Recent History: The Collapse Of Soviet Communism
The latest installment of Der Spiegel's continuing look back at the fall of the Iron Curtain focuses on Poland and Hungary.
The latest installment of Der Spiegel's continuing look back at the fall of the Iron Curtain focuses on Poland and Hungary.
Slutty Hungarian Facialist.
Solidarnosc! Solidarnosc!
Ok, so I'm going to wallow in my nerdiness at the moment and confess: I'm obsessed with the '89 revolutions. And with Poland in general My grandpa was involved in Solidarity. I am an overly proud Pollack. So, basically, best TheAwl post ever.
Except! This sentence: "The knowledge of Poland's independent streak did not prevent Stalin from transforming the country into a socialist satellite state after World War II."
GRRRRRRR. Stalin invaded Poland in WW2, 2 weeks after the Germans did. And they weren't coming to "liberate" us. Then there was the delightful instance when the Soviet Union massacred 22,000 Polish military officers and public leaders in 1940 and dumped them in an unmarked grave.
And my personal favorite, as the Soviet Union was marching to meet up with the US/Brits in Berlin in August of 1944, Warsaw's home army rose up and took back Warsaw, kicking the Nazis out of much of the city for over a month, in anticipation of the Soviets coming. The Soviet Union (which had battalions of Polish soldiers at the time) waited across the fucking river (and shot Polish soldiers who broke ranks to go and fight with their countrymen), and waited while the Nazis carpet-bombed the city. Flattened 93% of it.
Knowledge of Poland's independent streak. Fuck you, Stalin. Fuck you.
Also, "Germany was a sore subject for the Poles, whose government propaganda machine had conjured up the "German threat" for decades. "
I WONDER WHAT CAUSE POLAND HAD TO THINK OF GERMANY AS A THREAT?!?!!?
Ahem.
I realize no one else really cares, but this is probably my most favorite thing to talk about.
I'm going to go back to the Halloween thread now and beg for costume ideas.
Slutty Katyn Massacre?
Slutty Battle of Grunewald?
Slutty Battle of Tannenburg?
Slutty Oder-Niess line?
"Fuck you, Stalin."
I was a European Studies/Russian major in college, and often thought those very words during my Soviet history class.
The 1989 revolutions are awesome. I wrote a paper on Hungarian elections and party development in late 90…a paper I could not have written the year before. It was an exciting time to be a Central/East Europe geek.
I was thinking more Slutty Lenin Shipyard, Slutty Ghetto Uprising, or Slutty Queen Jadwiga. Or possibly Slutty Salt Mines.
I dated a Pole in college. Crazy then, but so beautiful…now a psychiatrist and married to my ex-roommate… I'm still a little bitter. And so ends my (one) Polish anecdote.