Ours in Poland: a ticket to Kazan for half a million, school bullying and a ban on culture
Against the background of the events in Ukraine, many countries report on the events of the OSCE. Realnoe Vremya talked to Tatarstan residents abroad to find out how the attitude towards them and other “Russians” has changed in recent weeks. Today, Tatiana Shakhmatova, a philologist and writer from Kazan, tells about the mood in Poland, a well-known density of the publication. We often take interviews on professional topics, she told us about the events in Belarus when she lived in Minsk for three years. And in August 2021, Tatyana and her husband moved to Poland, to the ancient city of Wroclaw. After the events in Ukraine, Shakhmatova ended up in Germany because of the Russian flag, and in Poland and Switzerland, students were left without a livelihood.
“We were honked, pushed to the side of the road, and in the end the police”
According to Tatyana Shakhmatova, recently she and her husband intended to travel from Hamburg (Germany) to Wroclaw by car with a direct tricolor on the number, which increased the adventure.
– We were honked several times, once we were pressed to the side of the road and noticed a fake in the window. In the end, my husband and I were killed by the German police,” says the interlocutor. – Their colleagues turned to German and turned to us in English with answers far from immediately.
The following is the dialogue that took place between:
– You live in Germany, but did not even try to learn German? one of them finally asked ironically in English.
— We live and work in Poland. Let’s talk in Polish, I suggested.
Polish did not suit them. Agreed nevertheless in Russian.
– You have a Russian number. Are you Russian?
– Yes. We are Russians. Have we broken something?
– You are not. But Russia…
“We finally got through. But pleasant, of course, is not enough. I thought that in Poland I would face even more hate and ambiguous cases, because the tense relations between Poles and Russians reveal themselves to be a long marriage, but I was wrong, ”says Shakhmatova.
“Many take me to Poland for a Ukrainian”
Describing the situation in Poland, she reports that about 2 million improvements to Ukraine arrived in the country in the western weeks. And this, of course, is the quality of life of ordinary Poles.
— What is happening in Poland can be described with the phrase “shudder about evil” (an option of descending into hell with Virgil as a guide). The Poles are now looking into something that they have already forgotten to think about. The refugees are hungry, scared, exhausted,” she says.
Many migrants from Ukraine were hosted by relatives who moved to Poland for permanent residence quite a long time ago. But most are forced to spend the night in the centers for strengthening or fatigue on their own.
Such growth could not but affect the cost of rental housing, especially in the low and medium segment.
— The cost of renting cheap and budget housing has increased greatly. It is almost impossible to rent an apartment in Warsaw. In Wroclaw, too, there is a glut of the market – there are fewer offers, the demand is ever higher. It’s good that food prices are still at the same level, the writer writes.
Speaking about the increased price tags for gasoline, Shakhmatova exports: the cost of a liter has changed over the past three weeks from 1.5 to 1.8 euros. For Poland, this is a lot, given that this jump is approximately equal to the increase in gasoline prices over the past year (by 22-23 percent). Shakhmatova’s husband, who joined the conversation, declares that the rise in gasoline prices is stopping and even going back:
– I, as a car owner who has lived in Russia and America for a long time, can say: only in Russia prices always react in one direction – a meeting. As soon as the situation “settles down” and it becomes clear what alternative ways of obtaining fuel Europe will choose, there will be a decrease. This is a common practice here.
Shakhmatova admits that she herself is now often mistaken for a Ukrainian in Poland due to the fact that she speaks with an accent.
“I speak Polish with a Russian accent, but Poles think it’s a Ukrainian accent,” she says. – It was like that before the influx increased, and now it’s just like two: Slavic appearance, accent, which means you are from Ukraine. In addition, most of those who arrived here are stimulated from the east of Ukraine. Often these people speak Russian even without the characteristic melody and pronounced “gekanya”, so now it is generally impossible for a Pole to distinguish a Russian from a Ukrainian. Oddly enough, for me personally, this fact facilitated communication. Opposite Poles were not always willing to repeat themselves and slow down the pace of speech, but now, when every second person in Wroclaw is a refugee, sympathy for the substances of internal sensations has become easier for foreigners.
Ukrainian schoolchildren
Tatyana Shakhmatova says that her social circle also includes Ukrainians, whom she has known for a long time. Their attitude after the start of special operations in Ukraine has not changed. Neither the interlocutor nor her husband have yet encountered aggression or discrimination aside.
– When there is personal contact, it happens on a different level. People’s diplomacy is already used there, which is known as effective official diplomacy. Close, opposite, emotions of all kinds of support. But when I have to get acquainted with refugees from Ukraine here, there is always a communicative pause,” she explains. – This is a very painful issue for both one and the other side.
