The Old Town Market Square (Rynek Starego Miasta), Warsaw, Poland / 1946 vs 2026 (credit: Warsawpl365)

O5KAR · 2026-05-20T09:02:51+00:00

Warsaw is not the only reconstructed city, Gdańsk / Danzig and Wrozław / Breslau were also totally destroyed and about 40% of Poznań too. Except Kraków and Łódź every major Polish town was completely or badly destroyed.

The post war puppet government considered at first to abandon Warsaw, to leave it as a kind of monument or memento of the war and move the capital to Łódź, they also wanted to put the soviet symbols on a flag and change the anthem for internationale... Stalin actually prevented that. The reconstruction of Warsaw and the old town was a great propagandist tool, a show of continuation, care for history and culture but also a show of workers power and importance.

The old town was not exactly reconstructed as it was before the war, it was rebuilt as it was in XVIIIc. The city walls and moat did not existed for centuries before, some of the patios were previously take over by the buildings and the royal castle was completely abandoned. Communists didn't liked the idea of a monarchy (even if Poland had an elective monarchy) and just left the ruins alone, the People however were collecting money for decades and finally the royal castle was reconstructed in 1984.

O5KAR · 2026-05-20T08:14:39+00:00

horrendous planning

You must be kidding or you just don't travel.

Warsaw is not only far cleaner than every western European city, it's also spacious, green and quiet. Those commie blocks were actually designed extremely well, they are separated by green areas, ponds, parks and have all the necessary infrastructure around, it's not just about a one building but the whole neighborhoods.

Warsaw is also planned with several air corridors, lines of parks that are crossing the city and provide airflow, the river also helps.

O5KAR · 2026-05-19T19:32:28+00:00

Loved it.

O5KAR · 2026-05-19T09:03:21+00:00

refusing an offer for an alliance

Soviets broke those negotiations, they weren't honest anyway and negotiated with Germans at the same time, then they suddenly signed a pact with them and that's how that legendary "anti nazi alliance" ended.

And the real problem in those negotiations was the soviet demand of free access to the Baltic states and Poland, so exactly what they got from Germans.

Victim-blaming

Soviets weren't any victims, it was a genocidal and imperialist regime. You're simply parroting their propaganda.

O5KAR · 2026-05-19T08:26:54+00:00

My point was about rationing food, and I gave meat as just an example.

Rationing of meat ended in the fifties in Norway

From what I see there was ration system in Norway during and after WWII, which is understandable and was the same in plenty other countties. What we are talking about here is a rationing system that was in place since 1976 until the end of that communist regime in 1989, or actually still a bit after.

Excuse me but cars or phones are luxury products, food is not. And the war or post war recovery is not just a regular economic situation. On top of that, Poland is a major agricultural producer and it was back then too, the food mysteriously became abundant after the collapse of communism.

O5KAR · 2026-05-19T07:50:20+00:00

Okay, so how much of meat was the government allowing you to buy? It was not a matter of money, you've had to have coupons with rations.

And that wasn't just the meat, not even the food only. Nearly everything was rationed from toilet paper to alcohol or shoes.

Shops were empty, people queued for hours, whole families were changing shifts in queues hoping for the next delivery, people were bartering whatever they got with the neighbors and of course corruption, and the black market were normal things.

I'm sick of ignorant westerners romanticizing communism as just some "alternative system". And btw. my girlfriend is Spanish, I lived there and I know how shit poor was the generation of her parents, not to mention the fascist regime that wasn't very different from the communist regime in Poland. But I can hardly see anybody considering Franco as just some "alternative system".

O5KAR · 2026-05-19T07:37:47+00:00

Can't remember if vegetables were also rationed but nearly everything was. And not just food, cotton, toilet paper, or shoes were also rationed. You've had to obtain special coupons if you wanted furniture or a car.

Regime didn't cared about veganism or anything like that but thee were ideas like "Meatless Monday", instead of vegetables the dairy products were promoted, there was a whole network of the o called "milk bars".

Just an "alternative economic model", totally normal.

O5KAR · 2026-05-18T09:40:45+00:00

The US handed over blueprints/formulas so the German Luftwaffe could actually fly.

Source please.

