3 ms·

Best part of the whole story was Piotr Grabowski's comment at the bottom. Seems the most illuminating aspect of this story is how disconnected American's are fr

Best part of the whole story was Piotr Grabowski's comment at the bottom. Seems the most illuminating aspect of this story is how disconnected American's are from European history. I don't mean this in a dismissive way. I mysefl, being American, am hoplessly unaware of large parts of European history. But the origin of the author's last name along is actually really easy to understand if one is actually familiar with the culture of the region (if Piotr is to be believed).

paganel 6y ago
Still kind of biased and he says that everything beyond Stanislaw was a "wasteland" and Far-East presumably because it didn't have Baroque and later Habsburg architecture. I live in a country bordering Ukraine to the South, in a part of if where we didn't have Baroque nor Habsburg architecture (we were under Ottoman influence, even though not under direct control), and I have to say that reading about this territory's history it didn't seem like we were in the Far-East. In other words there's a distinct orientalism in some learned people the closer you get to the "have Baroque buildings" / "does not have Baroque buildings" border. He seems to be correct though about what happened to the Poles living there during WW2, but those very, very complicated times for all those involved.
- theraido 6y ago
  Everyone is biased, and it's not just American being out of touch with European History. I'm Dutch, I do like history especially parts where changes of borders/nations have impact now. I was born in 1986, so I don't have memories of the Cold War and such. In school we learn a lot about WWII, that 6 million jews died and such. But halfway trough Germany started the wasteland. Our Reformed churches sends/sended/smuggled Bible translation to Moldavia, Ukraine, Russia. We donated money to help Hungarian Baptists, Ukrainian Jews and so on.. But that's it. I've visited quite some 'Eastern European' countries, and when I do I always have to dive into the history. When visiting Krakow for a week I learned about Galicia (I thought it was weird to have a Jewish museum named after a Spanish region ;)). So, in 2010 I decided to first visit all European countries, before flying somewhere else. I have rules, I have to have visited a bordering country before I'm allowed to visit a country. (E.g. can't go to Portugal I have to visit Spain first). And I have to stay in a country , so a train stop our toilet visit doesn't count for visiting Slovenia.. To know history to some extend, you have to be there. But, it's also around us. When being overwhelmed by the empty mspaces
- theraido 6y ago
  Everyone is biased, and it's not just American being out of touch with European History. I'm Dutch, I do like history especially parts where changes of borders/nations have impact now. I was born in 1986, so I don't have memories of the Cold War and such. In school we learn a lot about WWII, that 6 million jews died and such. But halfway trough Germany started the wasteland. Our Reformed churches sends/sended/smuggled Bible translation to Moldavia, Ukraine, Russia. We donated money to help Hungarian Baptists, Ukrainian Jews and so on.. But that's it. I've visited quite some 'Eastern European' countries, and when I do I always have to dive into the history. When visiting Krakow for a week I learned about Galicia (I thought it was weird to have a Jewish museum named after a Spanish region ;)). So, in 2010 I decided to first visit all European countries, before flying somewhere else. I have rules, I have to have visited a bordering country before I'm allowed to visit a country. (E.g. can't go to Portugal I have to visit Spain first). And I have to stay in a country , so a train stop our toilet visit doesn't count for visiting Slovenia.. To know history to some extend, you have to be there. But, it's also around us. When being overwhelmed by the empty mezuzah spaces, I realized that my hometown only had a 'Synagoguestreet' without a synagogue. That we have Jewish cemeteries, but no burials, and that there almost no Jewish community in the Netherlands, while my late grandmother talked about Jewish shop owners ..
pjc50 6y ago
It also points out what most of the comments have missed: this is on lithub, so it's not meant to be consumed on a purely literal level. The presence or absence of the wolves and the way we know about them clearly relates to the deeper, more horrifying questions about the past massacres of humans by humans.
bushin 6y ago
That's some autistic screeching of Polish nationalist.
dimitar 6y ago
That comment has a serious nationalistic bias so take it with a grain of salt. Pro-tip when learning about Eastern Europe or the Balkans - there are a lot of conflicting versions of historiography. Every nation, regime or even political faction builds their own narrative that often contradict each other.

