100 years ago, on 11 November 1918, Poland regained independence. It was a great achievement because it happened after 123 years of total occupation of Poland by three empires: Russia, Germany and Austria – the so-called Partitions of Poland. This total occupation was combined with intense russification or germanisation efforts aimed at the Poles in the respective Partitions. The Austrian Partition was not as bad, but it was still very far from independence. The Polish language and the Polish culture survived in the Russian and German partitions too, just hidden from the eyes of the occupiers. For 123 years. For several generations. November 11 is a symbolic day that is much better for Poles than the symbolic end of the World War II after which Poland ended up behind the Iron Curtain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Polish_Republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Partition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Partition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Partition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Victory_Celebrations_of_1946 - Political controversy
And what we have after these 100 years?
Poles who are proud to be of Polish nationality and Poland as an independent country are criticised by European “elites” because we don't want to be a part of a utopian European superstate. To be precise, we do want to be in an ECONOMIC union with other European countries, but we don't want to be a part of a European superstate fully controlled by European “elites”. Can you blame us? No way – we know what it was like to be a part of communistic bloc behind the Iron Curtain that was controlled by the communistic superstate dominated by Russia. Officially we had democracy, officially we were independent and officially there was freedom of speech, but in reality the political system was totally undemocratic, Poles were not really independent, everybody was scared to say what he (or she) really thought and the “elites” from Russia decided about everything. Unfortunately the European Union seems to be going in the same direction – democracy and freedom of speech are being killed by the term “hate speech” that is used against anybody who says anything incompatible with what the “elites” say and something like independence would cease to exist in a superstate by definition. What's even worse today’s European “elites” from the West have the same strong illegitimate belief in their own infallibility as the “elites” behind the Iron Curtain used to have. Horrifying, really horrifying.
Here's the national anthem of Poland:
My own translation of the first part of the national anthem of Poland is this:
Poland has not yet died,
When we are alive.
What the foreign violence has taken from us,
With sabre we shall reclaim.
March, march, Dąbrowski,
From the Italian land to Poland.
Under your leadership
We shall rejoin the nation
We'll cross the Vistula, we'll cross the Warta,
We'll be Poles.
Bonaparte gave us an example of
How we should win.
March, march, …
God, Honour, Homeland.
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