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Comment by AlbertCory | Hacker News Reader

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AlbertCory·

I'm so enjoying the comments about Polish & Lithuanians hating each other, because:

1) My neighborhood had a lot of both

2) My parents were both (Dad: Lithuanian, Mom: Polish)

3) I was completely unaware of any feud growing up

4) One grandmother was from Tverečius, now Lithuanian but Polish in the interwar period.

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I was also not quite aware of such feud! I generally assumed that Poles and Lithuanians got along pretty well, or at least that was my impression from talking to Poles. Some time later I asked two Lithuanian guys what's up with this, what I saw as, asymmetric feud, and they explained that it may be in part due to some communities in the Polish minority in Lithuania, which were rather pro-Russian. Needless to say I was told that many years before the war in Ukraine, way before 2014 (no idea how the perception is now). This really perplexed me to the point where I permanently gave up understanding this kind of feud/friendship generalisation -- not only this stuff is extremely local, region-wise, and in the long run, it just does not hold up.

You properly saw that as asymmetric. Most Poles are not aware of (some) Lithuanians holding a grudge. The way we're taught history is pretty one-sided.

I've just recently heard from a guy from my 'hood who said there used to be fights between Polish & Lithuanian kids. This was totally news to me.

Btw, if anyone is able to do genealogical research in that area (as opposed to sitting on your computer using English from somewhere else) for money, pls get in touch with me. I'm looking for data for after WW I, not for the great waves of immigration.

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