The historical paths followed by Poles and Russians towards Europe-from a common geographical space (as it appeared in Antiquity) to a common civilizational space (which took shape as various ethnic groups adopted the universal values of Christianity) were distinctly different. And it was this that determined the particularity both of the way in which they expressed universal cultural values and the way in which they understood their own identity as offshoots of those values, thus influencing the notions they had of each other as neighbours.








