Yup, a somewhat lengthy article. Few will give a rat’s ass. Except those, like me, who love a good historical tale. T4C might like it, cuz Russia. Yojimbo might like it, cuz Joos. Austrians might like it, cuz our once mighty Empire. Nostalgia, baby. Hungarians might drool over their goulash. Pollack’s might hate it, cuz … well, they’re Pollack’s.
The Jews, The Poles, and the History of Western Ukraine (Galicia)
WW2 drove hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Slavic peoples who identified as part of the Russian world off of lands they had been inhabiting for 1000 years, beginning with the original Russian nation state of Kievan Rus’. These lands are now part of Poland.
Understanding the historical backdrop to this, going back hundreds of years, is critical to understanding what is happening today in the region, especially to understanding relations between Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
Galicia – a land trapped between east and west.
Galicia was part of Kievan Rus’ dating back to the year 1,000. For almost 700 years it was under the control of Poland or Austro-Hungry.
A migration to the United States took place from there in the late 1890s and up to the onset of WWI in 1914. At that time Galicia was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire from 1773 to 1918.
The Austro-Hungarian empire took over Galicia from Poland in 1773 as part of the portioning of Poland by Russia, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empire. At the end of WWI in 1918 the Austro-Hungarian empire was broken up. The Curzon line was established by Lord Curzon to accurately demark the boundaries between Polish and Ukrainian populations.
During the Russian revolution in 1918, Poland attacked and moved their border east of the Curzon line by about 130 miles thereby enslaving 6,000,000 Ukrainians/Russians/Byelorussians for a period of about 20 years until the onset of WWII.
A small but influential group of people contributed to the conflicts over the centuries. They were the Szlachta (pron: ShlAKH-ta) and their Jewish financiers. Szlachta were the wealthy Polish landlords whose actions and lifestyle contributed to much of the turmoil in the 16th century until 1939.
Polish Nobility (Szlachta) were ideally considered social equals regardless of what titles they held in the Elective Monarchy that was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Above is a painting of them in costumes of the different Viovodeships (provinces) of Poland).
When the Red Army moved into Galicia in 1939, the Szlachta were eliminated for good. This happened when the local Ukrainian population took revenge against the Szlachta , some were executed by the KGB and others shipped off to Siberia.
The Jewish population perished in WWII at the hand of the Nazis. The Szlachta and their Jewish financiers and their actions had much to do with what happened to Poland in what has been described as the “Paradise of Nobility & Jews” period.
This period came to an abrupt end in 1939 when the Szlachta was wiped out by Red Army and soon afterward the Jews by the German army. The peasants of all nationalities (including Poles) lived in POVERTY.
The Szlachta actually regarded themselves as being biologically unique. This was the Sarmatism theory that the Szlachta were special descendants of Sarmatians This happened 4 centuries before the Nazi’s took up the idea.
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While the archetypical Polish Szlachtic (noblemen) is dressed in red Zupan and coat as shown on the far left holding the Hetman’s mace, the man in the blue, almost far eastern inspired silk robes exemplifies Polish-Sarmatian fashion.
The Jewish alliance with the Szlachta remained constant. The Ukrainians denounced the Jews as the selected accomplices of the Szlachta . This was long before the Nazi Holocaust. This information comes from a noted historian who wrote a 2 volume book about the history of Poland.
The Ukrainian conflict with Poles and Jews is centuries old. An example of Ukrainian rage was the Cossack-led Koliyivshchyna battles in 1768/1769 against the Szlachta and Jews in which over 100,000 were killed.
Poland came back into existence in 1918 after being divided between Russia, Germany, and Austro-Hungry starting in the 1700s for about 150 years. In the 1600s Poland was militarily aggressive having invaded Moscow twice. The first time being 1610. In addition, the Polish forces starting in the 1500s controlled a large part of the Ukraine up to the area of Kiev which has been the capital of the Ukraine back to the start of the Kievan Rus’ in about the year 990.
The Intervention of Polish King Boleslaw the Brave in the Kievan Interregnum. King Boleslaw is depicted with Russian Prince Svatopolk the Accursed who betrayed the city to Poland as the King famously damages his sword on the Golden Gate of Kiev.
