Vilnius region
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Vilnius region (Lithuanian Vilniaus kraštas, Polish Litwa Środkowa) refers to a part of historical Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was disputed between Poland and Lithuania between Polish-Bolshevik War and World War II. Although de facto a part of Poland in the interbellum, it was claimed by Lithuania as a part of the latter state, as de jure only Lithuania had sovereignty on the territory.[1]
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[edit] History
Most of the area was a part of the initial Grand Duchy of Lithuania, referred by Lithuanian politicians to as a part of Lithuania Propria[2]. After the Partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in late 18th century it was annexed by Imperial Russia. In the effect of World War I it was seized by Germany and given to the civilian administration of the Ober-Ost. With the German defeat in the Great War and the outbreak of hostilities between various factions of the Russian Civil War, the area, while controlled by Poles became disputed by Lithuania and the short-lived Belarusian People's Republic.
After the outbreak of the Polish-Bolshevik War, during the summer offensive of the Red Army, the region got under Russian occupation. In exchange for military cooperation, the Bolshevist authorities signed a peace treaty[3] with Lithuania on July 12 of 1920. According to the Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty of 1920, all area disputed between Poland and Lithuania, at the time controlled by the Bolsheviks, was to be transferred to Lithuania. However, the actual control over the area remained in Bolsheviks hands. After the Battle of Warsaw of 1920 it became clear that the advancing Polish Army would soon recapture the area. Seeing that they could not secure it, the Bolshevik authorities started to transfer the area to Lithuanian sovereignty. The advancing Polish Army managed to retake much of the disputed area before the Lithuanians arrived, while the most important part of it with the city of Vilnius / Wilno was secured by Lithuania.
Since the two states were not at war, diplomatic negotiations started. As Lithuanians made the second minority in number in the disputed area and Poles constituted approximately 60% of its inhabitants (the rest being mostly Jews and Belarusians), the Polish authorities demanded region to be transferred to Poland. On the other hand Vilnius neighbourhood was surrounded of the lands inhabited by the Lithuanian speakers and Poles didn't bordered the main Polish massive in Poland. Lithuanian government argued that the majority of those who declared Polish nationality were in fact Polonized Lithuanians and that the area historically belonged to Lithuania Propria part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The negotiations and international mediation led to nowhere and until 1920 the disputed territory remained divided onto Lithuanian and Polish part.
Finally, in 1920, after a staged coup, Polish general Lucjan Żeligowski seized the Lithuanian part of the disputed territory and created there a semi-independent state of Central Lithuania. Although the following year it voted to join Poland and the choice was later accepted by the League of Nations[4], the area granted to Lithuania by the Bolsheviks in 1920 continued to be claimed by Lithuania, with the city of Vilnius being treated as that state's official capital and the temporary capital in Kaunas, and the states officially remained at war. It was not until the Polish ultimatum of 1938, that the two states resolved diplomatic relations.
[edit] Terminology
The term Vilnius region is used almost exclusively[citation needed] in Lithuanian historiography to describe the territory seized from Poland by the Red Army during the Polish-Bolshevik War and then promised to Lithuania. Since the Polish government never acknowledged the Russo-Lithuanian convention of July 12, 1920, that granted the latter state with parts of Polish territory, the term is barely ever used in Polish historiography.[citation needed]
Instead, the Polish historians usually refer to Central Lithuania, that is the part of the disputed area that was actually controlled by Lithuania at the moment the Peace of Riga was signed. Nevertheless, the Lithuanian authorities did not acknowledge the Polish-Lithuanian border of 1918-1920 as permanent nor did they ever acknowledged the sovereignty of Central Lithuania. Because of that, in Lithuanian historiography all of the disputed area is referred to as occupied by Poland.
[edit] Ethnography
![Area where Poles are majority in Lithuania as of 2006[citation needed]](../../../upload/shared/thumb/5/5f/Poles_in_lithuania.png/180px-Poles_in_lithuania.png)
As most of the censae organised for the area prior to 1991 are disputed by Lithuanian historians[citation needed], it is difficult to measure the exact ethnic and cultural pattern. According to the 1916 census organised there by the German authorities Lithuanians constituted 18.5% of the population. The post-war Polish censae of 1921 and 1931, found 5% of Lithuanians living in the area, with several almost purely-Lithuanian enclaves located to the south-west of Vilnius (Polish Wilno) and to the north of Švenčionys (Polish Święciany). The majority of the population was composed of Poles (roughly 60%) according the latter three censae. However, the Lithuanian government claimed that the majority of local Poles were in fact Polonised Lithuanians. In the 1920s, most Lithuanians, but also many Jews and Belarusians[5] boycotted the idea of a plebiscite that would decide on the future of the region. Today, although po prostu (Belarusian) is the native language for Poles in Šalčininkai district and in some territory of Vilnius district, they consider themselves to be Poles and believe po prostu language to be Polish [6]. Po prostu and its speakers tuteishians ("the locals") identity are considered to be of a low worth and shameful in comparison with "prestigious" Polish language and identity. This came in the aftermath of politics and the situation when Polish language was indetified as the only language of Catholicism in the area by the Polish priests and Polonized szlachta.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes and references
- ^ Vilenas Vadapalas. Lietuvos Respublikos suverenitetas Vilniaus kraštui [The Lithuania's sovereignty to the Vilnius region] in Lietuvos rytai; straipsnių rinkinys [The east of Lithuania; the collection of articles; p. 142. Vilnius 1993. ISBN 9986-09-002-4
- ^ Smetona, Antanas. "Lithuania Propria" (in Lithuanian). Darbai ir dienos 3(12): 191-234.
- ^ Čepėnas, Pranas. naujųjų laikų Lietuvos istorija. Chicago: DR. Griniaus fondas.
- ^ (Polish) Krajewski Zenon, Geneza i dzieje wewnętrzne Litwy Środkowej (1920-1922), Lublin 1996; ISBN 8390632101
- ^ Kiaupa, Zigmantas (2004). The History of Lithuania. Vilnius: baltos lankos. ISBN ISBN 9955584874.
- ^ Lietuvos rytai; straipsnių rinkinys [The east of Lithuania; the collection of articles]; V. Čekmonas, L. Grumadaitė "Kalbų paplitimas Rytų Lietuvoje" ["The distribution of languages in eastern Lithuania"]
