Why do Polish people view Russia unfavorably?

Question

Poles hold the most negative views of Russia among all countries included in a new global survey by the Pew Research Center, which also shows that attitudes towards the United States, NATO and the European Union are the most positive ever recorded in Poland.

Only 2% of Poles hold a favourable view of Russia, while 97% have an unfavourable opinion. For the US, those figures are reversed, with 91% positive and 3% negative. Meanwhile, 94% now see Russia as a major threat to Poland, up from 65% when the question was last asked in 2018.

https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/06/22/only-2-of-poles-view-russia-favourably-lowest-of-any-country-in-global-study/

According to a Pew research paper, 97% of the Poles have a unfavorable view of Russia while only 2% hold a favorable view of Russia, the highest of any country surveyed. Is there a particular reason why Polish people view Russia unfavorably?

Answer 1

Poland spent a good deal of its not-long-past subjugated by either Germany or Russia.

From 1795 to 1918, Poland was split between Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and Russia and had no independent existence. In 1795 the third and the last of the three 18th-century partitions of Poland ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In 1939, the USSR invades it, with its Nazi buddies. *

Past 1945, Warsaw Pact until 1989.

see also Katyn massacre

Obviously, as others have pointed out, Russian actions since 2007's Estonian cyberwar, the special military operation war in Ukraine and general Russian hankering for the "glory days of the USSR" are only reinforcing this dislike.

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* Hitler rose to power partially on fear and hate for Bolshevism so the world was stunned when Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed in August 1939, a week before Germany invaded Poland. That deal gave eastern half of Poland to the USSR, along with free rein for Russia to screw the Baltics (which Russia did soon afterwards). Stalin might have benefited from reading Mein Kampf as - not before Russia fed the Nazi war machine with raw materials for 2 years - Hitler double-crossed him with his Barbarossa invasion in 1941, bringing us back to the more familiar history we all know (and one considerably more palatable to Herr Putin).

p.s. Besides practical considerations, why did the UK and France not also declare war on the USSR when it attacked Poland? Because their mutual-defense pact with Poland had a secret clause identifying (only) Germany as the power of interest.

p.p.s. Much ink has been spilled on whether a) Stalin was just dumb. Or b) got pre-empted before he could double-cross Hitler himself. One suspects the life expectancy in the 40s-50s of option A historians or documents in Russia might have been limited, so there is no real way to know (the abject failure of Soviet forces in the first weeks of Barbarossa hints at A). One valid-ish concern Russia had in 1939 was a suspicion that the Western powers were just hoping Russia and Germany would start fighting, before swooping in to pick the bones afterwards.

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To be fair, while Stalin started out helping Hitler and facilitated WW2, keep in mind 60-70% of German military casualties were sustained on the Eastern Front. The USSR lost 13.7% of its population in that war, compared to UK w 1% and US w 0.3%.

Answer 2

This is clearly not the only reason, but the foreign policy of Putin since 2014 appears to be a major driver in the exacerbation of those negative views, as the history of those Pew polls suggests.

That poll even notes that "Nearly all interviews in Poland were conducted after Putin’s statement on March 18, 2014, regarding the Russian annexation of Crimea."

Answer 3

For Poland and Baltic states, disfavor to Russian Federation results from seeing this country as a threat.

These countries are located close to Russia and have the not so old history of being forcibly incorporated into Soviet block. They see themselves as the first candidates if Russia would ever attempt testing if NATO works as expected.

After heavy post-soviet crisis, these countries joined EU and achieved economic success. If Russia now forcibly pulls them back into its sphere, they have that to lose. While was indeed the time in 2011 or about when GDP per capita shortly went below Russia's, it is currently much above and climbing.

This is probably enough for not to look for more reasons. The survey in question asks about the country. The position towards local ethnic Russians, or even Russians in general, may be less extreme.

Answer 4

Poles and Russians have historically been enemies because they shared a border and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth fought Muscovy in many wars. They both also contested the Ukraine in the 17-18th century. And Muscovy/Russia has continually been taking lands from PLC throughout its existence (Smolensk, left bank Ukraine).

Also as other answers said, Russia partitioned Poland and had suppressed a few Polish uprising such as in 1830 and 1863. And after 1830 it had started to Russianize Poland, while before it was more hands off. And of course Soviet Union fought two wars with Poland one in 1919 and another in 1939, trying to conquer it both times.

So IMO the Polish see Russians as always trying to conquer them and take over, which could be said to have intensified after 2014 and Russian official rhetoric (looking at Dmitri Medvedev) that basically Ukraine is a fake state that should be absorbed into Russia. So keeping in mind this history of animosity between the two states it is easy to see why Poles don't like Russians.

Answer 5

This conflict had started since the time, when Ivan the 4th was dead(or poisoned), and after Russia tsar's generation had cutted. That time called The time of Troubles or Smuta literally "unclear".

Polish forces took that "lucky chance" and tried to subdue Russia lands to Poland. Polish intervention come to Moscow, corrupt the some of nobles(that was non loyal even in Ivan the 4th ruling, that is why he was carrying out his bloody reforms Oprichnina - Russian anti-corruption, anti-separatists repressions). They sat in Kremlin and ruled for there interests. It was made under theatre performance of the survived prince - Dmitry, but he was a fake one, and his naming was False Dmitry.

But then, some Russian nobles had treaty with some German nobles, and it was supported new Russian dynasty - Romanovs. Romanovs took only German princess, and share Europe with German nations. Especially Poland, because of the upper causes.

Livonia and Poland after Romanovs rise had fall, thought, that was very strong empire in middle age, but that trying to hold Moscow was the overstrain for the Livonia-Poland geopolitics. 4 Poland Russian-German shars was followed in next 300 years.

Poland up only one time, again when it was troubles, in 1919 they took Ukraine and Belorussian parts. But they have to get them back again in 1939. If you are thinking that Poland was sinless in 1939 you have to read this.

Churchill said about Poland "hyena appetite" for such behavior.

So, it can be concluded, that Poland is historically have a political ambitions to rise up Poland-Lithuania empire or domination in the Western EU region. But these tries historically was not able to be realised for a long term, bit only terminally unfair acts of aggression in trouble for nearest countries times. And ofc these unrealised ambitions are used for EU region occasionally destabilization till nowadays. And the Ukrainian conflict today is rooting to these historical problematics too.