Clifford J. Levy: Russia and Poland Poland Have a Blood Feud Rooted Deep in the Past
[Clifford J. Levy is the Moscow correspondent for the New York Times.]
Until very recently, President Lech Kaczynski of Poland was seen here as an especially disagreeable strain of Eastern European leader, one of those Slavic turncoats who demonized Russia and toadied up to its rivals. Then Mr. Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash on Russian soil this month, and Russia choked up.
It was as if estranged relatives suddenly realized that their bad blood was unseemly and petty in the face of tragedy. And at the vanguard of this reversal was Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin himself, whose office once accused Mr. Kaczynski of “slashing anti-Russian statements” but who now offered soulful eulogies to him.
Average Russians, too, were touched. All week, thousands showed up at the Polish Embassy here to present flowers and to sign condolence books.
This scene was perhaps unparalleled in the ill-fated relationship between Russia and Poland, long mired in hostility and suspicion. The outpouring was not unified — some Russians, including diehard Communists, said that Mr. Kaczynski was still an enemy. However they reacted, Russians looked upon these events through the prism of the history between these two peoples.
Russians and Poles share linguistic roots and other cultural bonds, whether an affinity for black bread or prowess at classical music. But their rifts are as pronounced.
The grievances extend across the ages, from Polish invasions of Russia in the 1600s to Russia’s repeated conquests of Polish lands later. The 20th century left particularly throbbing wounds. Russian prisoners of war, taken when Poles fought for their independence after World War I, died en masse in Polish camps in the 1920s. The Soviets conspired with the Nazis to divide up Poland before World War II....
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Until very recently, President Lech Kaczynski of Poland was seen here as an especially disagreeable strain of Eastern European leader, one of those Slavic turncoats who demonized Russia and toadied up to its rivals. Then Mr. Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash on Russian soil this month, and Russia choked up.
It was as if estranged relatives suddenly realized that their bad blood was unseemly and petty in the face of tragedy. And at the vanguard of this reversal was Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin himself, whose office once accused Mr. Kaczynski of “slashing anti-Russian statements” but who now offered soulful eulogies to him.
Average Russians, too, were touched. All week, thousands showed up at the Polish Embassy here to present flowers and to sign condolence books.
This scene was perhaps unparalleled in the ill-fated relationship between Russia and Poland, long mired in hostility and suspicion. The outpouring was not unified — some Russians, including diehard Communists, said that Mr. Kaczynski was still an enemy. However they reacted, Russians looked upon these events through the prism of the history between these two peoples.
Russians and Poles share linguistic roots and other cultural bonds, whether an affinity for black bread or prowess at classical music. But their rifts are as pronounced.
The grievances extend across the ages, from Polish invasions of Russia in the 1600s to Russia’s repeated conquests of Polish lands later. The 20th century left particularly throbbing wounds. Russian prisoners of war, taken when Poles fought for their independence after World War I, died en masse in Polish camps in the 1920s. The Soviets conspired with the Nazis to divide up Poland before World War II....