Why is Poland Suddenly so Anti-Russian?

I asked blogger Polish ZZ to explain why Poland is so anti Russian.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/poland-presses-for-shift-from-russian-gas-as-ukraine-standoff-escalates/article18182218/

I thought Tusk collaborated with Russia re Smolensk etc.





Hi Henry

You just posed one very pertinent question. Why the "polish" government, so obstinately sticking to the "restart", reconciliation and "opening up to the east" with Putin narrative, so abruptly changed course, now being overtly and sometimes rabidly anti-Putin?

The answer is a very simple one. The quasi overnight change of heart came with the Kiev crisis. For correct tenor you can blame ketchup Kerry personally and the NATO officialdom, giving unmistakable marching orders - Putin is on a warpath with us in Ukraine. Poland is an important NATO member in the region, although new, and to be exact the most important in the Ukraine showdown, being immediate and biggest Ukraine's neighbor.

The streetwise wisdom here on the ground is closer to reality, namely the previous infatuation with Putin was entirely fake and propaganda creation, what you can corroborate in surfacing now popular demand to USA to immediately beef up their military presence, finding a willing ear now in Washington. The people are suspicious of Russian imperial belligerence - and historically justifiably so, because over the last 300 years Moscow was intermittently at war of aggression against Poland and slayed millions in the field, as well in XIX century tsarist gulags in Siberia. You did not know? Gulag is only a modernized version of this barbaric, morbidly Asiatic idea. I talked of this historical context on Inside the Eye shows. There is no way out of history and geography - you have to know it, to understand, what is happening.

And finally, make no mistake about it. The people, on either side of the border, do not want war, they are only reacting on artificially instigated fear. The current anti-Russian propaganda is obviously as much fake as the previous pro-Russian love campaign. We are now to be afraid of Putin - that's all. The reality of the gambit is a bit more complicated than that. The Neocons are belligerently pushing Putin on his backyard and he does not miss the occasion to mount a long overdue in his optics "reunification" campaign. Make no mistake about it - contrary to public perception Moscow, as always, acts in lockstep with Berlin. As endresult they will partition Ukraine between themselves, exactly as was done with Poland in 1939. So started WW2, and now there will be its immediate continuation, WW3. Is it so hard to grasp? I do not think so.

Regards!
zezorro says: easy ZZ
http://zezorro.blogspot.com
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Jaroslaw comments:

I have to disagree with some parts of Zorro's answer to your question. But let's start off with its slight correction. Poland is not suddenly anti-Russian. In fact, it has been for ages, at least since the 16th century, beginning at a full scale in the times of Ivan III. We fought against the Tsars throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, after they took part in the three infamous partitions of our country. Then, once we regained our independence in 1918, the newly-created Soviet Union instantly put us in the cross hairs and unsuccessfully tried to squash us before spreading their revolution all over Europe. Next came WW2 and I think it's not necessary to explained what happened then and afterwards. So much for early history.
 
Even after 1989, when we supposedly regained freedom (did we really?), "our" media would always, with no exception, cast the Russians in a negative light when covering events that have taken place there. Why the quotation marks? Because all Polish (or should I say 'Polish-language') mainstream media are owned by Western, mainly German and American mega-corporations, which apparently use their local lapdogs to bark at the bear, something that may be awkward for them to do directly. These media know perfectly well that over 30-year olds remember the times of the Soviet domination and use these remnants of fear and hatred to accordingly shape their mindset by fear mongering, and they have been doing so for 25 years now. Although I stopped watching TV and reading mainstream newspapers 11 years ago, I know what's going on.
 
Now for Zorro's post. He writes: "The quasi overnight change of heart came with the Kiev crisis." I don't know what change of heart he is referring to, because Poland's politicians have been bent on teasing and angering Russians since the late 80s, thus acting completetely against our and in someone else's interest. How come? I suspect the reason for that is that they are on various foreign payrolls, just like their predecessors in the 18th century were, as a result of which the mentioned partitions could be carried out. But let's go on. "Poland is an important NATO member in the region". I would say "a colony" instead. The US treat us like a lackey whose duty it is to do what his master orders him to. "The people are suspicious of Russian imperial belligerence" Like I mentioned before, that's because they are being constantly brainwashed by the mainsewer media to be scared of the evil Putin who has nothing better to do than drop a few nukes on Warsaw.

Zorro also mentions Tsarist gulags. It was not quite the way he presents it. True, some Poles were deported to Siberia in the 19th century. But this was thought as a punishment mainly for participating in uprisings and other rebellions. Besides, not only were their living conditions in Siberia better than under Lenin and Stalin, they could also hope to return home after serving their sentence. Something rather unthinkable in the 1930s, when hundreds of thousands of Soviet Poles were shot or worked to death merely for the crime of their nationality.  
 
Today's Polish political scene is divided between four parties (which, the way I see it, are nothing but fractions of the same gang). The faux-libertarian and rather openly pro-German PO is currently at the helm. Angela Merkel's wishes are basically prime minister Tusk's commands. Its main (fake) opposition is the faux-conservative, pro-American and pro-Israel PiS whose leader Kaczyński is an avid Russia hater, as are many other prominent members of the party. Then there is the post-communist SLD whose allegiance is chiefly with the internationally socialist EU, and last but not least the agrarian PSL which generally does not care about allegiances as long as its members keep getting their share of the loot. I hope this short overview helped you dissipate any potential doubt about your question.