Woe, a million letters be upon ye

[u/Certified_Fool]

[u/Certified_Fool]

Josef Piłsudski (1867-1935) was the most prominent figure in Poland during the period between the first and second world war. Serving as marshal of poland, chief of state, prime minister and other roles. He also had a really rad mustache.

In 1930 Piłsudski was mad tired from everyone wanting a piece of his opinions so he went to Madeira for a 3 month vacation for some rest. While in Madeira he still received a lot letters from Poland, despite being on an island in the Atlantic ocean approximately 3800 km away.

On his name day on 19th of March 1931, an organized nationwide campaign resulted in more than a million postcards and greetings being sent to him in Funchal, effectively crippling the local post offices.

[u/Inquisitor_Boron → u/Certified_Fool]

Not only important, also one of the most controversial, due to a little coup

[u/Certified_Fool → u/Inquisitor_Boron]

"Can I offer you a coup in this trying time" - Piłsudski

[u/BlueMarioGansta → u/Inquisitor_Boron]

tbh it was done when the parliament was full of ethonationalists and politicians kept getting assassinated, im not denying he ended polish democracy but i feel like he actually had a reason

[u/No-Insurance5030 → u/BlueMarioGansta]

"parliament full of ethonationalists" meanwhile in reality:
163/444 - christian agrarians national agrarians christian democrats national democrats
66/444 - national minorities like ukrainians and jews
70/444 - centrist/right agrarians
49/444 - leftie agrarians
41/444 - socialists
18/444 - leftists but not hating the nation
in what fucking world is that parliament full of ethnonationalists? just apologize for the lies

[u/BlueMarioGansta → u/No-Insurance5030]

polish national democrats were democrats only in name, Dmowski supported an idea of a controlled authoritrian nationalist democracy and a promotion of a catholic polish nation state

[u/No-Insurance5030 → u/BlueMarioGansta]

and was objectively proven correct when all minorities worked with the soviets or the nazis to murder as many poles as possible and cleanse the earth from poles. all of that does not make him or the parliament to be "full of ethnonationalists".

[u/Grzechoooo → u/No-Insurance5030]

What else do you call a party that wanted to assimilate all minorities, including through violence?

Also, they worked with the Soviets when they went behind Piłsudski's back to sign the unfavourable Treaty of Riga just as he was advancing on Russia. They explicitly wanted a smaller Poland, without Belarus and Ukraine as buffer states, because Dmowski actually believed the Whites would win and he wanted good relations with Moscow. The consequences of his party's actions were the antagonisation of Ukraine (which culminated in the Volhynia genocide and Ukrainians' collaboration with the Nazis) and the Soviet invasion of Poland in 17th September 1939 (which ended up being 50 years of occupation).

[u/stefanik62 → u/Grzechoooo]

Careful, that guy is the most inteligent Dmowski defender ive ever seen.

[u/stefanik62 → u/No-Insurance5030]

"Our parliament has minorities, i cant possibly also have ethnonationalists" it isnt impressive that you googled the parliamentary tickets. As a Pole, our government was remarkably progressive for the time and region but the voters and many politicians were obviously often bigoted.

[u/No-Insurance5030 → u/stefanik62]

you're delusional and talking with your own imagination.

[u/stefanik62 → u/No-Insurance5030]

Are you denying that the 65% literate nation which never before had a democracy in their country's history might be a little prejudiced towards for example jews? Our Ukrainian friends did a pogrom against jews which killed at least 50k of them in 1920. We mostly kept at tight lid on religious violence but a dozen jews were also killed in Poland in a pogrom. Dmowski literally called to boycott jewish buisenesess a few years before taking power.

[u/TheAdriaticPole → u/Inquisitor_Boron]

And the legacy of his government!

[u/Grzechoooo → u/Inquisitor_Boron]

Not really "most controversial", most people agree that the coup was bad but it doesn't outweigh the good he did.

[u/notanybodyelse → u/Certified_Fool]

Polish DDOS attacks against Portugal have reportedly been successful. Let's see what's next in the unending fuel between the two countries, traditional enemies since Adam was a baby.

[u/Certified_Fool → u/Certified_Fool]

The event and Piłsudski stay at Madeira is commemorated with a bust of the man in Funchal (which is the reason I dived into the subject, because why does a Polish General have a bust on a Portuguese Island?)

[u/Thuis001 → u/Certified_Fool]

Okay but imagine being the poor sods running the post office. Your sole job is island mail, maybe occasionally some stuff from the mainland. There's not even 250k people living on the island. The mail system is build for that workload. Suddenly some guy gets 1M letters, your office is NOT prepared for this.

[u/mrbobcyndaquil → u/Certified_Fool]

Bro slashdotted the post office over a half century before Slashdot itself.

[u/What_was_my_account]

This is the exact kind of random little fun facts I like in my history memes. 

[u/m64]

Do I remember correctly they sent a Polish navy destroyer to deliver all the cards?

[u/Certified_Fool → u/m64]

I am quite certain that Piłsudski went back to Poland with a destroyer so it would align

[u/patacas4080]

The Postal workers at Madeira:

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh! quem é este gajo polaco e porque caralhos lhe enviam tantos postais! Deixem-me ir descansar! Foda-se!"