Poland Revisited - To a Historian Friend:

 Officer Marcelli Konieczny, family member and Policeman murdered during the Katyn Massacres

4 August 2013:
(a friend writes that Poland has been described 'like a Canary caught between two huge Cats.' My reply:)

       I wanted to provide you with another take on the Canary Analogy. I think it's too easy a trap for the historian to fall into when discussing Poland. It's probably due to Poland's geography more than anything, and of course it's always the first thing mentioned in any work on Poland - "a land bridge for many invading, outside forces." At the core of it though, there was always this entity of the culture of language, and even slavonic customs and traditions that held together this odd idea of a free and liberty-loving place called Poland. You can sense it among the Poles. You can read about it in popular fiction. It's wrapped into their music, arts, writing, poetry, and film-making. The question becomes how serious is it as a force to weld together an idea and move it into the realm of  progressive nationalistic aspirations? You asked me about my interest in such matters, when strangely enough my background is in Asian History.

       I travel a lot in Asia, concentrating my linguistic and historical interests for the past twenty-five years in Viet Nam. My first trip to Poland was a real eye-opener to say the least, because in a very weird way I felt like I was traveling in Viet Nam. I could see the same growth pangs of moving from one economic system to another, the personal yearnings in the people for a better life, and mainly, the realization that Poland had a lot of catching up to do with the 20th century. (at that time we were on the verge of entering the 21st century!). There was in the citizens too, this longing for freedom and liberty, and a release from the chains of somebody else's rules and system. Poland always was central Europe's "Ireland." just as Viet Nam is often referred to as Asia's "Ireland." Poland may be nothing more than a romantic dream in the minds of millions of Poles residing in and outside of Poland. The Dream becomes a fertile garden for the demographer, statistician, historian, economist, or even artist. All have the task of explaining Poland to the rest of the world.  The Chronicler may have the most important task. The Chronicles rest on one important fact: no matter how much Poland has been trampled on, torn apart, sub-divided so many times, and changed hands, it remains as a nation of people bound by a language and a "Polish Way" of sorting out their destiny.

       It was never so much about two cats wanting to eat the canary, but two cats constantly debating issues of what to do with the canary. The Polish Question at the Potsdam Summit wasn't new. The fall of the Soviet Bloc proved that. And the question had come up again previous to the end of World War II. Also it was more about Lithuania, the Hapsburgs, Ukrainia, the Holy Roman Empire, and what to do about Silesia. It was always about having to deal with the Poles if we should one day decide to attempt to conquer them. All of this geographical debating led right up to the political breakdowns in 1987. In simpler terms, the Canary doesn't care one bit about any cats on it's borders, maybe never cared, except to give the cats a warning every once in a while that it's probably best to leave the Canary alone.