17 wars were fought between Poland (including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) and Russia (including the Soviet Union).

When Hitler invaded them from the West, Stalin invaded them from the East. That's the one Americans remember, but the USSR held onto to them a long time after WW2. That's why they're in NATO.

Invasion of Poland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland

Note the Polish casualties in each event. More than we lost in a decade in Vietnam in a smaller country.

But it wasn't the first time:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland_%28disambiguation%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Soviet_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland

At one time, Russia and Poland fought Napoleon's Army and defeated the French Allied Army. A painting of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow which was the beginning of the end for his ambitions:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia

That's a tough neighborhood:



They first among the first of the nations in NATO to call for assistance when Russia reclaimed Crimea, which was involved in another war on Poland:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1589_invasion_of_Poland

One might note the history between the Tatars and the Russians mentioned there. It is the percursor of much of what we've seen since, with biological warfare used by the Mongols, setting off the Black Death in Europe that killed 75% of the total population or 75 million depending on the source. All I know is that it changed things in Europe profoundly.

IMO, Americans are unable to understand these conflicts as they don't know the history. The situation appears bizarre and an aberration to the order established after WW2. The West has tried, for the best of reasons, to avoid another such war:



But it's been a short period of mixed peace in comparison to the history of the region. And I'm betting the people in that region were killing each other long before those wars mentioned in Wikipedia...


Well. going into all of that was fun for me, hope you enjoyed it too.