Who was it again that called it the Hyena of Europe? Nothing against Poland but historically they sure do make some very bad choices as a nation in terms of who they pick fights with and who they ally with thinking it’s ok to act provocatively because they will be defended (but if we have learned anything from history it is that if you think the Anglos will protect you, well you have not been paying attention)…and when these poor choices then end up backfiring they feel like some great injustice has been inflicted on them which they become all revanchist about.
Even though it’s Churchill, it’s pretty undestandable considering that the Poles he had contact with were the polish government in London, which were nearly all political scum, cowards and opportunists, maybe except general Sikorski who might or might not be murdered by the British in 1943 for being troublesome (and willing to deal with Soviets) and general Anders who had some semblance of moral backbone.
some very bad choices as a nation in terms of who they pick fights with and who they ally with thinking it’s ok to act provocatively because they will be defended (but if we have learned anything from history it is that if you think the Anglos will protect you
And that is not even newest history, it started at the height of power at the end of XVI century when Zygmunt Waza (Vasa) was elected as king, surefire way to 2 centuries of baltic wars and religious strife for no reason.
I was thinking of when Poland tried to destroy Russia while it was weak and divided during the Time of Troubles, but in the end it was Poland that ended up being partitioned a few centuries later.
That’s a long topic. Polish-Russian conflicts actually started as Lithuanian-Muscovy or rather Muscovy-Tatar conflicts. For brevity’s sake let’s start at 1380 and the battle of Kulikovo, where Lithuanians were allied with Golden Horde. Problem was, Golden Horde potential resurgence under either Tokhtamysh or Mamay was much much more dangerous to Lithuania than some Muscovy and as such lithuanian grand duke Jogaila (the very same who later become very famous polish king Władysław Jagiełło) got late for the battle and Mamay was defeated by russian coalition under even more famous Don Dmitri grand prince Dmitri of the Don.
1385-86 Jogaila gets elected to the polish throne and subsequently married to the polish king Jadwiga (yeah, officially she was king, not queen), forming personal union of Poland with Lithuania which will last 4 centuries. There were two main reasons for that - first were common enemies - Teutonic Order and Golden Horde and second was that Lithuania was absolutely horrific neighbour - Lithuanians were waging war literally all the time, either in their very brutal succession wars or in also very brutal raids on everyone, so some great minds in Kraków thought of not only an alliance with them, but also with arguably the most ruthless and cunning of lithuanian royals - Jogaila. Surprisingly, everything went swimmingly (except one incident with Wilhelm Habsburg who was engaged with Jadwiga previously and he was so furious that he allegedly went to Kraków and tried to chop the castle gate with axe and he had to be manhandled before being told to fuck off).
And so, interests of Poland and Lithuania become (usually, there were multiple issues along the way) one, and we go fast forward to 1480 where Ivan III proclaim himself “ruler of all Russia” which was clear declaration of hostility for Lithuania (there was no Commonwealth yet) since quite a big chunk of Russia was under lithuanian rule. And so, 1492-1570 we have 6 wars.
1569 Poland and Lithuania form real union and the Commonwealth so from this time we have polish-russian wars - counting insurrections 11 of them plus the not really war in 1939. So 17 of them in close to 450 years. Quite wow.
Modern Poland: Europe’s biggest cowards
Who was it again that called it the Hyena of Europe? Nothing against Poland but historically they sure do make some very bad choices as a nation in terms of who they pick fights with and who they ally with thinking it’s ok to act provocatively because they will be defended (but if we have learned anything from history it is that if you think the Anglos will protect you, well you have not been paying attention)…and when these poor choices then end up backfiring they feel like some great injustice has been inflicted on them which they become all revanchist about.
According to Google it was Winston Churchill. I assume he was pretty familiar with that behavior.
Even though it’s Churchill, it’s pretty undestandable considering that the Poles he had contact with were the polish government in London, which were nearly all political scum, cowards and opportunists, maybe except general Sikorski who might or might not be murdered by the British in 1943 for being troublesome (and willing to deal with Soviets) and general Anders who had some semblance of moral backbone.
And that is not even newest history, it started at the height of power at the end of XVI century when Zygmunt Waza (Vasa) was elected as king, surefire way to 2 centuries of baltic wars and religious strife for no reason.
I was thinking of when Poland tried to destroy Russia while it was weak and divided during the Time of Troubles, but in the end it was Poland that ended up being partitioned a few centuries later.
That’s a long topic. Polish-Russian conflicts actually started as Lithuanian-Muscovy or rather Muscovy-Tatar conflicts. For brevity’s sake let’s start at 1380 and the battle of Kulikovo, where Lithuanians were allied with Golden Horde. Problem was, Golden Horde potential resurgence under either Tokhtamysh or Mamay was much much more dangerous to Lithuania than some Muscovy and as such lithuanian grand duke Jogaila (the very same who later become very famous polish king Władysław Jagiełło) got late for the battle and Mamay was defeated by russian coalition under even more famous
Don Dmitrigrand prince Dmitri of the Don.1385-86 Jogaila gets elected to the polish throne and subsequently married to the polish king Jadwiga (yeah, officially she was king, not queen), forming personal union of Poland with Lithuania which will last 4 centuries. There were two main reasons for that - first were common enemies - Teutonic Order and Golden Horde and second was that Lithuania was absolutely horrific neighbour - Lithuanians were waging war literally all the time, either in their very brutal succession wars or in also very brutal raids on everyone, so some great minds in Kraków thought of not only an alliance with them, but also with arguably the most ruthless and cunning of lithuanian royals - Jogaila. Surprisingly, everything went swimmingly (except one incident with Wilhelm Habsburg who was engaged with Jadwiga previously and he was so furious that he allegedly went to Kraków and tried to chop the castle gate with axe and he had to be manhandled before being told to fuck off).
And so, interests of Poland and Lithuania become (usually, there were multiple issues along the way) one, and we go fast forward to 1480 where Ivan III proclaim himself “ruler of all Russia” which was clear declaration of hostility for Lithuania (there was no Commonwealth yet) since quite a big chunk of Russia was under lithuanian rule. And so, 1492-1570 we have 6 wars.
1569 Poland and Lithuania form real union and the Commonwealth so from this time we have polish-russian wars - counting insurrections 11 of them plus the not really war in 1939. So 17 of them in close to 450 years. Quite wow.