Rob Reacts to... A Super Quick History of Poland 

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5:06 Jadwiga was a King not Queen. IT is important. She wasn't just a wife of King but futhermore she was a monarch WHO can decide about most important issuses in the country.

No, Polish didn''t started tensions between Poland and Russia. It started earlier, with Russians being, as always agressive towards more western countries. This movie is just a summarize, it left many things unspoken :)

Hey Rob, If we take the date of baptism as official then it will be year 966. It is when the first historical ruler of Poland Mieszko the First tied Poland with Western civilization and Poland became a Christian country :)

0:52 In 966 AD is when Poland adopted Christianity and the first Lord, Prince Mieszko I started ruling. This is what pretty much everyone in Poland uses as the year our country was officially "started"

Year 966 ad is widely considered officially as Beginning of Polish State. It is very arbitrary but they had to chose the date i suppose.

11:17 There is an old tradition that when a cardinal becomes a pope he changes his name

Greetings Rob, another great reaction. Fun fact: you can easily tell which Polish kings we (generally) like the most by looking at our money: 10 PLN - Duke Mieszko I - the official founder of Poland and the first formally recognised ruler from the Piast dynasty. 20 PLN - King Bolesław I Chrobry (the Brave) - his son and the first Polish king who managed to advance Poland's position from an upstart newbie country to a valuable player in European politics. 50 PLN - King Kazimierz III Wielki (the Great) - the "salt guy", rebuilt and modernised Poland in many aspects (economy, technology, education, politics) after his father Władysław I Łokietek (the Elbow-High - he supposedly was about 152cm/5ft tall) reunited the country (following the "cake" mess). Kazimierz was the last male successor of the Piasts 100 PLN - King Władysław II Jagiełło - Grand Duke of Lithuania who married our King Jadwiga (yes, she was crowned and titled as "king" before the marriage, descendant of Piasts on the female line), united our countries and beat the crap out of Teutonic Order in the Battle of Grunwald, founder of the Jagiellon dynasty. 200 PLN - King Zygmunt I Stary (the Old as he reigned for 41 years) - his time is considered "the Golden Age" of Polish history. Second to last of the Jagiellons. 500 PLN - King Jan III Sobieski - an elected king (you learned about them), a Polish war hero even before his coronation, the defender of Vienna and a renowned romantic (the letters he wrote to his wife are famous to this day)

This Mongol/Tatar invasion of 1250s created a legend of both Lajkonik and hejnał mariacki (it is stoped in half, the story says that the person playing this was killed by turkish arrow in the middle of the play - and this is the tradition up to this day).

12:20 ó is always pronounced like oo in ‚food’… adjective suffix -cki is pronounced like ‚-tski’, as Polish ‚c’ sounds more like ‚ts’

Throughout history, Poland was always this outside wall of defence of Europe region. Poland was the one who saved Europe multiple times.

The Polish-Lithuanian Union, which took place not through wars but through marriage, is proof that it is possible and even necessary to get along

Cardinal Karol Wojtyła called himself John Paul II because previous pope ( John Paul ) died very quickly after becoming a pope ( less than a month i believe ). I think he did it because he wanted to dignify his short pontificate.

they got one thing wrong, jadwiga was crowned and had oficial title of a king, not queen

5:07 - little correction she was not a "Queen". Hedwig was actually crowned as a King of Poland and was as Independent ruler. Her's husband Władysław Jagiełło was also crowned as a King but not like King "King" but as a King consort.

Australia's highest mountain was "discovered" and named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko by Pawel (Paul) Strzelecki, a Polish explorer who came to Australia in the late 1830s. I have now been "educated" to the correct pronunciation of the mountain by my Polish friend, who was horrified when he migrated here and heard the local pronunciation as "Mt Kozziosko"! Strzelecki himself has a part of Australia named after him - an unsealed track between the townships of Lyndhurst and Innaminka in outback South Australia.

3:45 Yep. Here 1:39 the Gothic cathedral in Poland's first capital, Gniezno, is shown for a sec. It was destroyed successively by: Czechs, Teutonic Knights, Swedes, Napoleon's army and in 1945 the Russians fired from tanks and set it on fire. No, not during the fighting with the Germans, because there were none at all. They did it the only way they know how - drunk, for fun. They pointed guns at firefighters trying to save the church. And then they forced us to love them for "liberating" us. But the cathedral stands, it lasts, it's still beautiful.

