it's surprising how a small polish town next to a russian border has its streets paved, public spaces cared for I'd say it's Germany. When you cross the border to Russia everything's run-down, left to rot, a country that promotes family tradition that is not even able to pay enough pension to its retirees that are left to starve. Putin still lives in 1940.
@@robbar42 Oi oi oi Poland is tiny country compared to Russian Federation,and with EU donation system over there. And why so many Poles (and not only) in abroad ,dream to move to somewhere far away to Wild Nature Lands in Retirement age.
@@NottinghamForest24 What does it have to do with the fact that Poland is small compared to Russia? And EU donations isn't free money, it's not charity. This is a deal - EU donations for free EU market.
@@NottinghamForest24 none of that excuses it, especially given Russia's massive natural resource reserves. The more Russians can see what the rest of Europe looks like the better.
@@NottinghamForest24Considering that Russia is the biggest country in the world, it's safe to assume that in comparison Poland is tiny. Russia is also a very rich country. Full of talent and natural resources. Sadly, the corruption is rampant and money is usually spent on everything but not public infrastructure or social expenditure. And when it comes to migrating to another countries, that's I'd say pretty normal. Even people from western countries, such as England, find themselves moving to f.e. Australia.
There was a story about the border, when it was drawn up, cutting through a farm in a village, and the commissars asked the farmer which side of the border he would prefer the farm to be on. He immediately said 'Poland'. He was asked, 'Are you an Anti-Soviet Agitator?' and he replied 'No, I just cannot stand the Russian Winters'.
Hi from France, the iron curtain and east/west relationship has fascinated me since I was a kid in the seventies. Thank you for your instructive reporting.
Nie dziw się, że sytuacja w Szczurkowie jest napięta. Jeżeli jesteś na granicy z państwem terrorystycznym, napadajacym na swoich sąsiadów to jaka ma być sytuacja?
it's a great illustration: the part of the village that is on the Polish side is a beautiful well-maintained place, the part on the russian side......does not exist anymore......
Just got this video recommended, cool quirky way of showing things around. Idk if you are in poland rn but you could visit area of the floods that happened there near the czech border and even show the polish and czech perspective of ongoing repeairs etc
Interesting perspective. I was born in Suwałki :) Nice small town, surrounded by beautyfull nature. Historically experienced many difficult moments due to its location on the border between Poland, Lithuania, Russia and ... Germany.
This documentary is a real gem. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have long wondered how life around the Suwalki gap is today amongst all tension and now I got answers. All things with a connection to the cold war is part of one's own history being born a few years after the end of ww2. I appreciate the professionalism with which the documentary was made. Including the nice personal touch.. Top notch. I hace subscribed and will explore other content. Vielen Dank aus Schweden!
I'm Latvian, I was ar the same place where the Polish, Lithuanian and Russian borders meet, in Suvalki and was also in Lithuanian small town which has Sovetsk (former Tilsit) on the other side of the river
I just learned so much. My mind is blown to bits. I wish that my school instructors had been more like you. My classes were so boring, but you make this so interesting and captivating! 😊
Absolut grandioses Video. Ich freue mich echt auf die nächsten Videos der Reihe. Absolutely fantastic video. I'm really looking forward to the next videos in the series.
My Grandma is from Błędowo in german Blandau, she fled the soviets in '44 and came to the german city of Salzgitter, with some family members, I want to visit Poland and see what remains of that place (and see Gdansk and Warzawa)
Thanks for an interesting video! I have also visited two larger villages in the gap, lazdijai in 2018 and Veisiejai this fall. The later one had a quite decent pizza.
It is not because of the bill from last year. This prohibition of taking pictures is particular to this region and has been there for years. You are allowed to photograph the fence, you are not allowed to take pictures of the other (Russian) side.
I really love your videos, they're exciting and I learn so many new things! The calmer atmosphere, your personal insights, the great editing, and the overall quality of the videos are top-notch! I hope and wish that you'll have many more subscribers soon, you deserve it! Thank you so much for your videos!
Pity you have not touched one issue. Up to 2020 there were big move on Kaliningrad- Polish border. Russians from Kaliningrad massively come to Poland for shopping and also sightseeing. It was „window to the outside world” do many Russians but also it was very important for towns on the Polish side of the border (eg. Braniewo, Gołdap). The whole area is rather poor. Russian buyers played important role in local retailing business. Pandemic was the first stab and after 2022 the transborder traffic stopped dead.
Correct. Biedronka markets were basically under siege of Russian shoppers. The reason was very simple - good imported from the EU were/are hilariously expensive in Russia. A Milka bar costs easily double the price in PL. Czech beer was also quite popular, detergents etc. At some point also pricier electronics. On the other hand, Poles shopped alcohol, cigarettes and of course filled their cars with petrol to the brim.
As a Estonian, I still fear for my life, especially with our russian population and after the border incident here. Very intresting video however, thanks for the content!
