of Poland (Bieszczady) - when I was 18, which was completely deserted I felt the first time some symphathy for Ukrainians. Later I met many nice people from Ukraina and noticed how much we have in common!

Hungaria recently passed controversial legislation trying to exert some control over ethnic Hungarians living in Slovakia. Of course, the Slovakian government considered this a breach of Slovakia's soverignty, so this created some problems.

Yugoslavia is always an interesting case. So many different ethnicities were joined together into one country, and for a while, everyone got along, and the country was fine. But apparently all good things must come to an end, and we all know the violence that was caused by the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Some areas are recovering quickly, others are still in chaos.

I still find the relationship between Lithuania and Poland to be a curious one. You would think it wouldn't be so, but history has proven that thought wrong!

Ukraine's problems today result from the fact that it is practically two different entities forced to be one country. Western Ukraine used to be part of Poland until only after WWII, and has a western-looking mentality. Eastern Ukraine, however, has always been connected with Russia, and is fearful and suspicious of the West.