4:27 Kazimierz III was an excellent king, his reign was truly revolutionary for Poland as a country, his "love" life however is a separate and very interesting story :)

6:21 I remember being taught this in middle school. The wars between Russia and Commonwealth happened because of Lithuanian muscovy wars. Lithuania was hopeless against Moscow in Livonian war and was about to be completely obliterated. Before, the nowgorod republic was allied with Lithuania and Poland against muscovites in XIV and XV century but it was defeated and incorporated under Moscow's control. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Lublin#Background They begged Poland to help them in the war(they were already in the union but much less centralized, thanks to Jogaila's dynasty ruling both of them thanks to marriage with Jadwiga) Poland was only interested in helping them if lithuanians decided to unify and after arguing they agreed then the war was resumed to kick out russians from lithuania. One time the king was arguing with lithuanian nobility to unify even further so the lithuanians delegation left the metting with the king so king got offended and decided to give Poland Lithuanian southern borders out of spite.

I cant name a list, but Battle of the Warsaw (often called as miracle on the Vistula) is called one of the most important battles in whole history. I live in Płock, 120km of Warsaw and we took part in a battle and I'm proud of it (i can see from my window a street called "Obrońców Płocka 1920" - "Defenders of Płock 1920")

Officially, it is undeterminable when Poland was considered a country. I guess it happened when the first two tribes united. The first date you learn in history classes is 966, the baptism of Mieszko I, which must have taken place after the unison of the tribes.

Guy from the history video has forgotten that russians strated invading Polish-Lithuanians since begining of the first quarter of the XVI century, and our invasion was actually only support to one of the claimants of Russian throne (which was assassinated by other Russians)

Frederic Shopen Paderevskee Karol Shymanovskee (NOT as in 'shy') Veetold Lutosuavskee Henryk Gooretskee (polish names -cki are spelled like -tskee, not -kee) Henryk Vyenyavski Arthur Rubinstein is quite clear (not a Polish name) Krystian Tsimerman Tomash Stańko (ń is somehow like nee, as in Nicaragua) last and the best one Kschyschtof Penderetskee (again -tskee, not -kee)

2:18 This period in Polish history is called in Polish; *_"Rozbicie Dzielnicowe"_** which means; "District breakdown", which ended only by **_Władysław Łokietek_** , "Vladislav the Little-Elbow"* ( _he was called that because he was as small as an elbow_ ), who united Poland in the same way as Mieszko the First, i.e. sometimes by conquest and sometimes by diplomacy...

The custom of choosing a new name as the Pope began in AD 533. Names are freely chosen by popes, and not based on any system. Names of immediate or distant predecessors, mentors, saints, or even family members - as was the case with John XXIII - have been adopted.

History of most medival castles in Poland: Built during the rule of Casmir the Great, burned down during the Swedish Deluge, never rebuilt (some left as ruins, others dismantled and used as a source of building material in later ages)

If you liked this type of wideo, you can also see an animated history of Poland. It's as short as the movie you watched.

Hey there again! Rob, You should take Your Wife to the trip to Grunwald. Each year there is EPIC "cosplay" battle going on. Performed by 'knightly orders' from whole Europe. You can see there also 15th century craftsmanship and style of living. It's realy epic event. About Polish invasion on Moscow - Rob, just don't follow that path... xD Despite their effort to erradicate us as nation, the ocupants(Germans, Russians, Austrians) just couldn't kill our national spirit. We can fight each other (Pole with Pole) but if there is someone from outside (foreign power etc.) who tries to beat us, we stand back to back and support each other (like in big family). It's our nature, our culture and we're proud of it. The '20 of 20th century was the best time for our Country. In 20 years (1918 - when Poland became a state once more till 1939 when WW2 started) we managed to rise up and form a prospering state. Curiousity - The city of Gdynia was build in that time (20years to build WHOLE city from scratch). I'm thinking about people who lived that day. How hungry for their own country they were. How hard they worked to achive that. I think thats's why they fought so bravely in ww2. Just to have a place to live, place which they could name their home.

6:17 fun fact: Moscow has only been conquered twice in history, once by Poles and once by Poles with the help of Napoleon, because the second time Poland was under partition. Even Hitler was defeated by the Russians, so that's probably why the Russians have a bad attitude towards Poles, or at least that's what they taught me in history lessons.

Rob quite interesting fact for you that Mieszko I had daughter that was married into vikings becoming queen of Danes Sweeds Norwegian and England. Her son was Kanut the Great that was ruling the empire including England.