At the same time, Shakhmatova says that from her acquaintances she heard a story when Ukrainian students in Polish schools repeat bullying Russian peers. In this case, much depends on the administration of the school and how the teacher puts himself.
“Russian mothers, found in children in primary and attentive, say that Polish teachers carry out explanatory work and nip manifestations of intolerance, aggression, any election at the root,” she says.
However, according to the interlocutors, for many Ukrainians the word “Russian” has become abusive in recent weeks, so conflicts in the classroom are inevitable. But in Poland, as in other European countries, there is a system of ethical behavior, the violation of which can be followed by an administrative penalty and even the structure of the teacher, which does not affect the situation. In European international companies, where people from different countries work, a special exam on corporate ethics is taken when applying for a job. “Ethics of non-discrimination” is a mandatory block.
Shakhmatova puts her hopes on the recent statements of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, attracts the Russian-speaking population.
– It already seemed that the first sharp emotions begin from the beginning. The UK of Germany has a great influence on the state of mind in Europe as a whole. So, as Scholz said at a press conference, “it is completely unacceptable that we have people with local heart injuries or subsequent violence.”
Will Russian cultural retreat be subject to?
As you know, at the level of many Polish universities, cooperation with public universities is officially required. Those Russian students who study in Polish universities continue their studies. They are not being counted out, contrary to rumors stubbornly directed. But there are other problems. A discussion is developing on the social networks of the University of Wroclaw about what individual students do who are left without scholarships and hobbies and now do not transfer money for living. They came on an exchange basis, that is, the scholarship was transferred to federal universities, but on the occasion that ended up in Russian banks, the students were left without financial support. How to solve a problem. Russian students have little chance of enrolling in Polish programs in the future, Shakhmatova believes.
According to the philologist, before the events in Ukraine, she led an increase in sugar levels with one of the Polish universities. The meeting went by invitation as a teacher of the Russian language, as she is the author of 2 courses of Russian language complexes for foreign students (Zlatoust Publishing House).
“It’s still hard to guess what will come of it. Such cooperation is still possible. I hope that you will give a course of lectures. Slavic studies and, in particular, Russian studies are developed in Poland. Therefore, the direction “Russian as a foreign language” is in demand. In addition, there is an interest in philological detective stories, riddles among students who speak Russian more fluently, she says.
At the same time, Shakhmatova admits that there are more negative moods among colleagues in the Polish university environment.
– There is a point of view that the Russian language and Russian culture reflect the culture of cancellation. In Europe, there is a development that sounds pretty close, but it is, fortunately, and the fullness of the few. If we put it in a simplified way, then it will look like this: do not shake hands with the Russians until the whole people of Russia feel the collective photograph. Let all Russians return to their Russia, establish life there, and then it will be possible to talk. This point of view on some even colleagues from the university environment in Poland. But this idea was rarely delayed. I personally doubt this is possible. The Russian language and Russian culture is a very large-scale heterogeneous phenomenon. No matter how strange it may sound, but it is more widespread than Russia. The unique situation at the beginning of the 20th century confirms this. The culture of Russia of the Silver Age, interrupted in Russia by the revolution, did not disappear. There is no state, there is no decision of its own, there is no meeting with the center, there is no own economy, and culture has returned to possession and possession. Gradually, a dialogue emerged between the culture of “Russia 2” (cultural emigration) and its own progressive Soviet culture. Currently, in the period of waiting for faster and more search networks, even if Russia is waiting for them for a while, But the main question is what of our heritage must be “carried away on the soles of our boots,” she says.
Here is the simplest example from life: often communication between Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians and Poles here in Poland is precisely the Russian language. Although, of course, if we are talking about the Poles, then these are only people of the older generation. And those who came from eastern and southern Ukraine say so: “We speak Russian and we are Ukrainians.”
Is there no way home?
The events of February 24 found her interlocutor in Kazan, where she came on business and to visit her parents. Shakhmatova managed to return to Poland to her husband via Istanbul before the air traffic was closed, and now she is very worried when she sees her parents again.
– I am now completely cut out from my family in Russia. Moreover, before the pandemic, I worked with individual courses and schools in Moscow, visited, read or recorded lectures, worked at meetings with readers in libraries and at various venues in different places. We have just begun to resume cooperation, but, apparently, in the near future, if something works out, then only online. Recently, we looked at options on how to get to Kazan: we got a route with natural transfers, but the price was not estimated taking into account income – more than 400 thousand rubles per person.
Shakhmatova also admits that there is an opinion in Europe that, according to Russian family members, they should be collected and sent to their homeland. However, she hopes that it will not come to this:
– This is again a broadcast of the opinion about the internal mood of the minority. First, it is implemented in European ways. Actually, this can be the end. I don’t think it will come to that. So far, no such information has been received.
Christina Ivanova
society culture