If I say “Poland” — what do you think of? Marie Curie? Copernicus? Pierogi? All lovely in their own way, but not exactly cool. Now, however, everything is changing. From dank memes online to unintentionally patriotic rap songs, the country of Chopin is as trendy as it’s been since Solidarity. Yet if that’s doubtless happy news for the local tourist board, the rise of Poland as a cultural force matters far beyond filling hotel rooms in Gdańsk. Rather, it speaks to the country’s political and military maturity too, and perhaps also to a rising fascination with an alternative, if largely imagined, social model that Poland has come to embody right across the continent.
Poland’s cultural renaissance couldn’t have started under grimmer circumstances. Back in 2022, when war came to Ukraine, Warsaw quickly established itself as a key player in the broader Nato network. Yet amid the turmoil on Poland’s eastern border, and its robust support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country’s broader image was shifting too. Already, it had successfully emerged from Eastern European obscurity and taken on various associations in the Western mind, from a bulwark of Catholic traditionalism to an alternative destination for American tourists who want to experience “Europe” without the crowds or Parisians.
Yet it’s online that Poland has truly found a new life in mainstream culture, where vodka-soaked stereotypes are falling away. Among some obscure circles, that’s been true for years: starting in the 2000s, Polish users on forums like 4chan pioneered memes like Polandball and Wojak, the “feels guy” that continues to dominate the internet today. Starting in 2007, meanwhile, The Witcher series of video games won the hearts of players everywhere, and was later adapted into a Netflix series.
Yet while these aspects of Poland’s digital patrimony have surely had a lasting impact among young online men, their broader reach was limited. No less important, their connection to Poland itself was often lost along the way: how many people watching Henry Cavill slay monsters really knew his character had been invented by a novelist from Łódź? In practice, that meant Poland long punched below its weight as a driver of internet culture, despite being Europe’s fifth most populous country, its sixth largest economy, and a leader in the use of digital services.
But as Poland’s political star soared, the country has secured a new and unlikely online audience: Gen Z. This odd-ball surge in enthusiasm was partly down to luck. It all started in November 2022, when an errant missile crashed in an eastern Polish field. After realising the incident was a mistake, rather than the precursor to a Russian invasion, the media quickly moved on. But, remarkably, the episode coincided with the release of Poland, a hit song by rapper Lil Yachty.
Whether due to the fortunate timing, or anyway thanks to the absurdism of a codeine-fueled hip hop anthem, the track went viral. Despite having little to do with Poland itself, meanwhile, the song’s music video, which currently has 33 million views on YouTube, also happens to feature Polish flags flying beneath the medieval walls of Kraków. Soon enough, Mateusz Morawiecki, the country’s then prime minister, had invited Lil Yachty to explore Poland for real. Last year, the rapper ended up performing the song six times at the Open’er Festival in the northern city of Gdynia.
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SubscribeI associate Poland with builders, Battle of Britain pilots, and polysyllabic word structures.
And pretty girls!
Really struggling to work out what this is rambling on about. There’s some stuff from/about Poland on the internet, is that it?
I just know Americans who want to visit Europe without Africans and Arabs and Pakistanis