Jurgów, Poland. Spring 2024
I am attending the funeral of my wife's uncle. The family of the deceased appears at the last farewell – from Poland and Slovakia. Most of them are retired people. When the conversation turns to current topics during the wake, I ask my wife's distant aunt – a woman who has lived in Slovakia all her life, but often visits Poland – where is better.
– Today? In Poland. Literally every aspect of your life is at a higher level than in Slovakia, replies Lupka, a retired employee of the plant in Spišská Bilá, without hesitation.
— In the 1970s, 1980s and even 1990s, things were better for us. In Slovakia there was more work, people already had cars, while in your country many people only dreamed about it. And it was much easier to find an apartment. Later, Poland ambitiously started chasing the West, and your mentality kicked in. Here in Slovakia, we are simply content with what we have. It's the same today. I won't say I feel bad either. I live peacefully and I am content.
I repeat the question I asked Aunt Lupka many times in conversations with other residents of Slovakia. They are aware that Poland is ahead of them in terms of development, but this is absolutely no reason for them to worry. It is true that they want to earn more, but they believe that “it is what it is”.
With a view of Poland. Neighbors, Stalin's thumb, Czech debt and the KGBOnet
— Is life good in Slovakia? In my opinion, yes. I'm fine, says Eugen, an approximately 70-year-old man I meet in a park in Lewice.
He is currently replacing books in the community library set up here.
— I don't need a villa. I don't have to have a tropical vacation every year. I don't need a new car. I want to have something to put into the pot, not to be afraid of how to survive from one to the next, and I want to be safe. I will tell you that I am Czech. I was born in Pardubice, but during Czechoslovakia my life turned out so well that I came to Lewice to work and stayed here. However, I have family in the Czech Republic. Sometimes, when I go to her, I no longer understand how Czechs think. However, they are different from Slovaks.
– That is?
— They are less family-oriented, less attached to community values, more focused on consumption. The Czechs consider themselves the wise ones, the most developed in all of Central Europe. They would like to run Slovakia like their stupider, younger brother. This is not allowed in Slovakia. Poland has a chance to become our big partner. In our country, Poland is looked at with admiration and in the minds of many Slovaks it replaces the Czechs, he emphasizes.
In our country, Poland is looked at with admiration, admits EugenTomasz Mateusiak / Onet
“Our nations are similar to each other to the extent that Poles are not close to any other nation.”
Bukowina Tatrzańska. July 27, 2025
I participate in the holy mass, specifically the indulgence mass. The priest leading it sounds a bit unusual from the beginning.
This is Father Adam Baran, a Franciscan monk and farar (Polish: parish priest) from Spišský Tštřek, Slovakia. The monk is Polish, but he has been serving in Slovakia for many years. So he speaks to the audience in a specific mixture of Polish and Slovak. After the mass, it turns out that he is a real mine of knowledge about our mutual relations.
— Are Slovaks different from Poles? — Father Baran takes a deep breath and begins to think.
He is a rather short man whose life experience is emphasized by his graying beard. If a stereotypical image of a monk can be created, the parish priest from Slovakia in his gray habit fits it perfectly.
— I don't think so. I even believe that our nations are similar to each other to the extent that Poles are not close to any other nation, he says cheerfully.
The Order sent Father Baran to Slovakia over 40 years ago, so he spent most of his life here. Today, the Slovak language is more natural to him than Polish. However, he assures that in his new homeland he did not have to learn to think differently.
— Poles and Slovaks are very similar. They have a similar value system, similar needs and dreams. Even the divisions that have been present in Poland for years are similar to those in Slovakia. Here, a resident of Bratislava or Kosice thinks like people from Warsaw, Poznań or Krakow and has a completely different worldview than people from the east or north of the country. In Slovakia, after the elections, many people say that the “peasants” have chosen liberal elites to rule again. Don't we know this from Poland? – asks Father Adam.
A historic but also slightly ruined railway station in Ružomberok, SlovakiaTomasz Mateusiak / Onet
In his view, the only thing that truly distinguishes our societies is history and the sense of national pride that comes with it. Father Baran believes that over a thousand years of statehood, Poles have developed the feeling that they are important in Europe and that no one has the right to lecture them.
— Meanwhile, in Slovakia, people are still full of national complexes. They are looking for their way in Europe and in history. But it's probably natural. After all, we are talking about a country that has been governing itself independently for only thirty years.
According to him, the above opinion about the similarities and differences between Poles and Slovaks is shared by many people.
— I once talked to a Slovak history teacher. This man also had some family in Poland. When he heard where I came from, he became speechless and began to argue that the popular Polish proverb that “a Pole and a Hungarian are two nephews” must really refer to Poles and Slovaks. When I think about it, there really is something to it – concludes Father Baran with a laugh.