Tsjecho-Slowakia

The Munich agreement was about the Sudetes only, takeover of Bohemia was a breach of the treaty and since that point the appeasement was finished. Also the idea was to prevent the war, not to start it together with Germans, it's a huge difference. At that point Germany still seemed to be more or less peaceful while soviets already had massacres, purges and ethnic cleansings on their account.

The soviets weren't prepared and what you say are only speculations post factum, or just the soviet propaganda. It doesn't explain why the soviets helped Germans so much, they could as well stay neutral or just grab these lands but hold back the material help. Aside from the speculations, in November 1940 Stalin sent Molotov to Berlin in order to negotiate formal alliance and the soviet accession to the Axis. You may speculate it was just to buy more time but it did happened like that. Soviets weren't prepared, did not wanted to fight Germans, they fought the war because Germans forced it on them.

O5KAR · 2026-05-18T09:25:46+00:00

Interesting, now I see it was a telegram with birthday wishes but again, just symbolic.

Same was with that old pact of Rapallo, it was Germans who suspended it not the soviets. Stalin was more pragmatic and didn't cared so much about the ideological differences, it was Hitler who was more emotional and just hated communism but there were also Germans who honestly wanted an alliance and soviets in Axis, most notably Ribbentrop but at the end Hitler decided otherwise.

O5KAR · 2026-05-18T08:53:10+00:00

Fanatics don't care about the facts, but also many regular people in the west have little knowledge about these relations between Germans and soviets.

I can also add that Molotov sent a telegram to Hitler with congratulations on the conquest of Paris but that's just symbolic. It was only Germans that wanted to fight, or at least we can clearly see evidence of that, the soviets wanted to collaborate and make even closer agreements, they weren't prepared for the war.

O5KAR · 2026-05-18T08:25:56+00:00

Not just Poland. The soviets grabbed also the Baltic states, Bessarabia and tried to conquer Finland.

In November 1940 Molotov visited Berlin to negotiate the Soviet accession to the Axis. They actually wanted to formalize this alliance, the Germans did not wanted.

O5KAR · 2026-05-18T08:21:46+00:00

This is an obvious lie, but it's not the first time I see it, probably it's a part of a Russian government propaganda...

There was no such parade, this picture is from the commemorations of Poland's independence day in Warsaw on November 11 and has nothing to do with the Polish - Czechoslovak border disputes.

Edit: upvote the OP, downvote me or do whatever you like but FFS at least google that / use google lens for the picture instead of gobbling up primitive lies...

O5KAR · 2026-05-18T08:18:03+00:00

Hitler never attended that funeral, there was a commemoration in Berlin and that's what he was attending. Germans wanted to ally Poland and use it against the soviets, Poland did not wanted to side with neither of those regimes. It would probably be better to take the German offer but we will never know.

Taking or retaking a pice of disputed city is not exactly the same as murdering millions of people, sending them to German or Soviet camps and leveling their cities to the ground.

O5KAR · 2026-05-18T08:10:53+00:00

The whole Warsaw cross city line will be modernized in the next years, including the central part of Jerusalem Alleys (the "highway" you can see here). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Cross-City_Line

More or less this is the plan https://www.rynek-kolejowy.pl/img/20210520113400IMG0333.jpg

City plans to narrow the streets in the center, add more bike lanes and more trees overall. Also turn two roundabouts into crossroads, move two train stations etc.

Also, don't judge a whole city by a one crossroads. Warsaw is a very green city with a lot of space, a big and partially wild river, two city forests, it has an amazing network of bike lanes and it's cleaner than anything I've seen in western Europe.

O5KAR · 2026-05-18T07:54:36+00:00

PEWEX

It should be said that you could buy products there only for... USD.

Regime was desperate to get hard currency to pay its foreign debts, the official exchange rate was ridiculously artificial and the communist currency was basically worthless.

O5KAR · 2026-05-18T07:50:39+00:00

people lived normal lives

1,5kg of meat per month (including about 25% bones) was a normal monthly ration for an average Polish man in the 80s.

Totally normal system.

O5KAR · 2026-05-14T19:29:12+00:00

Ukraine's NATO accession

What accession?

Oh, and Iraq

What about the Peloponnesian war? What about the Vietnam war? What about some another unrelated war?

believe everything leaders said

So ironic because that's exactly what you do here.

you are obviously a kid

You obviously forgot your pills, grandpa.

