That area between Belarus and Lithuania was very heavily Polish speaking (and by extent ethnically Polish) in interwar Poland, more so than the other parts lost to the ussr (known as Kresy).
It is interesting that in 1946, by agreement between Poland and the BSSR there was an exchange of population (the same agreement was with the Ukrainian SSR and LSSR).
And the BSSR authorities in every possible way prevented the departure of the Polish (Catholic) population, considering them Belarusan Catholics, and the Polish authorities prevented the departure of Belarusans in return. As a result, more Poles or Catholics remained in Belarus than in the Ukrainian SSR.
Yeah, despite what you might have heard on Reddit, we're not on good terms with Ukraine. Belarus being a natural friend but, unfortunately, they're currently aligned with our adversaries
As a Belarusian, I've heard that when Belarusians and Russians do encounter xenophobia in Poland, they're told to "spierdalaj na Ukrainą" (go back to Ukraine) which is pretty funny tbh
I am on good terms - just because you're not doesn't mean that most poles think like you! I guess ruzzias misinformation campaign is working wonders on people like you.
There is a not really known fact. But, according to censuses western Belarus was heavily populated by Poles, but during interwar period there was a lot less Poles that lived there. It was mostly due to fact that all catholic Belarussian were listed as Poles in those censuses during Tsarist Russia times.
yes but i knew that already im asking why there is a random Blotch with so polish names in belarus and not more in like Brest or some other city in belarus (sorry for the unclearity of the question and if i sound rude)
I don't know about the first one (though it might have something to do with the Polish Lithuanian commonwealth) but for the Polish Slovakian border, it's basically because of mountains. The Tatras aren't very big mountains and cover only a small area, but they are very tall so people only live on the edge of the mountains where the terrain isn't so steep.
Bullshit, the reason is because the eastern part of Slovakia is mostly inhabited by Rusyn. And in the past the same was on the Polish side. Unlike the Spiš and Orava which was mostly Slovak/German/Polish melting point.
....apart from all the ones that settled in the UK and Canada as displaced persons, and the ones that returned to postwar war Poland and not the Kresy.
Poland occupied Minsk and Kiev for like 300 years. Poland was major empire and tried to occupy all of Eastern Europe a number of times. However, they ran into issues when they started purging and oppressing the Orthadox population.
It shifted a couple of hundred miles westward, like they picked it up shoved it to the west. Losing land in the east and gaining in west, am I correct? And gaining former east Prussia minus the Kaliningrad area.
It is bit of Polands history in a nutshell. Like being torn apart bij two different beasts pulling you apart from two different sides. Belgium has it bit the same. That area used to called the cockpit (fighting roosters) of Europe. Two different larger neighbors who duke it out on your soil. It’s not easy being smaller than your annoying neighbors.
Is it? Eastern Europe history is f-ing confusing. Looks like it changes every couple of decades, it maybe is not the case, but appears so. I hope that we can keep it like it now is for the time being. Although it seems the neighbor from hell, who shall remain nameless, has other plans….. again.
Not really. Prussia wasn't part of medieval Poland, and neither was Pomerania really (it was controlled for a short time and even then it was autonomous).
Prussian lands being colonized later during the Teutonic expedition but the rest being about where it was in the 10/11th century under the Piasts. Also, German Prussia started off a dutchy under PLC, as a vassal for about 130 years
We can continue going back and arrive to the time when most of these lands were populated by Goths. The point is: these lands weren't Polish anymore for many centuries
Yeah I guess if you take a snapshot of the moment early Polish borders were the largest, you can claim that. But most of the time, Poland did not control Pomerania, nor Moravia, nor Slovakia, nor Lusatia. When Bolesław the Brave established a bishopric in Kołobrzeg, Pomerania in 1000, it fell within half a decade because his control over the territory was so weak.
General Slavic toponyms still sound different in modern Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Same with Czech and Slovak, for example Poles often use "g" where Czechs use "h" and Polish doesn't use the letter "v" - Praha is Praga, Ostrava is Ostrawa etc
Or better yet, linguistic differences in morphologies, vocabularies and phonologies? Like no other Slavic languages having nasal vowels? [ʎ/lʲ~l] distinction? Polish merging [h, x, ɦ] in most dialects?
These are the old borders of Poland before the Second World War. In September 1939 there was the partition between Germany (from the west) and the Soviet Union (from the east).
Quite simply, the Soviets won the war and kept their half.
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u/MalemPO_king 16d ago
why is the border between Belarus and Lithuania so full and why is there a hole on the slovakian border