Show Enigma how English cryptologists discovered it in 1940, i.e. 8 years after 3 Polish mathematicians. In France there was a program about the Polish Enigma not long ago, the Germans did it a long time ago only the English claim that they discovered the Enigma such were capable

At the end of XVIII century (and the end of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) there was attempt for saving country by reform it. At 1791 it was first in Europe, and second in the world constitution. That I think, was very important part of our history.

0:56 so yeah, Poland was a country since probably about the year 900, but the first important thing that happened to Poland that made it be reffered to as a country was the baptism of Poland in 966

That's what I learnt at history classes: the war against this one, a battle against another, the dates, territories conquered and lost. Only when learning about ancient and medieval times there was some context of culture, society etc. So yes, I feel like history means learning about the past wars (and maybe also names of kings). Just out of curiosity, what else do you learn in history classes?

Just a country? Who knows. We have a traditional start date of 966 where Duke Mieszko I was baptised. But technically he was ruler of a country existing for generations beforehand, it was just the moment this country was recognized by Papacy.

3:47 As one Polish independence activist put it; *"Poland lies in the crumple zone between east and west, and in the end every army, no matter whether it was going from east to west or from west to east, had to pass through Poland anyway"*

The date when Poland was created is conveniently counted from Christianisation of Duchy of Poland in 966, but “Polish” country was really created probably in 8th century, starting in Greater Poland; anyway the name “Poland” started to be using in 11th century.

Year 966 AD during rule of Duke Mieszko I of Piast Dynasty is considered official beginning of Polish state. Yes, I'm Polish... But we can substract some years from that since that is where first official records show up. So since there is already Piast dynasty ruling over Polanie tribe, we can assume that while still pagan, some sort of Polish tribal "state" was already there. It didn't pop up from thin air after all. ;) EDIT: Ah yeah, the matter of splitting Poland among sons... yeah, terrible idea, aboslutely terrible, topped only by Liberum Veto and Elective Monarchy...

They skip the only XIX-century polish uprising that was succeded: at 1806, during the Napoleon Wars. So later they knew that uprising can win!

Baptism of Poland - 966, is the event that created Poland we know.

0:51 The year of Poland's baptism, 966, is accepted as a official date, with Prince Mieszko I as the first ruler. Even the communist state recognized this date, building more than 1,000 "Tysiąclatki" (millennium schools) across the country in 1966.

Wielka Lechia ,,, proponuję poznać historię od poduszki a świadomość się rozszerzy ...troszkę😉

Mieszko the first from what i learned accepted christianity most likely because of political reasons. The idea was that adopting christianity would sacralize princely and royal power and by that it would integrate the "young state organism" and strengthen the power of the prince. But thats on paper. The other thing that also is what most likely happend is he accepted christianity, because at the time a lot of other countries were doing it too, so i guess it would be just safer for the country to do it. You might even say that he kind of predicted the later crusades that would happen by teutonic order that happend decades later.

Thank you very much Rob for all videos about Poland. Great job. I'm Michał from Częstochowa ( Saint City).

I love that they used drawing of mieszko II in boleslaws segment 2:11

966 was the last year Poland exsited as a free country

"The Polish-Russian wars are closely related to the moment of the fall of Tatar rule over the Duchy of Moscow in 1480. When the ruler of Moscow, Ivan III, assumed the title of "ruler of all Ruthenia by the grace of God", a conflict with Lithuania, which included a large part of Ruthenia, was inevitable. Due to the union with Lithuania, Poland was automatically involved in the conflict over the control over the lands of former Kievan Rus. " (Wikipedia) Well, here is how it all began.

An interesting fact is that when the state of Israel was created, Polish citizens of Jewish origin were the main creators. In the first Knesset, the Polish language was understandable for the majority. The Polish language was used by Israeli pilots to communicate in the war with the Arabs, who could not decipher it at all . Regards Robert

Regarding Karol Wojtyla changing name when becoming Pope it's similar to British monarch changing their name. That actually occured in 1936 for a last time but it's the same principle.

Poland officially became a state when Mieszko I (he was a ruler, not a king) accepted the baptism of Poland in 966.

5:06 No. Jadwiga was crowned as KING, not queen, big difference. Maybe you can watch some videos about her? It's interesting how 10 year old girl from Hungary became king of Poland and conquered most of Ruthenia (todays Ukraine) at the age of 13. She was also able to speak in 6 languages - hungarian, polish, lithuanian, german, french and latin (despite dying youg at age of 25/26) and even her enemies like Teutonic Knights admitted that she was a worthy opponent, they also admitted her beauty and wisdom and there is much more facts about her.

