I am not Polish enough :-(

Except the Americans of course :) They're not Europeans YET !! Lol.

I was told I looked very european.. my only hope is when I come to visit I dont
get thrown our for messin up on my Polish :)))

That's quite inportant for people in Belarus , ex-Litwa.
They are told by Polish and Russians that their ethnic group was able only to be a peasant, not szlachtic. That is a damageful. People should know more than 10 per cent of their compatriots were from szlachta, they called themselves untill the 19 century litwiny. They were Belorussians and Lithanians although spoke Polish (as Irish people speak English)

Sorry :(

I didn't realise how important it was to you.

Just wanted to say that I agree with you 100%.

Hi Rob, yeah I think that's what we should all be proud of now. Feels good too, I think.
Thanks :)

Poles and Lithanians were also from a united RP. That didn't keep such people as Adam Mickiewicz away from his Litwin origin. The first words of his Pan adeusz are: Litwa my Motherland...

Are you Russian, Lithuanian, Polish? Just asking.

You are Polish, when your heart tells you so. :)

Russian by Belief and citizenship bur my mother had origin in Litwa

Interesting mix.

Each country consists of such mixes.
Millions of people in Russia has ancestors from Litwa and Crown by massive deportations of previous centuries and many people settled for Russia before 1917 by unempoyment.
I was managed to learn my ancestors' history untill 17 century because they presented it to Szlachetska comission for szlachta confirmation in 1840-1850. Three ancestors families past became evident. My mothe knew only names of her grandfathers because it was dangerous to tell anything about non-proletarian or non-peasant past of family to little children in 1930-1940/ When she became a grown-up everybody was dead.
Many people in Russia in such situation

By calling Lithuania his "Fatherland" Mickiewicz was refering to a region of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commenwealth he loved. Let us not forget that Mickiewicz wrote his masterpieces in Polish and that he was a Polish patriot as he died in Turkey raising Polish forces to fight against the Russians in the Crimean War in 1855.

Language doesn't shows etnicity in any case. Irish people speak English. That doesn't mean they are Englishmen.
Of course Mickiewicz was a Lithanian-Polish unity in one state partisan. Nobody may oppose to that idea because we see it in his works. But we also should agree that people Litwa in his epoch called themselves Litwins, not Polish people. They were Polish only for foreigners.
I don't think we should follow the ideas of oficial Poland of 1918-1939 that renamed Litwa as Kresy and also renamed Brest-Litowski.

'Scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tatar'

Scratch a Polish szlachtic and you will also find a Tatar.
You deal with ius sanguis, blood law.
I deal with ius soli, ground law.
Russians have not only Tatars among ancestors but also tribes similar to today Finland residents and many turk tribes appeared in this region since 6 century. But Russia is not called Tataria since 1480 and never was called Suomi.
As to Litwa it had such name in difference with Crown (Poland) even after Lublin Union.
Untill 1795 Litwins didn't call themselves Poles.
Now Litwa is apart from Poland. Two states Belarus and Litvania occupy its territory.
That's the reason why I think My ancestors were from Litwa not for Poland despite speaking Polish

hehe... unfortunately I was born in England, but I have 100% Polish parents - does that mean I have more right to buy a flat in Poland than ola123 has, or not? lol ;) :D

I have more rights coz I was born here and I work here nanananana :P Read my post on the other thread.

You seems to be intelligent and well educated person, but IMO in this case, you are mixing several things and don't understand some. Compare Polish community in Kresy (now western Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania) to German one on former German land (now western Poland). Germans living there were Germans, similarly Poles living in the Kresy were Poles. They called themselves Poles, spoke Polish, were held within Polish culture, had Polish parents, etc.... After hundrets of years of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Poles were emigrating in the east and this fact didn't make Lithuanians of them.

About Mickiewicz: for me he did more bad things to Poles that good, so if Lithuanians want to take him, let them do it :D. We had more noble Poles and it's better to look among mathematitians and engineers rather than poets.

About you: YES, some of your ancestors were Polish (I know it hurts in contemporary Putin-rulled Russia). Remember not to tell it to anybody, it's dangerous for your teeth ;).

if you aren't polish enogh,then polish yourselve more;))
ok,bad one I know...i couldn't resist

To the author of this topic:

Don't feel bad the closest thing i've got to Poland is that i once had a polish girlfriend, LOL

I'm about three or four different nationalities and i count myself as all of them :)

I'm not Polish enough either. :(

I had someone Polish on me, but I don't think that counts. ;-)

Boy or girl?

Slainte agus tainte :)

I'm 100% Polish but that's still not Polish enough for ola123. ;)

There vere imigrants from Poland in Litwa but the majority of Polish-speakink szlachta People were Ruthenians and Zmud (ethnic Lithanians) by origin. They felt a unity with Pole szlachta but we have few evidence they called Poles themselves. The lists of szlachta in Grodno at the beginning of 19 century shows us that people called themselves bielaruska or litowska szlachta (sorry for spelling).
Most of them spoked Polish (as well as Bielorussian) but they didn't feel themselves Poles by ground (lex soli). There was still a difference between Crown and Litwa.
As to the imigrants, most of them were really naturalized there as people from Bogatyrowiczi described by Elisa Orgezkowa.
My version is that thei felt themselves Poles alter Poland received status of Kingsdom and Litwa passed to be Russian Gubernijas. The second reason was the liquidation of Uniate Chirch. Greek-Catholics gave the feeling of some national unanimity within Litwa: 80 per cent of peasants and at least 25 per cent of poor szlachta. When Greek Catholicism dissapeared Roman Catholics and former Greek Catholics passed to Roman rite felt themselves in minority and the wish to feel themselves within a great catholic nation appeared.
I'm sure this is common with 19 centuri not before.
This is my version. Historians in Belarus (except oficial) support this idea

I shall agree with you. Heretics such as Mickiewicz were enough damageful.
But as to his intuition of Fatherland, well I think it was not only common with him.

What would she know, she a bloody foreigner :)

Now it is not dangerous especially among middle classers.
Old Victorian Polish speking middle class is still in memory and respect among Russian middle classers.
They hate contemporary Polish behaviour presented in the films and in private contacts: angry agressive and inmoral.
Gamal I'd like to invite you to a discussion http://www.polishforums.com/poland_russia_never_ending_story-4_11550_0 .html As ro me it seems to be very interesting