That’s the thing, if Nato had a strong and united leadership, their members wouldn’t need to be afraid. There’s way too many nations far from Russia with different intresses.
As a Latvian i will say that ruzzia has always been this way. I don't fear a conventional attack happening, however we seriously as "the west" to deal with kremlin sponsored disinformation to avoid agents such as lepen and orban from obtaining power through electoral means
Nice pronunciation of the Polish city/village names! The way you pronounced Szczurkowo is really close :D EDIT: I was also at the Wisztyniec border obelisk when I was a child and I may or may not have run around it :p I also travelled to Kaliningrad (of course before the invasion of Ukraine) by a bus from Gdańsk, since there used to be (and still is!) a direct bus route there. Sad what was left of the former Konigsberg glory.
I had no clue about this area until this video, very interesting stuff! I had recently watched another video about Narva and its border situation with Russia there, not sure if that is something you might also make a video about?
This is like the former Fulda Gap threat that used to exist in West Germany with the Soviet Union back in the cold war. Yes on paper it looks like a great strategic military move but back with the Fulda gap we found after the fall of the Berlin wall that the Soviet Union was overly optimistic about their invasion timelines to reaching objectives after plowing through the Fulda Gap. Had they ever made that move their invasion would have missed critical timelines and more than likely stalled or collapsed. Even Soviet military leaders back in the Cold War left the impression that they had to achieve their military objectives within a few weeks to present a fait accompli and sue for peace as they could not withstand a prolonged NATO counter-attack. So in my view the video is correct about the stratgeic corridor but highly unlikely beyond just loose talk that Belorus or Russia would attempt anything military here.
The law regarding photographing strategic objects in Poland is in power only in theory. It requires the object to have sings made according to an approved description. None description of a sign was approved, therefore the law cannot be enforced. Everyone can film from public soaces and you just have to censor personal information and faces if you want to publish the video. (There are some exceptions for journalist) Also, a lot of Poles don't know that it's actually legal to publish licence plates as they're not personal data. Sadly, if you film a strategic object, you can get arrested unlawfully because a lot of police officers don't know the law.
There is another stupid law by local government in Poland. You can film Polish side of the border, but you cannot film Russian area in the same time. There is Border Fan channel, and he's been told about it by Polish Border Guards
How times have changed. You obviously can’t build a fence directly on the border, it is usually on one side or the other. It looks like the fences were on the Polish/Lithuanian side of the border, not the Russian side. When I was 15 in 1979, I went to the border near Bad Harzburg between BRD and DDR. There all the fences were definitely on the other side and you could easily cross the border. Of course our teachers told us that that was absolutely forbidden and not to do it under any circumstances. They really should learn that if you say that to a group of 15 year-old boys that’s the first thing they’re going to do.😂 especially when there’s some girls watching and they’re trying to impress😂😂. I ran about 5 metres into the DDR, made some rude signs at the guards in the tower and then ran back to the west😮
Missed context: - Belarus has no visa entry for Lithuanians and that and people are discouraged from going by limiting the number of crossings also by publicity campaigns and the fact that Belarussians have arrested a couple of people and we had problems back. Main problem is Belarussian secret services are looking for people to use. - Train that can not stop. There are a special trains that runs to Kaliningrad through Lithuania it is not allowed to stop in Lithuania because people on it do not have visa to enter Lithuania but the train goes though our territory of Lithuania to Kaliningrad. It is an EU level decision and russian propagandists often accuse us of blockading Kaliningrad. - Criminal activity. Border security increase has made contraband more difficult, so no we get hundreds of weather balloons floating in all over Lithuania Latvia and Poland bunch of drones carrying mostly cheaper cigarettes. Previously they would just walk over the border, hide in the cargo trains or similar. Also, some criminals have tried feeling the authorities by illegally crossing the border there has even been an infamous child obduction incident.
Planavau važiuoti į Kudirkos Naumiestį, bet mano planas nepavyko. Vištytis būtų geriau nei nieko, tuo atveju tai rimtai ypatinga vieta. Sveiki iš Čekijos!
@@KLWNEWSThere are no "troops currently stacking up" on that border. They're all being fed by Putin into the Ukrainian meat grinder and Belarus itself barely even has an army
There are no roads in Suwalki gap, connecting Belarus and Konigsberg, and the area is swampy. If Russia want to connect its exclave to Belarus they will try to occupy all Lithuania.
I was non actively following your channel and suddenly you are sitting in a "sodyba" in my country and eating some multinational fish. This region is weird. LT/PL/BY triangle might be even weirder. And the LT/PL history is confusing as hell. From first democracy (debatable) in the world to total fall. By the way, do you know what was one of the reasons that distroyed PL/LT comonwelth? VETO! What EU has in common?..
Lukashenko and Putin are getting old, we just have to wait, I hope one day, even Kaliningrad will return to Europe or at least they get independence if not joining Poland or Lithuania.