In 966 there was: "The Baptism of Poland" that refers to the ceremony when the first ruler of the Polish state, Mieszko I, and much of his court converted to the Christian religion." (frag. from google). But, regrettably, the Church had a thing for destroying anything pagan, so we don't have much info about the ages before the year 966. But there is one sure thing- in 966 the kingdom already existed, so it must have formed at least several decades earlier ;)

The creation of the Duchy of Poland was forgotten thanks to Napoleon's conquests, in which Polish soldiers participated (General Dąbrowski's Legions). Napoleon stated that the Polish soldiers were the best he had ever seen in battle and were faithful to him to the end, until they were deported to Elba. (Napoleon's famous quote: "... If it can't be done, leave it to the Poles, they will do it.")

8:36 if you want know how Poland raise again after partition, you should watch part 3 of Unconquered: Game of Freedom. Part 2 explain times between WWI and WWII - thats my favourite part.

0:49 - 14 April 966 - "Baptism of Poland" - this is an official date when Poland became country.

Poland was officially founded in 966 when Poland was Christianized. The first official ruler was Mieszko I, and he was the Duke of Poland, but his son, Bolesław I, was first king of Poland. Face of Mieszko I is on 10PLN bill. But Poland has longer history than that. Its just a important year that was agreed to be recognised as "founding of Poland".

0:52 Oh, *what is shown in this video is maybe 5% of what Poland was able to do before 966, before the "official establishment of the Polish state"*, it so happens that most of these things are not known even by the Poles themselves, because it was all written down in Gala Anonymous's chronicle of the famous creator of *"The First History of Poland"* which was written down in the 12th century. Unfortunately, when Poland fell, the Germans, after entering Lublin where these books were kept, committed a massacre there and one of the largest and most devastating destructions. invaluable knowledge, the Germans ordered the collections to be divided into three parts; they immediately burned the first part, consisting of information that was most inconvenient to them, on the spot, took the second part to their home in Berlin, and the third part to the Austrians in Vienna, this is one of the reasons why we know so little about the history not only of Poland, but also of the whole of Europe before the 10th century...

0:52 is something like 965-966, There were tribes in Poland that cooperated with each other, but it was Mieszko who united them into one state. Initially, in Poland, the power of assemblies and assemblies was more entrusted. It is difficult to talk about the state before the ruler Mieszko I, who conquered other areas in a very short time.

2:22 You gotta remember one crucial thing- there wasn't really anything like "National Identity" in the medieval times. The monarch owned the realm. It was his private property of which he gave bits and pieces of to others like lesser nobles, knights, etc. in return for them swearing loyalty to the monarch and paying him taxes. Of course he would divide the kingdom between his sons, just like you would give your house to your son, your car to another, leave them shares of the money you saved up, etc. It was a bit more complicated than that, but the underlying principle was still there- he didn't want his sons to fight and kill each other over ownership of their father's land, so he divided it up. Same happened in France, same happened in Iberia which resulted in Portugal becoming a thing, same happened in Holy Roman Empire which resulted in 12 or so Kingdoms and Duchies fracturing into some 100 smaller entities. And much the same happened in feudal Japan which resulted in dozens of daimyō that constantly warred with one another, just like in Europe. Ideas like centralized state entities, etc. didn't start appearing in Europe until 1500-1600's and ideas of equality, citizenship, nation states etc. only took hold and stayed with French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars and Spring of Nations in late 1700's and up to mid 1800's when first actual Nation States like France started becoming a thing. Cultural and religious identity were one thing, but for some 1500 years they had very little to do with actual politics- Czechs were part of Holy Roman Empire for centuries and Bohemian (Czech) King, who was from Luxembourg, ruled as the Emperor of HRE, King of Germany. Kievan Rus (ancestor state of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus) was created by Vikings. Duchy of Normandy was ruled by Vikings, the heirs of whom would conquer England and Southern Italy and become kings of England and Sicily. China was ruled by a Mongol dynasty for a long time, and the last Chinese Dynasty was Manchurian not Chinese in origins. The idea of nation states is very new in the grand scheme of things- it wasn't until 1900's that states like Austria-Hungary or Ottoman Empire ended...

Frederic Chopin is usually pronounced "Sho" pin.

