Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Pole Was Right
Monday was Victory in Europe Day. At a Remembrance Celebration, the Russian ambassador came to visit Warsaw and lay flowers at the remembrance memorial. Protestors against the invasion of Ukraine were there and threw red paint on him.
Today on Twitter I engaged with several ignorant bigoted Russian apologists who were outraged by Polish people who dared throw paint on the ambassador. Don’t these stupid Poles understand that millions of Russians died fighting to save them? How ungrateful of these Poles for daring this!
If a woman is raped by a Doctor, but that doctor later saves her life. Well, should that woman should be grateful? She could have died. These people would say, “What is she complaining about? He saved your life, you ungrateful trollop!”
Poland should just ignore fact that these same Russians/Soviets conspired with the Nazis to divide and conquer their country. That tens of thousands of Polish soldiers were massacred at Katyn. That the Warsaw Uprising happened, and the Polish Home army was exterminated by the Nazis and the Gestapo while the Red Army stood by and watched a few miles away. That the Russians occupied the country for decades and propped up a corrupt and evil government.
No, the Pole was right. Throw that paint on them. If the Russians had any sense, they would not have shown up to that monument in the first place. And my fellow Poles are right to be angry.
Never forget, forgive and always remember.
Published in General
Or back in the 1500s when Poland had its own drang nach osten?
Or back in the mid-late 40s when Poland and Ukraine were busy ethnically cleansing each other? When the difference between life and death was sometimes one’s ability to say the Lord’s Prayer in the correct language?
That one occurred within living memory. So it has been remarkable how Poland, even before the current war, had been accepting economic immigrants from Ukraine. It has not been without some apprehension, given the conflicts between the two countries not so long ago. And some apprehension remains regarding the current flood of immigrants from Ukraine.
But most people have been willing to let bygones be bygones in order to unite against a country that is not willing to let bygone oppressions be bygone. And by that I mean defense against a country that in past decades and centuries used to oppress its neighbors to the west, and is not willing to give up its old oppressive ways.
And no mention in any of this discussion that during WWII, the Nazis who were born and raised in the Ukraine caused a great deal of turmoil and bloodshed for the people of The Ukraine, especially of course the Jews. (As well as the actual German-born Nazi occupiers.)
For the nations in Europe involved in a war between Stalin’s Russia and Germany’s Hitler, which side would a rational person choose? Especially given that there was no rational choice. These nation’s were in a classic example of “out of the frying pan, into the fire.”
Finland was one such nation and reluctantly agreed to support Germany. (Remember as well that during the late 1930’s when such choices were made, the failures and brutality of the Russian Revolution were already obvious, while Germany’s activities were largely unknown.
In The Guardian this observation was made: Finland decided to be an ally of Germany in part to hopefully recover territory lost to Russia.
Over at Wikipedia, this account of the situation was brought forward: Finland participated in the Second World War initially in a defensive war against the Soviet Union, followed by another battle against the Soviet Union acting in concert with Germany and then finally fighting alongside the Allies against Germany.
As far as The Ukraine in WWII, Ukrainian collaboration with Nazi Germany took place during the occupation of Poland and the Ukrainian SSR by Nazi Germany in World War II.
The current crop of Neo Nazis in the Ukraine are said to be direct descendants from the Ukrainian Nazis of the 1940’s.
Their is more to that story. That was actually part of Poland that the Chezks grabbed during the Russo-Polish war of 1920. Poland was busy saving much of eastern Europe from the advancing Soviet horde back then, so it made sense to steal it when their army was busy defending Warsaw.
Eastern europe is a fun little place.
Eastern Europe was between the devil and the deep blue sea (or worse)- caught between Stalin’s Soviet Russia and Hilter’s Germany. There were no good choices. An excellent book about it is “Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin”by Timothy Snyder. That is why Poland and Ukraine seem so insistent on maintaining there independence- the other choice is a combination of slavery & death. As the Polish patriot Smigly-Rydz said after refusing to allow Soviet troops to traverse Poland to enter Czechoslovakia during the Sudentenland crisis- “To the Germans we would lose our freedom; to the Russians we would lose our souls.”