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nothing in history happens in a vacuum. But as a matter of fact, when the Soviets invaded Germany from the east, what got lost was mostly german knowledge in th
by michael9423 2y ago
nothing in history happens in a vacuum. But as a matter of fact, when the Soviets invaded Germany from the east, what got lost was mostly german knowledge in the destruction and burnings.
- keiferski 2y agoWhen they invaded Germany proper, sure. But that was after the Germans had already destroyed countless Polish cultural treasures over the previous five years. And of course that’s not even mentioning the Russification and Germanization programs that aimed to destroy Polish culture and knowledge during the Partitions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_culture_during_World_War_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_culture_during_World_Wa... https://www.bn.org.pl/en/news/3855-75-years-ago-the-germans-set-fire-to-the-national-library-in-warsaw.html https://www.bn.org.pl/en/news/3855-75-years-ago-the-germans-...
- michael9423 2y agoYes indeed. When governments lead wars against each other, it is the populations that suffer, and knowledge and culture get destroyed on all sides.
- keiferski 2y agoCharacterizing the invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union as “governments leading wars against each other” is sloppy revisionism at best. Poland was invaded by occupying powers.
- mistrial9 2y agoPolish heavy cavalry was entirely innocent for a thousand years?
- michael9423 2y agoAll war is state terror. As the great Sebastian Haffner wrote: "European history knows two forms of terror. The first is the uncontrollable explosion of bloodlust in a victorious mass uprising. The other is cold, calculated cruelty committed by a victorious state as a demonstration of power and intimidation. The two forms of terror normally correspond to revolution and repression. The first is revolutionary. It justifies itself by the rage and fever of the moment, a temporary madness. The second is repressive. It justifies itself by the preceding revolutionary atrocities."
- keiferski 2y agoNice quote, but I'm not sure how it relates to my comment.