Also in the UK, the new king/queen as ruler and head of the Anglican Church can choose any name they want, but recently they have kept their original names.

Rob, have you been reading Norman Davis books about Poland? It might give you better view on our history. They are of course available in English, and they’re really well written. If you haven’t read them yet, you should give them a try :)

Haven't watched the video yet. Just wanted to say... AND THEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED

Just so you don't get confused. Prussians were baltic pagans, very much like Lithuanians. They were conquered and largely slaughtered by the German Teutonic knights in 13th century (former crusaders, unemployed after Jerusalem fell). Teutonic knights were defeated by Poland in 15th century and became a secular state by the name of Prussia, a vassal of Poland. In 17th century during Swedish deluge, Prussia got independent from Poland, joining with German state of Brandenburg and forming kingdom of Prussia. That kingdom became a military superpower, partitioned Poland with Russia and Austria in 18th century and a century later defeated several countries including France, forming German Empire.

About dividing the Poland in 1138... well, it's a Agnatic seniority. The Oldest from the dynasty take Seniority Province and the Capital. Rest of the brothers (and the dynasty) are kind of vassals. It works at the beginning....

There is one thing to understand when You learn medieval history. During Patrimonial monarchy (early medieval) country was a proporty of its ruler, almost like a farm is a property of a farmer, that is why countries were divided, and that is why it is very hard to say when exactly countries were formed

2:35 - at the time it was actually pretty common. The Carolingians basically did the same a bit beforehand with splitting Francia into West, Middle and East Francia. West Francia became France, Middle Francia became Lotharingia, which doesn't really exist anymore, but Belgium is the last successor state in existance and East Franica continued dissolving itself untill it became Holy Roman Empire, which then evolved into Germany.

(1:00) "officially a country" is a bit tricky word, because many today's countries are not so old if we take into consideration different definitions we'll use, but by official, many historians takes "the baptism of Poland", because this made huge impact and international recognition to Mieszko I who even before took under his wings many territories, so "officially a country" and where we start to learn about it, is from AD 966. But if we'd like to be pedantic, then we could go a bit further, to AD 1025 when first king had coronation, so it was "agreed" by Pope (back then it was like "final word" like some international law).

Funny thing is that some of the most compelling academic authors on polish and old Commonwealth history are actually British/American - prof Davies, prof Butterwick, prof Snyder and prof Frost, in my opinion that is. No show off intented.

"If you don't get on with each other, just leave each other alone" - great advice Rob. Now, tell it to the Russians... 🙂

966 Poland became officially a thing, really on the Europe map with baptism 966

966 is the first date you learn at school like when you are about 7-10 years old. 966 - Christianity and beggining of Poland (Mieszko I is Prince of Poland), in 1000 year there was meeting in Gniezno (capital of Poland then) where oficially Germany accepted Poland as a country, in 1025 son of Mieszko - Bolesław Chrobry becomes first king of Poland. - I am engineer in mechatronics, I hate history. Everyone here remembers those numbers

966 was the christening of Poland so i guess that's when it was considered a country. The people of Poland were united (well, you know, not always peacefully) a bit earlier, not sure when. Then the first king was Bolesław Chrobry, the son of Mieszko I (Mieszko accepted chrystianity but wasn't a king).

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was created because Russians invaded Lithuania and Poland offered an union, so we haven't started (If I remember wrongly please correct me)

There's no one date when Poland became the country. Often year 966 is taken as Baptise of Poland, but Poland as a Pagan country existed earlier, from around tribal unification around VIII-IX century. We just don't have anything but legends about what was before Mieszko I. And even then we can't be sure which are about what was after tribal unification by Polans (Polanie in polish. One of the tribes that lived in the area) and which are about particular tribes. What makes it even more complicated we know that Slavs lived on these terrains at least since VIII century BCE, meaning some of these legends can be thousand years old, while some be closer to two thousands. TL;DR The earliest we know for sure Poland existed is around 950's but it's older, we just don't know how much older exactly. Going with tribal unification it would around VIII-IX century and by first Slavic settlements it would be VIII century BCE, but it's really far fetch

You should react to some of the music in poland! Like rap and stuff or jazz or sumthin!

did you seen Joseph Conrad as polish writer? Check this out again)))

I recommend you to watch polish historical movies like : KATYŃ, CWAŁ, NAD NIEMNEM, LALKA, ZNACHOR or tv plays DZIADY, HERBATKA U STALINA. Most of them are going on tv Polonia with English subtitles.

