Poland

Ноя 17

by Brit Muscovite

We find it very important to know what do other people think about us. Do you agree? With this purpose I’d like to start today a new theme in this blog - attitude of russian people to different countries and nations. Before you go to Moscow, let you inform about.

Article by Bavin P. www.fom.ru

Poland

For several centuries,. Russia and Poland have been tied with very complex relations, in which there were periods of cooperation, wars and even subordination of one state to another. How do Russians feel now about Poland and how do they imagine the Polish attitude towards Russia?

Slightly more than half of those surveyed (57%) see Poland as a friendly state, with 25% holding the opposite opinion. Remarkably, those considering Poland as an unfriendly state are basically Zyuganov followers (33%), university graduates (35%) and people with higher income levels (33%). Even more remarkable is the breakdown of responses across federal districts: the evaluation of Poland as a friendly state grows as it goes eastward.

As it turns out, Russian attitudes towards the Poles are more favorable than the imaginary «counter-attitude.» 64% reported feeling sympathetic toward the Poles, and 44% appraised Polish attitudes towards Russia as positive. Consequently, 43% don't sympathize with Poland, with 22% say the Polish population feels negative about Russia.

Naturally, Polish attitudes towards Russia are thought of as being negative in the groups considering Poland to be an unfriendly state: these are Zyuganov followers (28%), university graduates (32%), higher income groups (28%) and residents of the Central Federal District (27%).

On the whole, the image of Poland's «friendliness» depends on personal sympathies for the Poles and on appraisals of their feelings about Russia, with the latter factor appearing to be more substantial.

The assumption, according to which positive feelings towards Poland grows in the Eastern areas of Russia, to some extent has been proved at the discussion focus groups sessions. The participants demonstrated a fairly negative stance on Poland:
• "First female participant: «I was in Krakow, but didn't find it pleasant to the eye. Maybe Warsaw is better, but I didn't go there.»
Second participant: «I was in Warsaw, it's horrible.»
Third participant: <People are very unfriendly there, very rude.>
Fourth participant: <They don't like us." >(DFG, Moscow).
The participants of a Novosibirsk focus group session see no reasons for a negative stance on Poland:
• First participant: "I never thought of Poland. A normal attitude. The same as to others."
Second participant: "I even don't know how to feel about it. It's a normal country. "
Third participant: "Poland is a good country, good for travelling." (DFG, Novosibirsk).
The participants' positive attitudes on Poland are based first of all on recollections of Soviet realities:
• First participant: "I watched Polish cartoons in my childhood, the one about the cat."
Second participant: "It was the Lelek and Bolek cartoon. A normal country." (DFG, Novosibirsk).
• «The first perfumes to Russia came from Poland, that's what I thought about first. How much cream was brought to Russia! Even Bulgaria, I wouldn't say it was hostile, but it felt a sort of wary towards us. But the Poles were always quiet and positive about us.» (DFG, Novosibirsk).
The focus group participants are likely to seek reasons for the Pole's negative stance on Russia in the Poles themselves, sometimes bringing groundless charges against them:
• «They don't like anyone. In the Great Patriotic War, they were neither for us, nor against, they always played dirty tricks on us.» (DFG, Moscow).
Many focus group participants in Samara are also more likely to regard Poland as an unfriendly state, but seek to explain it by relations between the two countries, rather than by Polish national character.
• "Rather an enemy. They still remember evil. They think it was bad under the Tsar and in Soviet times " (DFG, Samara).
But let us recall the Moscow discussion. When the moderator asked the participants to name prominent Poles, they demonstrated a good knowledge of Polish history and culture. Some pointed out that they knew it even better than the Poles themselves.
• First participant: «What's interesting, Brylska is completely unknown in Poland.
Second participant: And do the Poles know Wajda?" (DFG, Moscow).

But even here, the respondents seem to be angry:
• "Mickiewicz. How many Mickiewiczes are there? Too many for one nation" (DFG, Moscow).
Responses to a public opinion poll on prominent Poles demonstrate that the narrowness of the information flow in Soviet times was inversely proportionate to its intensity. On top of the list stands Wojciech Jaruzelski, the last leader of communist Poland (6%). Placed second and third are two Poles – singer Anna German and actress Barbara Brylska (5% and 3%, respectively). Anna German is still thought of by many respondents as being a Soviet singer:
• «For some reason, Anna German was seen as our Russian singer, even though she performed Polish and Russian songs.» (DFG, Novosibirsk).
Further down the «popularity list» are the classics of Polish culture – Frederic Chopin and Adam Mickiewicz. The inclination to name Poles who were closely tied with Russia can also be seen in references to people who gained prominence in Russia (the USSR), such as Konstantin Rokossovsky and Edita Piekha.

While speculating on similarities between Russians and Poles, 27% named the fairly abstract category «Slavs» (mentioned in about fifty per cent of meaningful responses). Close to this are the responses attempting to find similarities on a very common level: «people are the same everywhere,» «people on Earth are similar» (5%). 4% see no similarities between the two peoples.

Language (7%) and sometimes religion (2%) are also called common features, but at the same time, they are encountered in responses listing national distinctions (12% and 11%, respectively).

The same issues were raised at the DFG sessions. Here are a few typical quotes on religion:
• «The Poles are Catholics. Russians have a church, the Poles have kosziol, this is where the big difference lies. It doesn't mean we dislike each other. But we are different.» (DFG, Novosibirsk).
• «In my view, religion is a consolidating, rather than dissociating factor. The Chinese, the Chechens have different faiths. The Poles are Catholics, but they are Christians. We are Christians as well. Mentality is formed depending on the faith.» (DFG, Samara).
Such categories as psychology and culture were also mentioned by the discussion participants as both similar and distinctive features:
• «What's common between the Poles and Russians is patience and mutual understanding, a willingness to make friends, help and understand. Our psychology is close.» (DFG, Novosibirsk).
• First participant: «There is little in common between us. Their culture is closer to the West, while ours is closer to the East. The Tatar yoke didn't reach them, but we had it, although historians claim that it didn't exist.»
Moderator: "What are the differences?"

First participant: "Psychology. They are closer to the West, we have the wall. The are more private, we are more collective. The economy affected consciousness as well. "

Second participant: "I think so, too." (DFG, Samara).

So, in demonstrating a normal level of sympathy for Poland (as compared with attitudes on other nations), Russian interviewees are considerably less optimistic in their appraisals of Poland's attitude towards Russia. Some respondents realize that the reason for the negative attitude on Russia in Poland is rooted in the history of Russian-Polish relations, while others tend to explain it by negative features in the Polish national character. But, whatever the case, respondents who don't feel a historical fault complex or personal dislike tend to see Poland as one of the Slavic, and hence congenial, nations.

WHAT IS THE CAPITAL OF POLAND?