Ever since that shipyard electrician and a pope started the downfall of the USSR, Poles got pretty impressive.
I was told that the origin of Polish jokes because when one of the wars started, and the germans or someone invaded Poland with tanks and the Polish army was still running on horses to attack them back.
After a polish electrician and pope kicked those same communists asses it was not really funny any more.
In retrospect it seems even more brave.
There was even a “Doonesbury” cartoon about how polish jokes were not that funny any more (about that same time)