Russia is in decline. It will be the next world empire to fall apart after the British one, British-Polish historian Prof. Norman Davies said in an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP). He noted that, unlike Russia, “Poland is thriving,” and that Poles feel they have finally “become somebody in Europe.”
– Poles don’t realize how far they have outpaced their neighbors. And not only their neighbors. Take Britain, which is down while Poland thrives. It’s not just material development, but also prestige, a rise in international standing. The world sees that Poland is developing, Prof. Davies told the Polish Press Agency. – Poles have never experienced such a long period of peace in their history, he added.
Asked what he thinks about German media now calling Poland “the new Germany,” he said it was very good. He then mused aloud: “Do Poles fully appreciate the significance of the fact that the Polish army is more powerful today than the German one? It probably won’t last long, because Germany is rearming, but surely this must have a positive effect on the Polish psyche?” In Prof. Davies’ view, “Poles feel that they have finally become somebody in Europe,” although some of them still suffer from the “syndrome of the German as the eternal enemy.”
Davies admitted that although he has studied Poland for more than 50 years, he still does not fully understand the phenomenon of Poland’s success. – As for the Polish phenomenon, I don’t entirely understand it myself. Poland certainly owes a great deal to European Union membership and EU funds, he stressed.
PAP asked the historian how he thinks the war in Ukraine will end. – Sooner or later Russia will lose. Everyone in Europe is afraid of Putin, but he hasn’t achieved any success, Davies said. He noted that in the longer term, China poses a much greater threat to the world than Russia does.
Prof. Davies also outlined one scenario for the beginning of the end of Putin’s empire: “If China moves into the Far East, Russia will burst. It will be torn apart by horror, by a sense of unimaginable defeat. After so many years of expansion, the empire will suddenly begin to shrink. Mentally, for many Russians, this will be an unbearable state.”
In Davies’ view, “the war in Ukraine will accelerate technological, social and political change, but human nature will not change.” – Humanity has a strange mixture of good, evil and indifference in it. We live in the age of artificial intelligence and we don’t know where it will take us. I probably won’t live to see how it all ends, but I believe that for now we have more problems with AI than benefits, he said.
The full interview with Prof. Norman Davies will be published Saturday morning.
Jacek Pawlicki (PAP)
