Suvalkai region
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Suvalkai region (Lithuanian Suvalkų kraštas) is the Lithuanian name of the region of the city of Suwałki in north-eastern Poland.
[edit] History
Historically, Suvalkai region was settled by Sudovians, an extinct Baltic nation exterminated together by Lithuanians, Poles, and the Teutonic Order in the 14th century. Later, Suvalkai region was a part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the 3rd Partition of Poland in 1795. In 1795-1807 it was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807-1815, and Congress Kingdom in 1815-1915. Sudovia is now the name of one of ethnographic regions of Lithuania, at those times sometimes associated with Suwałki Governorate of Congress Kingdom. In 1918 the area of former Suwałki Governorate was claimed by the Republic of Lithuania, but Poland officially insisted on dividing the area along ethnic lines, which left the region on the Polish side of the border, in spite of a Lithuanian majority around the cities of Sejny and Puńsk in the northewastern part of region.
Most of the area was briefly controlled by Lithuanian forces in 1919, and again in 1920 during the Polish-Bolshevik War. In 1920, however, Marshal Ferdinand Foch proposed that the area be granted to Poland. The proposal was accepted by the Paris Peace Conference and after a series of skirmishes), the Lithuanian forces withdrew from the area and Poland resumed control over it.
The Lithuanian government claimed the rights to the region based on its 1920 peace treaty with Soviet Russia, which had delimited borders to Štabinas only, with further borders up to the German province of East Prussia not defined. Lithuanian authorities proposed where to draw the border but this suggestion was rejected.
Despite the fact that a part of the disputed area was never under Lithuanian control, the Lithuanian authorities claimed that it consisted of three apskritys, or units of Lithuanian administrative division, that were illegally occupied by Poland. These included the Augustavo Apskritis based in the town of Augustów, Suvalkų Apskritis formed around the city of Suwałki and Seinų Apskritis centered around the town of Sejny. The aforementioned units were roughly correspondent to the actual administrative division of the area onto powiats of Augustów, Suwałki and Sejny of the Białystok Voivodeship of Poland, respectively. The latter unit of administrative division was part of a bigger historical region, parts of which were left in Lithuania with the town of Lazdijai claimed by Lithuania as the temporary capital of the region.
Despite Lithuanian claims, the area of was annexed by Germany in 1939 and adjoined East Prussia. After World War II it was returned to Poland. The Lithuanian SSR, the successor state of the Republic of Lithuania, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, renounced all claims to the area, which was later accepted by the authorities of independent Lithuania.
According to the Polish National Census of 2002 there were 5846 Lithuanians living in Poland, a large part of them inhabitating Suvalkai Region. There are Lithuanian schools and cultural societies present in the area and the Lithuanian language is spoken in the offices in the commune of Puńsk.
