Suwałki Region

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This article discusses the Polish part of the region. For the Lithuania one, see Suvalkija.
Suvalkai Region in dark blue and purple
Suvalkai Region in dark blue and purple

Suwałki Region (Lithuanian: Suvalkų kraštas, Polish: Suwalszczyzna) is a small region around the city of Suwałki in northeastern Poland near the border with Lithuania.[citation needed] The territory was disputed between Poland and Lithuania after World War I.[1] This dispute was the main cause of the brief Polish-Lithuanian War and the Sejny Uprising. The conflict was later overshadowed by a much larger and more serious Polish-Lithuanian dispute over the Vilnius Region. The Suvalkai Region, despite many years of Polonization, no Lithuanian schools and even ban on public speaking in Lithuanian language[2] (until 1950) remains a major center of the Lithuanian minority in Poland.[3]

Contents

[edit] History

Originally the territory named Suvalkai Region was inhabited Yotvingian Prussian tribes.[citation needed] After 1815 the Suvalkai Region was part of Congress Poland, in turn a part of the Russian Empire. The Suwałki Governorate was, according to a Russian census conducted during the 1880s, about 58% Lithuanian.[4].

In the wake of World War I, both countries were established as independent states, but their borders were contested. In 1918 the Suvalkai Region was claimed by re-established independent Lithuania based on cultural heritage[citation needed] and later 1920 peace treaty with Soviet Russia,[citation needed] but Poland officially insisted on dividing the area along the ethnic lines. In the aftermath the Suvalkai Region was left on the Polish side of the border,[citation needed] with a Lithuanian majority in the countryside around the Polish-dominated[who?][dubious – discuss] cities of Sejny[5][dubious – discuss] and Puńsk[6] in the northeastern part of the region.

Most of the area was briefly controlled by the Lithuanian forces in 1919, and again in 1920 during the Polish-Bolshevik War. In 1920, however, Marshal Ferdinand Foch proposed that the Suvalkai Region be granted to Poland.[citation needed] The proposal was accepted by the Paris Peace Conference and after the Polish-Lithuanian War), the Lithuanian forces withdrew from the Suvalkai Region and it became a part of Poland.[citation needed]

Period State
until 14th century Sudovians/Yotvingians
14th century – 1795 Grand Duchy of Lithuania
1795–1807 Kingdom of Prussia
1807–1815 Duchy of Warsaw
1815–1915 Congress Poland
1915–1918 Ober Ost (German occupation)
1918–1920 Disputed between Poland and Lithuania
1920–1939 Poland
1939–1944 Nazi Germany
1944–present Poland

Despite the fact that a part of the disputed area was never under Lithuanian control[citation needed], the Lithuanian authorities claimed that it consisted of three counties (see administrative divisions of Lithuania), that were illegally occupied by Poland.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] The aforementioned units were roughly correspondent to the actual administrative division of the area into powiats of Augustów, Suwałki and Sejny of the Białystok Voivodeship of Poland, respectively.[citation needed] The region was the least economically developed part of Poland in the interwar period. [7]

The Suvalkai Region was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939 and adjoined East Prussia.[citation needed] After World War II the Suvalkai Region was returned to Poland.[citation needed] Currently there are no territorial disputes over the region.

According to the Polish census of 2002 there were 5,846 Lithuanians living in Poland, with a large part of them inhabitating Suvalkai Region.[citation needed] 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.

[edit] Countryside

Map of the Suwałki Region, with towns, roads and forest areas
Map of the Suwałki Region, with towns, roads and forest areas

Suwałki Region has many lakes and forests, and is considered a relatively undeveloped region in Poland.

Major towns:

Forests:

Lakes:

Parks:

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ U.S. Department of State. Lithuania. Retrieved on 2008-04-22
  2. ^ Glanville, Price (1998). Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN ISBN:0631220399. 
  3. ^ Zilvinas Norkunas "A Destiny Called Lithuania", Lithuania in the World (Interview with Valdas Adamkus. President of the Republic of Lithuania (1998-08-30). Retrieved on 2008-04-23. “The stops on my way to Warsaw at Seinai and Suvalkai, where the majority of Poland's Lithuanians live, were also important.”
  4. ^ Šenavičienė, Ieva (1999). "Tautos budimas ir blaivybės sąjūdis". Istorija 40: p.3. 
  5. ^ (Lithuanian) Lankininkaitė, Rūta. "Seinų lietuviai jaučiasi skriaudžiami", 2007-03-11. Retrieved on 2008-04-2. (Lithuanian) "Lenkijos lietuvių bendruomenės vadovai sako, jog Seinų krašte viskas, kas susiję su lietuvių kultūros paveldo išsaugojimu, sunkiai skinasi kelią." 
  6. ^ Lithuanian Embassy in Poland Najwięcej Litwinów zamieszkuje w gminie Puńsk, gdzie stanowią oni około 80 proc. mieszkańców.
  7. ^ Vitalija Stravinskienė. Lenkijos Lietuvių bandruomenė 1944-2000 metais. 2004, p.32

[edit] References

  • Simas Sužiedēlis, Encyclopedia Lituanica, J. Kapočius 1978
  • Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999, Yale University Press 2003, page 33
  • United States Congress Select Committee on Communist Aggression, Baltic States: A Study of Their Origin and National Development, WS Hein 1972, page 71

[edit] External links

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[edit] See also