Two Nations on Wheels: Greeks and Poles at the Crossroads. A Millennial History (review)

This massive monograph weaves together lengthy synopses of two histories—Greek and Polish. Spyropoulos acknowledges that "[no] attempt is made to form any historic laws, to prove or disprove 'historic laws' or political ideologies. The book does not claim to provide a model of political analysis or a deeply searching inquiry" (xii). What then is the purpose of the study?

Two Nations on Wheels is descriptive and intended to inspire additional work on a virgin topic. A statement on page 549 summarizes Spyropoulos's findings:

In canvassing the stories of the Greeks and Poles in the last thousand years, we witnessed that with few exceptions the two nations chronologically and almost simultaneously followed divergent paths. At the end of the millennium, and despite the seeming tribulations, internal and external developments made the two peoples coverage ideologically-politically and economically.

The histories are, indeed, unsynchronized and the absence of intrinsic parallels or frequent direct contrasts hampers the study. But some important or interesting observations are offered.

The Preface argues that Greece and Poland differ in almost every respect beginning with topography and climate, yet, each has acted as a bulwark for Europe. Part I observes that the Greeks had an unrivaled ancient history central to the West while the Poles experienced, and the Greeks did not, the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, essential elements in Western Civilization. As the Byzantine Empire fell, Poland entered its Golden Age. Spyropoulos observes that a few years later, Poland too declined. These "few years" stretched from 1453 (fall of Constantinople) to 1578 (election of King Stefan Batory). Most historians, however, date the decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Khmelnitsky Uprising in 1648. Perhaps in Greek historical time events separated by 125 or 195 years appear almost simultaneous. "The Pathology of Byzantium and Poland" section offers a useful generalization: both the Byzantine Empire and early Modern Poland were weakened by internal rivalries whose actors actively solicited the foreign intervention that ultimately extinguished the state.

Part I traces 800 years in 120 pages; Parts II–V discuss 200 years in 660 pages. The lack of historical synchronicity continues through the nineteenth century; only after World War I does Spyropoulos see some parallels and, eventually, a convergence. Part II offers an imaginative analogy between the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815) and the Empire of Nicaea (1204–1261). The successful Greek independence movement is contrasted with failed Polish efforts (1794, 1830–31, 1863–64). The Greeks succeeded because they exercised strong influence within the Ottoman Empire, were backed by the Great Powers and fought only one occupier. Lacking a nobility, the Greeks were socially more homogeneous and could mobilize the wider population for the liberation movement. The independence achieved, however, did not fulfill irredentist aspirations for a resurrected Byzantine Empire. In one of his more synthetic sections, Spyropoulos finds common traits in Greek and Polish nationalism: religion, language (despite the long Attic versus demotic dispute), a broadening social definition of nation, "support of massive literary works" and internal divisions with the rivalry between monarchists and republicans in Greece and support for Piłsudski or Dmowski in Poland. Crucially, both nations embraced romanticism and "a sort of Quixotic streak" that extend into the twentieth century. "[P]arables, metaphors, allegories, and symbols take on paramount importance" when "poetry, fiction and music…become vehicles of political communications." This brought long-term negative effects (171).

Part II traces events through World War I and subsequent state building. Rivalry between the pro-German Royalists and the Venizelists weakened Greece. Consolidated leadership under Piłsudski gave the Poles an advantage. Both states won the war and lost the peace. Spyropoulos extensively discusses the Sèvres Treaty and the Turkish war but his summary of the Polish resurrection omits the Wielkopolska Uprising and pivotal Ukrainian war and overstates direct Western aid in arms, munitions and men. Interestingly, Greeks and Poles alike regarded the Panagia (the Virgin Mother...