The dismemberment of Poland in the 1700’s was a result of Poland’s aggressive behavior in the previous centuries. There were 3 divisions of Poland in the 1700’s The first 2 involved taking back Russian, Ukrainian and Byelorussians territory that Poland had occupied. It is only the last partition in 1795 that the Russians took over truly Polish lands.
The repressions by the Russians were less than the Poles inflicted on Russians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians when they occupied their lands. While Poland held the upper hand, in 1596, they imposed the Uniate Catholic religion on the Ukrainians.
“You can still have your Slavonic Orthodox liturgy, your priests can be married, but you must accept the Pope as your supreme leader.” The same dictate was imposed on the Galician’s when under the Austro-Hungarian rule. What the Poles inflicted on others in their heydays of the 1500’s and mid-1600s, resulted in their being partitioned in the 1700s for a period of about 150 years.
When I speak of the Poles, I do NOT include the masses of the Polish population, they are just like any other population. I speak ONLY of the Polish Szlachta (landowner gentry). These are the landowner Polish gentry that lorded over as many as they could, for as long as they could. Their unraveling started in 1648 when the Cossack Bohdan Khmelnitsky led his forces against the Polish Szlachta and their Jewish financiers and inflicted heavy casualties on these 2 groups.
The Victorious entry into Kiev of Hetman Khmelnitsky
During WWII, there was a Khmelnitsky medal for valor issued by the Red Army. Jews refused this medal. One needs to know that in the 19th century 80% of the world’s Jews lived in the Pale of Settlement that included Poland, western Ukraine and Belarus and surrounding areas. They were not biblical Jews but simply a tribe of Khazar Turks that converted to Judaism about 1,000 years ago.
Orthodox Christians had to pay rent to Jewish merchants to attend their own churches. What happened to the Szlachta also happened to the Polish nation.
Khmelnitsky aligned his forces with Orthodox Russia from which he and the Ukrainian people gained support to this day.
Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky leads the reunification of Ukraine with Russia at the Pereslav Rada in 1654. Painting by famous Ukrainian artists Mikhail Khmelko “Forever with Moscow, Forever with the Russian People!”
When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, a significant number of Poles joined his army. He was defeated and Poland suffered many casualties.
The Austro-Hungarian empire lasted for several hundred years until it fell apart in 1918 and the end of WWI. During that time the majority Slavic population were treated as second-class citizens.
Vienna was a happy city. Most of the Ukrainians ( many call themselves Russian or made no distinction between Russian or Ukrainian and the term Halychyna Rus was common). were happy to move on to America and seek a new life.
In so doing they avoided the tragedies that befell those who remained in Europe during the two World Wars.
Between WWI and WWII, the Galician’s were ruled by a Polish fascist military dictatorship. This dictatorship was in negotiations with the Japanese in the early 1930s with plans to invade the Soviet Union. Japan invaded China in 1931. Japan fought a war with the Soviet Union in 1938 on the border between Manchuria and Mongolia. The Japanese were defeated.
Simply, the Ukrainians were oppressed to the point that they killed the Polish Interior minister and other Polish officials. In the years between 1918 to 1939, the Poles sent in hundreds of thousands of Polish “settlers” with the intent of eventually getting rid of the Ukrainians from lands they have lived on for a thousand years. The Polish leaders spoke openly of expelling every Ukrainian from Polish occupied Galicia. Ethnic cleansing in today’s terminology.
In September 1939 Galicia was liberated by the Red Army and remains part of the Ukraine to this day. What happened in Galicia from the time of their liberation from Polish rule in September 1939 and the onset of WWII when the Germans attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 and their eventual liberation from the Nazi’s in 1944 needs clarification and quantification.
From mid-September 1939, when the Soviet army liberated Galicia, to mid-June 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, corrections had to be made to the Polish rule. In this 21 month period, the wrongs inflicted on the Galician population from 1921 till 1939 had to be and were corrected. Sentences were carried out and some 200,000 Poles were deported to Siberia. The Soviets encouraged revenge against the Polish landlords and state officials. Between 1939 and 1941 tens of thousands of Poles fled West Ukraine to the Nazi General Government.
War with Germany was on the horizon and getting rid of potential collaborators had to be done. No doubt there were errors in the sentences, but when the Germans attacked in June of 1941, the Germans found few collaborators. So the purges carried out from September 1939 to June 1941 were effective. The Soviets won World War II in Europe almost single-handed.
