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PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   31679 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 7, 2025

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I always mean to write what I write.

Oh, there even is a national holiday. We of course focus on the conquest and 'ugh, what could have been', so one gets the impression Russians could only be embarrassed by the episode. Dumb, I need to pick up a history book written from Russian perspective.

We are aware that at the time the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth wasn't the «poor little plucky Poland, the sacrificial lamb of Europe, bullied and partitioned by cruel great powers» which I'm told is your national narrative, but a more developed and organized, competent expansionist power and that, indeed, it «could have been» that we'd have lost sovereignty indefinitely and been supplanted in history by the mighty Polish Empire. This feeds into schadenfreude and relief about your subsequent decline and losses of sovereignty. Pre-Romanov era Poland is viewed as a quite serious actor, without any condescension.

So, there's enough of a cause for pride to both sides I guess.

P.S. I also should look into how the Polish side sees that episode.

What you wrote looked like you meant to write Russians are proud of being conquered by Poles, not of kicking the Poles out.

Russians are proud of the episode in its fullness, not just the part where Kremlin gets occupied but before it's liberated, of course. I could have phrased this better but whatever.

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