966 is the official date of the Baptism of Poland which is considered the date for the beginning of the Polish state. Before that there were the Polans, Lachs and other tribes but not a state recognised in the Christian Europe.

The year 966 is considered to be the beginning of the Polish state. The ruler of the Piast dynasty, Mieszko I, was to be baptized at that time and start a new stage in the history of people who lived in this part of Europe. It is assumed that it was to take place on April 14, Holy Saturday.

SPLENDID STUFF!!

Technically, Poland became a state just before the Duke Mieszko I was baptizted (966 AD), i.e. in the middle of XX century. But you should consider it a process rather than a particular date.

Poland probably became a united state around the middle of the 10th century, it is not known exactly in which year, because it was the time before the history of the country was written down on paper. Officially, in 966, Poland was baptized, a church was established in Poland, and more specific written information about the country began to emerge.

do polskich widzów: Bolesław the Brave śmiechłem xD

funny thing. 'Queen Jadwiga' was a king not queen because in Poland king is a title of ruler of Poland and queen is the title of his wife. Even if Jadwiga was a women, she was coronated as king not queen xd. There is no word in english that would match 'female version of king' so everyone say she was a queen but it is false.

Yes, one has to change name when beccomes a pope or a king - king Charles III, current pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) etc.

1:00 to answer your question precisely per school: in 966 AD the principality of Poland was recognised under papal protection, thus making it part of Christendom and therefore European historical record. It's worth bearing in mind when the recognition happened, it was already a fully formed and operational kingdom, Christianisation happened with at least some support/acceptance by the locals - in exchange for better organisational recipes, technology, protection from crusades and ability to participate in "crusade of the north" up in the Baltics. There is no reliable record as to what was happening before that, however Polish and regional archaeologists have been hard at work over the ages and there were findings even recently, which help us piece together at least the material aspect of the tribal times. The lack of record is often attributed to hostile cultural engineering committed by Christian missionaries(some say they would burn/erase anything not written in Latin), but it's more of a combination of factors: any script would've been in made in wood or other perishable materials like animal skins. It's just not very durable on historical time scales; people in the area are actually very absorbent of new things - today English is not even half as prominent as Latin before, and many Poles and Czechs, Slovaks use it a lot; having a script that unlocks trade with the richest parts of the world makes sense : )

if you want to read a part of Polish history, I recommend the book by Norman Davies - "God's Playground: A History of Poland, Volume II"

officially 966 C.E this was year from where Poland became christian country.

I'm not sure if it was mentioned here already, but Mieszko I married Doubravka of Bohemia from Czechia, so we took Christianity from them. One of the theories behind it is that it was done, to lower the pobability to get attacked by Germans Another interesting thing that wasn't mentioned in the video - there were 3 partitions of Poland. Our king, Poniatowski, had an affair with Katherine II the Great, which helped no one during the partition

Changing name occurs in Catholic church. Either the Pope or nuns change their birth name into one inspired by a holy person (this does not occur in protestant religion, it was one of the main Luther distinctions). In this case every pope and nun will have catholic name even though he/she could be from a diiferent religion family.

6:28 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed primarily in an attempt to create a strong union facing the threats of Moscow.

0:57 I guess when it was baptised, a.k.a. in 966

I recommend watching, Bloody foreigners untold battle of britain

People say there's lot of great polish people, forgot that a lot of them went to US and change their names. Even Warner brothers are actualy polish and probably most of Hollywood actors had grandparents from Poland. So if not a Hitler and Stalin everything could be different

The establishment of the Polish state formally dates back to around the middle of the 10th century somthing like that

Hi, regarding your questions - 1. 966 a year of Poland's first historical ruler Mieszko 1st baptism is considered as a moment when Poland was created. 2. When a certain cardial is elected to be a pope he is taking a new name or names - usually of saints with whom he somehow identifies (treating them as parton). That's why Karol Wojtyła became John Paul II. This film is a big simplification - the history of Poland is much richier and more complicated :)

if we think about it... right now Poland has the longest peace period in its existence.... and we hope it will last for some time longer....

Look at Poland location in Europe. Poland is only land of land connetion between East and West of Europe north from Caarpatia. It is so important land for trade that everyone want to control it. Even now, because of Poland and Ukraine, Russia has no land acces to western Europe (beside Skandinavia).

The popes name changing, is similar tradition to english kings name change upon ascending to the throne