Much has been made of the massacre at Katyn where 4500 Polish officers were executed by the Soviets. The Russians took 400,000 Polish soldiers captive. 380,000 continued to fight for the Allied cause in WWII, some under the command of General Anders and General Berling. Six Polish divisions were part of the Red Army that took Berlin. The 20,000 “unaccounted for” were reserve officers who in civilian life were public officials, police and other professional people the Russians had good reason not to trust. All were sworn enemies of Soviet authorities and full of hatred of the Soviet system. They had to be eliminated.
The Soviet system won WWII in Europe almost single-handedly. No one speaks of what happened to the Polish army that the Germans captured. WHY? Nor the 5,000,000 citizens that were killed in WWII. 3,000,000 Jews killed is well known. But the 2,000,000 Poles killed by the Germans is given little or no acknowledgment.
In the 3 year period from June 1941, when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, to June 1944, when they were driven out, there was much turmoil in Galicia among various factions of Ukrainians, Poles and Jews. The German army moved through Galicia quickly in 1941 and was expelled from there quickly in 1944. During the war, there were 3 Slavic countries in which small segments of the population collaborated with the Nazi’s. Complicit in this activity was the Catholic Church and clergy.
The Ustashe (Fascists) in Croatia ( cardinal Stepanic and the Franciscan order), Monsignor Tiso in Slovakia who was executed after the war and Ukrainians. The leaders of the Ukrainian collaborators were children of Ukrainian Catholic priests. There were about 30,000 collaborators and several hundred thousand sympathizers out of a population of 5,000,000. The reasons why some Ukrainian people collaborated vary. Some were forced to do so or face death, others looked upon this as an opportunity to rid themselves of Polish rule and some did it out of anti-Semitic feelings.
The leaders of the collaborationists looked upon this as an opportunity to assert themselves and gain control which they never had under Polish rule. That was understandable. Germany would help them achieve their aspirations. Simply put, the collaborators were WRONG.
As the war turned against Germany, they had to change their outlook. Neither Poland or Germany had any good intentions for the people of Galicia or the Ukraine. The turbulence experienced by the Galician’s during this period were horrific. When liberated by the Red Army in 1944, for the first time in about 700 years the people of Galicia were reunited with the entire Ukraine as they had been in the times of Kievan Rus’. Foreign domination ended!
However, west of the Polish/Ukrainian border established at the end of WWII the Ukrainian population continued to suffer under Polish rule. Ukrainians were being driven off the lands they have occupied for a thousand years. Ukrainians were a demographic majority in many areas in southeast Poland west of the border established after World War II from a depth of 20 to 30 miles and a stretch of about 120 miles.
Cities currently west of the border such as Yaroslav, Peremyshl, Przeworsk, Sienawa and Sanok were ancient towns that were part of Kievan Rus’. For centuries these cities and towns were populated by Ukrainians /Russians. The Carpatho-Russians (sometimes called Rusyns) always had a strong feeling for Russia as their protector.
Carpatho-Russian Women
In the spring of 1945, many of these Ukrainians had no choice but to be repatriated to the Soviet Ukraine. Soviet authorities took the necessary steps to relocate these people into villages inside the Ukraine. Ukrainians were forced to leave their native cities and villages and went into the Ukraine.
During the entire period of “repatriations” from October 1944 to June 1946, 482,000 Ukrainians departed to the Soviet Union from areas west of the border. These numbers are from a recent book.
The Polish state murdered & criminalized the Ukrainian population and set about redistributing the properties it had taken from resettled Ukrainians in southeast Poland which included churches.
So ended the one thousand years of continuous Ukrainian settlement in ancient Kievan Rus’ cities and towns that are now under Polish rule.
REFERENCES
BLOODLANDS Europe between Hitler & Stalin by Timothy Snyder. Publisher: Basic Books
GODS Playground, History of Poland (2 volumes) by Norman Davies. Columbia University Press
Curzon Line, from Bing Web Search or Wikipedia
Operation Vistula from Bing Web Search
Source: — http://russia-insider.com/en/jews-poles-and-history-western-ukraine-galicia/ri21604
This year, I downloaded two movies concerning Poles and UKR, both of which were exceedingly brutal – exceedingly. One of these is titled ‘Hatred’.
I didn’t understand how either side could just go after complete strangers and innocents and dispense barbaric cruelty.