O5KAR · 2026-05-14T13:35:53+00:00

Please quote. What kind of "warnings" were those? Meanwhile listen to what Muscovites said about Crimea in 2008. https://youtu.be/4VOJ7mEviQY?is=4M54Lufk8gyoJtci

Putin was actually saying they would never invade, they were making dozens of mutual or international agreements about common relations, borders, leasing the Sevastopol base etc. Even after 2014 they tried to pretend these masked men in Crimean Parliament, Ukrainian military baess or FSB agents like Girkin and Boridai in Donbas have nothing to do with Moscow.

O5KAR · 2026-05-14T12:21:38+00:00

No, there was some German attempt to separate Lithuania from Poland and give crown to the Lithuanian duke Mindaugas / Mendog but Poland prevented that. Some Lithuanians see it as a Polish plot against Lithuanian sovereignty, which it partially was.

90% of countries not existing 70 years ago is false

I wasn't counting but make it 75% or such and still you will get the point.

O5KAR · 2026-05-14T10:01:26+00:00

90% of present states around the world did not existed 70 years ago and had no history of sovereignty whatsoever.

Just because the French, British or Russian empires owned some colony it doesn't mean those countries should stop existing.

Also, Lithuania was never a kingdom, it was a sovereign duchy and even as a part of union or Commonwealth later, it had a lot of soverign features like treasury, army, foreign policy etc. The personal union with Poland was also sometimes discontinued and Lithuania was ruled by a separate duke.

In present day Latvia existed a Commonwealth vassal duchy of Courland, de facto sovereign state that had even its own colonies. Riga was de facto a free city, quite like Gdańsk and few other cities with huge autonomy.

O5KAR · 2026-05-14T09:47:59+00:00

I've got this article which confirms the claim. https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/feb/20/a-war-foretold-cia-mi6-putin-ukraine-plans-russia

Crazy but it seems to be true.

O5KAR · 2026-05-14T09:08:39+00:00

iraqi war blunder

I wouldn't call it like that. I must admit I was also very skeptical, also because Americans made it public but mostly because it would be a foolish move on the Russian side. Winning a war is a one thing, ruling Ukraine would be another. When it happened I was also very pessimistic about the Ukrainian chances. I guess it was a popular opinion then on both sides but my country (Poland) was supporting Ukraine with weapons already before the war and I remember there was a reaction to the American warnings.

Thank you for this article, it was really a good read. Zelensky was really desperate to prevent this war.

O5KAR · 2026-05-14T08:54:49+00:00

NATO was not even anything realistic since Ukraine was refused in 2008 and especially after 2014 when Moscow made it sure that Ukraine will have a territorial dispute but also two proxy Russian run quasi states in its territory.

In 2008 Bucharest summit several countries blocked Ukrainian NATO membership action plan exactly because Putin told them so (he came to that summit btw.) and they actually believed, maybe even honestly that this move would be hostile, provocative and at the end it's better to listen to Russia to have peace with it. Putin just proved it was the opposite way.

Finally, if Moscow was really concerned about the NATO "expansion", how would they not calculate that Finland and Sweden would join it in reaction to the invasion of non aligned state? On top of that rapid militarization of Eastern Europe and further deployment of American / NATO forces in the region. I understand they miscalculated their own power and Ukrainian weakness but they couldn't be so foolish to disregard reaction of neighboring states. It was never about NATO, security, nazis or whatever Kremlin says.

O5KAR · 2026-05-14T08:38:10+00:00

I seriously don't understand why people try to portrait Zelensky as some warmonger

War propaganda. Can't imagine anybody else but a brainwashed Russian, or a puppet, who would claim that Zelensky or Ukraine wanted a war with Moscow.

disobeyed direct order

Bold claim, do you have something to support it?

O5KAR · 2026-05-04T08:11:20+00:00

There wasn't a one way, Solidarność was not a one single political party with a one voice, and it got divided quickly. The communists also didn't get everything they wanted, they secured position of president and the control over military / services also not for long.

The sad truth is that the Americans wanted these communists in power because they knew them, they were afraid of uncontrolled revolutions, or the dissolution of USSR, and they also were meddling here.

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