Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European?

So, Sean, when we at home speak of Westbrits, does that mean that the people around Dublin are capitalist and the rest communist.(joking)

True. Poland is Western Europe's eastern border. Poland has looked West since the 10th Century (ex., latin alphabet, Roman Catholicism, Golden Democracy).

Culturally there is no Central Europe.

Please tell.

There is no eastern European western European distinction.Try to ask anyone if he thinks he belongs to eastern Europe.This is just nonsense.There is western world,central Europe,Mediteranean countries,Balkans and Russia as the long arm of Slaviya.

Let's face it, the main reason for everyone denying that Poland is part of Eastern Europe is because for decades Eastern Europe was synonymous with communism, bad government, corruption, and economic weakness. It's a matter of connotation, not denotation. The argument whether it's Eastern, or Central, or whatever else, revolves around that perception. For a very long time, Greece has been considered part of the "West" even though it's technically much farther east than Poland. Now that their economy is an epic clusterf*ck, not that many people would instinctively put it in the same category as Germany and France. Until Poland becomes "like" Germany and France in the common opinion, no amount of arguments to the contrary will free it from the stigma of Eastern Europe.

Nevertheless there is no eastern European mentality !

Not really - they're roughly on the same latitude.

Poland made the blunder of rejecting the offer of the Marshall Plan in the late 40's, thus they fell under the Soviet orbit for 50 years. That's why they're considered Eastern.

I don't think there was much of an option at the time. Perceptions are stubborn, though. It takes at least a generation to change them.


yes, we consider ourselves special. now, if only the rest of the world were so easy to convince :)

by whom?

After WWII communism was considered a legitimate alternative to capitalism by the intelligentsia. There were lots of Polish communists although they deny it now. If Poland would have insisted on participating in the Marshall Plan what would Stalin have done?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

Yes, I think a lot of people truly believed in the idea, at first. Heck, for a while, right after WWII, it looked as if the USSR was on its way to surpass the US economy, even from here. The fact still remains that Poland could not do much without Stalin's approval at the time, with the "liberating army" still hanging around.

Poland simply didn't have the choice of refusing at that time - it was very much under Soviet occupation that only ended in the mid 50's.

you should have a long conversation with Harry, delphi - he will convince you Poland was very independant state back then

Athens appears to be about 100km east of Warsaw, so they are clearly more eastern than Poland.

Warsaw: 21° 0′ 39″ E
Athens: 23° 43′ 0″ E
Roughly 3° East. And that doesn't include the vast territory at the east end of the Aegean


He almost had me convinced.

"you should have a long conversation with Harry, delphi - he will convince you Poland was very independant state back then"
Ah, bless! Dear little Gummi still can't handle me when it comes to what I do say, do instead he lies about what I say! How sweet.

Special or not that is a question of perception. I'm talking facts here -Poles do not have eastern European mentality because thingy like that do not exits !

One only needs to look toward history, France and Poland were allies, but relations
were difficult up until the 18th century. At least 3 Polish kings married French princesses.
After the wars and the occupation of Poland, she became under the control of the Soviet Union.
Poland has had her feet firmly planted in both east and west... Religiously, in Orthodox Russia and
in pro-western Catholism. I'm speaking as a Galitian, my ancestry is from Malo Polska. My first trip
to that area I felt extremely like I was in an eastern bloc country (that was 18 years ago). Returning
just this last October, what a stunning jolt to see the differences. Google has a floor of offices in down
town Krakow which is quickly becoming the Paris of Poland.

True. There's only Eastern Europe which gets more westernized as one goes westwards. :)

It isn't so much the latitude as the mentality, cuisine, traditions.


And historically Poland has geographically always been much further east than it is now.


They aren't a Western European company, they're American. And the have offices in Tokyo - perhaps you're suggesting that Tokyo is Westen European too, Celestyna/Slavia.


Hardly. Either you've never lived in Paris or you've never lived in Poland. Or both.

Indeed - it always surprises me to learn how close the German border was to Poznan between the wars - which explains the massive cultural and linguistical influence from Germany.

And then when you consider that what is now "East" in Poland was the middle of the country, it's not hard to see how the mentality is firmly rooted in the East.


Krakow, Paris of Poland? ....well.

What ? Are you connecting mentality with geography ?

all this slavic brotherhood stuff tickles me

if you ask your average Pole he would much rather be tied in with Western Europe than create stronger bonds with Lithuania and Ukraine

in fact lots of Poles that I have spoken to are very wary about Ukrainians
the Euro 2012 was the perfect opportunity to forge stronger ties with Ukraine

did anything significant happen?

I think not

Check out the thread title.

eastern European is a term based on former political reality.
Whereas mentality is something more specific - there is no eastern European mentality !

Not only.


So you're saying that a Spaniard has the same attitude to life as a Russian?

What else?


I'm saying that Czech attitude to life is more similar to Dutch attitude to live than Ukrainian.
Simply there is no "eastern Europe mentality" !
Ah the same goes for" western Europe mentality" - A Spaniard doesn't has the same attitude to life as English !

There is germanic mentality, slavic mentality and Mediterranean mentality and people residing in these countries agree about that.A special case is England with Anglosaxon mentality.

Poles have nothing in common with Germans, French, Spanish, Portugeuse. Poles speak a slavic language, shared communism with the rest of eastern europe for decades, got ass hammered in the war and fell into Soviet hands for years and years.....why are we even discussing this. Poles are nothing like the west and routinely detest western tendancies and ideologies on this forum.

Because of people like you.
Would you kindly read above discussion before jumping to simplified conclusions.
I said that there is no eastern European mentality .
What it has to do with your buzzing?


Poles are nothing like the west - could somebody translate that into intelligible English please.
'-' Detest western tendencies and ideologies on this forum - since when this forum is representative of Poles?
Nevertheless I wish that above were the truth. Because nowadays western tendencies and ideologies are aiming at turning people into slaves.