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i wasn't here for the russian period, but i've been here for the free period since it started. and i do know that the people here did put faith in the words of the church. the people got a little wiser when the church told them who to vote for in following elections. so i do believe the church offered guidance and the people took it. isn't it part of the reason Polish people revere JPII.
This has nothing to do with the church per se, he implies that Poles had no national identity, which is just completely opposite to the actual fact, The Poles had and still have one of the strongest national identities on the continent. The ridiculousness of his proposition is revealed when he argues that countries like Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have had strong national identities-which is just plain laughable if you consider the very short existence of Latvia and Estonia and the multi ethnic composition of Lithuania, in contrast to the the long history and homogeneity of Poland. There is reason why it happened in Poland first and not in the other countries.
It is quite amusing seeing someone lecture about national identity whilst coming from the UK, or should I say the DK-short for disunited kingdom.
I've heard the Poles being accused of being too nationalistic, but never have I heard them being described as indifferent to the idea of Polishness. Let's face it the guy just does not cut the mustard as a serious European historian-he should give Norman Davies a call.
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