I think it goes beyond being poor, hungry, miserable without decent, as we know it, dental and medical care, or in general life as we experience (I live like a King compared to 99% 0f prior human life).
It is all Charlemagne’s fault.
Dense read. Especially for one not so steeped in history. Thanks for the synopsis.
You … who has been involved with most modern inventions … and had walked with countless kings and dignitaries around the world ….. and whose convoluted thoughts and sentences could melt down two Cray supercomputers …..
You …. are suddenly not well versed in history?
You …. find this article dense?
Pretty much all the proof needed that you’ve been yanking some serious fucken chains ’round these parts.
Exactly! I grab the ol’ hip waders when I see a “Geezer Spooge Me” comment. Geezer’s comments remind me of what bb might sound like if he were trying to fake being intelligent.
The plural of Nazi is Nazis, not Nazi’s. The plural of Galician is Galicians, not Galician’s. “The Ustashe (Fascists) in Croatia ( cardinal Stepanic and the Franciscan order), Monsignor Tiso in Slovakia who was executed after the war and Ukrainians.” is not a proper sentence. It also doesn’t belong at the start of a paragraph. Etc.
Lots of fascinating historical perspective marred by amateurish writing.
My Polish friends who lived in Poland during WW2 described the German soldiers as being very polite. There was absolutely no raping or looting by German forces. The German code of honor prevailed. When German troop movements were observed, the local non-jewish populations were asked to stay indoors until troops passed through the area.
Even then, jews were hated by the ordinary Polish citizen, as jews held most of the economic and political power. Jews being almost universally hated, it was easy for Polish citizens to point out their jewish neighbors to German forces…I don’t know of any Polish people who have a liking for jews. Every Polish person I know has a hatred of jews because of that jewish invention–communism. When the eastern bloc countries were sacrificed (actually stolen and sold) by jewish interests at Yalta and turned over to communism, it was no secret that ALL government agencies, secret police, et.al. were run by jews. Yes, there were gentile communist officials, but almost all of them were only nominally communist and were good Catholics who attended Sunday Mass. The Catholic Church played a major role in blunting communism and making life somewhat more livable for the ordinary (none-jewish) Polish citizenry. Almost every Polish person that I have known, even on their deathbeds professed a hatred for jews.
As an aside, many Polish people do not subscribe to the jewish takeover of the Catholic Church by those of the Vatican II council and prefer to celebrate Mass and doctrine in pre-Vatican II form. Pre-Vatican II doctrine does assign blame to the jews for the murder of Jesus Christ…(of course, as always, the jews got others (the Romans) to do their “dirty work” for them)…not unlike the United States (actually doing Israel’s “dirty work”)
Anarchyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano agrees with the Polish people on Vatican II.
Also, prior to the Rothchild banking empire, Christians despised Jews, because, as said above, they blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus. Many Christian countries expelled Jews. (Though Oliver Cromwell invited them back into England to help him with finances, and Charles II let them stay when he returned.) It was not until rare coin dealer, Meyer Rothchild, gained the confidence of Crown Prince Wilhelm, who became Wilhelm IX, of Hesse-Kassel, in 1785, along with other princely patrons,that Jews started being accepted worldwide due to their banking/money schemes..
The mind of Stucky inhales information like a black hole and produces writing like a production line. He has such varied interests and still has tie to refinish hardwood floors and stir and fling shit. What a remarkable man. We may not always agree with him but he is most definitely interesting.
I have read and reread your post. Parsed every word. It is beautifully written. Factual. Poetic. It evokes emotion deep in ones soul.
Can’t imagine why you got a down vote! Can you??
Maybe it’s because you wrote “tie” instead of “time”. You know how those fucken Grammar Nazis, like Maggie, are.
star…happen to disagree.
I will respond. I hope you respond back.
First, I appreciate your concern regarding the ongoing success of TBP. I mean that.
How do you know advertisers left because of Jew article? Maybe Google pulled out because of the anti-google sentiments and articles …. the ones before Admin’s “fuck you” letter? Maybe it’s the anti-gov, anti-TPTB, anti-whatever articles? Who knows?
I will say this: if Admin ever asks to stop posting articles about Joos (Israel), he’ll only have to tell me ONCE. And that will be the end of it.
Define “constant”. I just went to Dashboard and checked my last 25 submissions. Not counting today’s two articles, there was one Joo article, and two mooslim ones. Is that constant?