paganel 6y ago

Still kind of biased and he says that everything beyond Stanislaw was a "wasteland" and Far-East presumably because it didn't have Baroque and later Habsburg architecture. I live in a country bordering Ukraine to the South, in a part of if where we didn't have Baroque nor Habsburg architecture (we were under Ottoman influence, even though not under direct control), and I have to say that reading about this territory's history it didn't seem like we were in the Far-East. In other words there's a distinct orientalism in some learned people the closer you get to the "have Baroque buildings" / "does not have Baroque buildings" border. He seems to be correct though about what happened to the Poles living there during WW2, but those very, very complicated times for all those involved.

theraido 6y ago
Everyone is biased, and it's not just American being out of touch with European History. I'm Dutch, I do like history especially parts where changes of borders/nations have impact now. I was born in 1986, so I don't have memories of the Cold War and such. In school we learn a lot about WWII, that 6 million jews died and such. But halfway trough Germany started the wasteland. Our Reformed churches sends/sended/smuggled Bible translation to Moldavia, Ukraine, Russia. We donated money to help Hungarian Baptists, Ukrainian Jews and so on.. But that's it. I've visited quite some 'Eastern European' countries, and when I do I always have to dive into the history. When visiting Krakow for a week I learned about Galicia (I thought it was weird to have a Jewish museum named after a Spanish region ;)). So, in 2010 I decided to first visit all European countries, before flying somewhere else. I have rules, I have to have visited a bordering country before I'm allowed to visit a country. (E.g. can't go to Portugal I have to visit Spain first). And I have to stay in a country , so a train stop our toilet visit doesn't count for visiting Slovenia.. To know history to some extend, you have to be there. But, it's also around us. When being overwhelmed by the empty mspaces
theraido 6y ago
Everyone is biased, and it's not just American being out of touch with European History. I'm Dutch, I do like history especially parts where changes of borders/nations have impact now. I was born in 1986, so I don't have memories of the Cold War and such. In school we learn a lot about WWII, that 6 million jews died and such. But halfway trough Germany started the wasteland. Our Reformed churches sends/sended/smuggled Bible translation to Moldavia, Ukraine, Russia. We donated money to help Hungarian Baptists, Ukrainian Jews and so on.. But that's it. I've visited quite some 'Eastern European' countries, and when I do I always have to dive into the history. When visiting Krakow for a week I learned about Galicia (I thought it was weird to have a Jewish museum named after a Spanish region ;)). So, in 2010 I decided to first visit all European countries, before flying somewhere else. I have rules, I have to have visited a bordering country before I'm allowed to visit a country. (E.g. can't go to Portugal I have to visit Spain first). And I have to stay in a country , so a train stop our toilet visit doesn't count for visiting Slovenia.. To know history to some extend, you have to be there. But, it's also around us. When being overwhelmed by the empty mezuzah spaces, I realized that my hometown only had a 'Synagoguestreet' without a synagogue. That we have Jewish cemeteries, but no burials, and that there almost no Jewish community in the Netherlands, while my late grandmother talked about Jewish shop owners ..

pjc50 6y ago

It also points out what most of the comments have missed: this is on lithub, so it's not meant to be consumed on a purely literal level. The presence or absence of the wolves and the way we know about them clearly relates to the deeper, more horrifying questions about the past massacres of humans by humans.

bushin 6y ago

That's some autistic screeching of Polish nationalist.

dimitar 6y ago

That comment has a serious nationalistic bias so take it with a grain of salt. Pro-tip when learning about Eastern Europe or the Balkans - there are a lot of conflicting versions of historiography. Every nation, regime or even political faction builds their own narrative that often contradict each other.