The Xenophobe's Guide to the Poles

Legend has it that one fine spring morning in ancient times, three Slavonic brothers, Czech, Lech, and Rus, set out to find new homes. Czech founded the Czech nation in the first good clearing they came to. The other two carried on until Lech saw an eagle building its nest, took it as a sign from the gods, and founded Gniezno, the first capital of Poland. Rus travelled on.

Geopolitics is the chief architect of the Polish character.’

The Polish population is 38 million compared with 9 million Swedes, 82 million Germans, 10 million Czechs, 5 million Slovaks, 10 million Hungarians, 47 million Ukrainians, 4 million Lithuanians, 142 million Russians, 52 million English, and 307 million Americans.

Poland is 1½ times the size of Spain and a bit smaller than Germany, but could fit into Russia 54 times.