Are you saying to never post any more Joo (Israel) articles? Or, only positive ones? If positive only, aren’t we than just mouthpieces for Israel?
I can understand if you posted in the “Israel ATM” thread. But, what’s do offensive about THIS article? I reread it. I see no denigration of the Jew. The article is on other “mainstream” sites. It’s JUST history. Its probably more offensive to Poles than Jews. And IF history is offensive, well, sometimes it SHOULD be.
Lastly, no one really reads history about far-flung lands from a long time ago. 8 comments … I didn’t even expect 5. Really.
I don’t see the reason for your concern.
Peace.
You …. are suddenly not well versed in history?”
“You …. find this article dense?”
retort: “Dense read. Especially for one not so steeped in history.”
Did I say me? Or is it a rhetorical statement perhaps? Anything that encapsulates several centuries of history in a short piece is dense, at least in my simpleton world.
It is just more of your distortions and projections you foist as gospel.
You implied it.
You want gospel? I’ll give you gospel. The Gospel According to Stucky. One book, one chapter, four words.
“Blow me, asshole. Amen”
Memorize it.
If’n Jeebuz is real Stucky he surely loves you!
I can’t wait to read this article but I’ve got shit to do right now. Perhaps this evening.
you wouldn’t take a complement to please the pope. Try to read between the lines before I back hand you with an insult. Did i not thank you for your efforts and acknowledge your masterfulness?
Did yor mama ever tell you that honey draws more flies than vinegar? I wonder if all your shittery is an excuse to draw flies to your web of information.
And I though your purpose was entrainment.
entrain2 | inˈtrān, enˈtrān |
verb [with object]
• formal cause or bring about as a consequence: the triumph of a revolution was measured in terms of the social revision it entrained.
• [no object] (entrain to) fall into synchronism with (something) in such a way.
Bring it on Baby!!!
I’m in Da mood!!!!!!! Ta kick some Keyser Ass!!!
Stucky
The big problem with this country is the peeps tend to know little or nothing about REAL history. I made the comment to Yoebbels that the Nazi thing is a repackage over and over for milennia. When confronted with this information the first reaction is, “But dis ain’t be whut we be learned at my skool”. Nazis by any other name are still Nazis and if you really dig you can find that this scenario goes on in historical cycles.
Well done sir.
Stucky,
I thought it was interesting and, as you stated, more damning of the Poles than the Jews. In fact, it wasn’t real flattering for anyone.
More please.
Sure…why not join the MSM and start trading in lies and deceit? Afterall, truth is highly overated and comes with a cost too high for many, perhaps most, people.
“I thought it was interesting and, as you stated, more damning of the Poles than the Jews.”
THIS. Damn near every race, tribe and ethnic groups has done SOMETHING a modern human being would find objectionable. The proof is …. they are still here. If you aren’t able, willing and capable of violent resistance then you will be overrun, and often genocided. Survivors of abuse tend to be angry, tough and smart, since the passive, weak and stupid die first. So unless you waste every member of the opposing tribe, you have just winnowed out their weak and unfit, leaving the hardened warriors and mates to come back at you.
Nowadays, with such plenty and abundant resources, genocide is less often necessary. I make have to make an exception for socialists and communists – they will try to kill you if they obtain power and you aren’t one. Islam may be another, have to see. But you still may have to use murder (“self-defense”) when faced by gangsta thugs, drug-addled crazies or illegal immigrants who come to your house to bestow their “diversity” on you.
Nice post, i circled back around to catch it. I was not suprised to see Bloodlands list first in the bibli, a super important work that merits another read. If i could only finish Tragedy and Hope….
“Pollack’s”? Stucky still has not mastered the intricacies of the apostrophe.
Fuck apostrophes!!!
And, fuck commas, too!!!! I truly never know where the fuck to stick the little bastards, so I stick ’em wherever the fuck I want. You got a problem with that? Well, do ya, punk? ?
I agree, Stucky. As long as people can follow what you’re saying, who cares about those apostrophes and commas. This is a forum of opinions, not an English assignment.
I agree, fck possessives’ We get’s it.
CUPID’S LANCE’S
Encountering chance’s
Furtive glance’s
Distant dance’s
Lingering romances’
Breathless pants’s
Solitary rants’s
Never can’ts’s