BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture Quiz- the biggest gift from Stalin to Poland?

Enormous buildings are beloved in New York City, but similar buildings in Central Europe are detested.

I give up trying to figure people out.

Looks like a giant wedding cake! Hey! Maybe they can use it for socialist weddings like in the old Soviet days.

Ask Donald Trump to build a Palace of Culture in New York City (LOL).

I know, I know. It could be used as a gigantic mausoleum and free up some cemetary space. LOL <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

During World War II, the Ressurection Church in the center of St Petersburg was actually used as a morgue, since there was literally no other place to put the bodies. The city was under a 900-day seige from the Nazis, and more than 1 million people died during that time.

Eric, you are not a Pole, so you can`t understand certain things. But Poles, and citizens of Warsaw especially, remember that their city was once called �Paris of the East.�

Warsaw was really a beautiful city, even comparable to Prague in the Czech Republic. Nazi madmen destroyed it completely after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Look at some old photos and paintings of Warsaw before the war. Most of these buildings were obliterated.

[url=BellaOnline ALERT: For anti-spam reasons, we restrict the number of URLs allowed in a given post. You have exceeded our maximum number of URLs.

I have no idea what that has to do with the building in question, but i suppose The Palace of Culture and Science building would make a good morgue.

So, Poles hate the building for TWO reasons - Warsaw was destroyed by the Germans, and the building itself is from the Soviet Union?

Eric, this reminds me of that guide of things to do and not to do in Poland.

"Most of Polish folks are very proud and touchy if it comes to quite a few subjects. I would try to stay away from political and historical subjects. It is relatively easy to trigger an enormous response and heated argument about these subjects. It is quite common that the Polish complain about their own country (just a lifestyle) but they do not expect foreigners to start just doing that as well. Instead they rather expect that you say it is not that bad and that there are similar problems where you live as well. Most of Polish are not laid back if it comes to courtesy rules (at least educated ones)."

Travel Guide

Eric,

the Palace of Culture is seen a bit as a monument of Stalin himslef.

If you would have an enemy - would you like to keep the gift from your enemy on the most prominent place in your room - even if this gift was pretty?

Probably not, because it would remind you about bad things...

Some people feel that the Palace of Culture gives a shadow over Warsaw.
I do not mind it that much but... I understand these opinions.