You don't have to be a historian to know who a certain Norman Davies is. According to many, he is a man thanks to whom Western readers got to know and appreciate Polish history. Without diminishing the achievements of the famous Welshman, it must be said that he is not the only author in Great Britain dealing with the country on the Vistula. Recently, his colleague from Scotland, Neal Ascherson, undertook quite a breakneck attempt to describe the entire Polish history on 70 pages. What did he get out of it?
Neal Ascherson is rather unknown in Poland, meanwhile, he started writing about Poland as long ago as Norman Davies, though mainly from the perspective of a journalist, not a historian. Already in 1981, he published a book on the Solidarity revolution ( The Polish August:the self-limiting revolution ), and a year later about Lech Wałęsa ( The Book of Lech Wałęsa ). Surprisingly, none of his works on Poland reached the Vistula River. Of all Neal Ascherson's books, only ... a monograph on the Black Sea was published in ours.
It has changed a bit by accident recently thanks to the Replika publishing house in Poznań. She has published a book about Wojtek the bear cub in Anders' army. The author is Scottish social activist Aileen Orr. However, in order for the story of the mascot of the Polish branch to be understandable for the British reader, an extensive epilogue was added to the actual content, presenting the history of Poland in a nutshell. The author of this 70-page add-on is Ascherson. Of course, you can find some errors in his text, but what is most interested is what conclusions and assessments the author draws and what he places special emphasis on. In other words - what does he want to teach his compatriots about Poland?
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth:"mother" for the Scottish commune
The vision of Poland's early history should appeal to every patriot. Admittedly, the author writes somewhat controversially about archaic in many respects systemic solutions , but apart from that it paints a truly idyllic image of a superpower on the Vistula River. Poland, as he himself writes, dominated political relations in Central and Eastern Europe for several centuries and its people of different nationalities were able to live together. They retained their cultural distinctness, while remaining united in political fidelity to the Polish crown. Ascherson describes the modern Republic of Poland as a rich country of grain traders and ... a veritable Eldorado for visitors from the British Isles!
Recent years have accustomed us to mass departures of Poles to England and Scotland for bread. In the past, however, it was exactly the opposite. As Ascherson writes, the number of Scots who settled in Scottish colonies in the Vistula basin during the two centuries of peak prosperity must have reached the tens of thousands . He then cites a significant quote from the writings of the Scottish traveler William Lithgow:
For the sake of prosperity, I should call [Poland] the Mother or Mother of young people and teenagers from Scotland, a large number of whom come here every year. (...) We can certainly define Poland as the mother of our commune and the place where the fortunes of our best buyers originate. If not all, then at least a significant number.
Well, 20th century Europeans had their American Dream . Scots in the 16th-17th century apparently preferred Polish Dream .
Kościuszko? Such a Polish William Wallace
Mel Gibson as… Tadeusz Kościuszko?
Naturally, Ascherson tries to show the history of Poland against the background of the history of Scotland, which was also difficult in the past. The most interesting comparison? It's definitely about Tadeusz Kościuszko. According to the author, is a Polish national hero whose achievements bring to mind (...) William Wallece. Let us remind you that we are talking about the leader of the unsuccessful Scottish uprising against the English, which took place in 1297.
When you look at Mel Gibson in "Braveheart" (playing the role of William Wallece), do you think about Tadeusz Kościuszko?
Vladimir Lenin did not want to, but he had to…
Let's skip the partitions that Ascherson writes about rather classically. We will find a more interesting statement later and it is unlikely to appeal to Polish patriots. Namely, the author quite naively writes that after the outbreak of the October revolution, Lenin agreed to grant independence to Poland and Finland. Why then did the Polish-Bolshevik war occur? According to the Scottish author:
the patience of the Bolsheviks ran out in 1920, however, when Polish troops took control of Kyiv and the Poles attempted to create a subordinate puppet state in Ukraine.
So it was our fault? Okay, but the war broke out ... a year earlier. And it was not Lenin who ran out of patience, but the Poles who stopped the Western Front of the Red Army advancing westward.
Why did Poles lose in World War II?
Finally, let us quote one more peculiar opinion. According to the author, the victory of Poles in the Polish-Bolshevik war significantly contributed to ... their defeat in the September campaign. Why? Well, the defeat of the Reds reportedly strengthened mutual prejudices . And it is probably true, but the example of Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Hungary and Ukraine shows that the Bolsheviks did not need any prejudices to impose the only right system on their neighbors. Equally unconvincing is the second argument that the establishment of the far east border in 1921 brought a catastrophe to the next generation of Poles. It seems that the catastrophe would fall on Poland, regardless of whether the border was on the Bug, the Vistula or near Minsk.
In addition, the author writes about the alleged belief of Poles about the infallibility of military commanders and a faith detached from reality in the military potential of their state. Were our ancestors really that naive in 1939? Some for sure, but most probably did not suspect that it would be as easy with the Germans as with the Bolsheviks 20 years earlier.
***
As you can see in Neal Ascherson's epilogue there are many controversial fragments, but still Wojtek's Bear is worth buying ... just for this text! We often complain that in the West nobody cares about the opinion of Poland, does not take our European history seriously and does not understand what our complexes and resentments result from. On the one hand, books such as "Wojtek Bear" are needed to teach the British what not to do about Poles. On the other hand, we should sometimes read such a publication ourselves to know what exactly these British have already learned ...
Source:
A. Orr, Wojtek the bear. A remarkable soldier of the Anders Army , Replica, Zakrzewo 2011.
See also
- Bear in the rank and file of the Polish Armed Forces? Why not!
- Command of the Domestic Camp (DOD for short). Occupation:spy wife
- Maybe Poland doesn't exist, but no one can take the propaganda from us!