Republic of Central Lithuania
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Central Lithuania (Polish: , Belarusian: Сярэдняя Літва / Siaredniaja Litva) was a semi-independent pseudostate created by the Polish General, Lucjan Żeligowski, in 1920, in historically Lithuanian lands by faking a mutiny of soldiers of the so called 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division, part of the Polish Army. As intended from the begining, the construct was annexed by Poland on March 24 1922, following parliamentary elections. These elections were boycotted by a plurality of Lithuanians, Belarusians and Jews.
History
Background
In the aftermath of the First World War, the former area of Grand Duchy of Lithuania was divided between Belarus and Lithuania. On October 7, 1920, a Lithuanian and Polish delegation concluded a truce in Suvalkai. It was agreed upon that the Suvalkai treaty would take effect on October 10, 1920. The treaty determined an informal border, in which Vilnius was given to the Lithuanians. Poland broke the Suvalkai treaty and created a new political body: on October 9, General Lucjan Żeligowski, following Józef Klemens Piłsudski's orders, faked the mutiny of Polish soldiers and the regions inhabitants and captured Vilnius in a sneak attack. The new construct was named Central Lithuania and in 1922 was officially joined with Poland.
For fifty years following the January Uprising of 1864, the historical Grand Duchy of Lithuania was under a military government of Imperial Russia. While Lithuanians and Poles were discriminated against – the Lithuanian and Polish languages were forbidden in public – Polish continued its domination in ecclesiastical spheres and public functions.
The national composition of the latter area is difficult to measure as both Russian, Polish and Soviet censuses are not often reliable.
In the middle of XIX century Lithuanian speakers constituded more than a half of all the population in all the Vilnius guberniya including Vilnius. In Lithuanian areas of the region (that is without southeast margins of Vilnius gubernyia and Vilnius with its surroundings as a linguistic enclave) according to M. Lebedkin there were 71% of Lithuanians here, to A. Korev - 67%, to D'Erkert - 66%.
18% of Poles were found by official statistics in all the Vilnius guberniya (including Vilnius) then.
Later, the more reliable data, seems to be the Russian Empire Census of 1897, and to some extent, the Nazi 1942 census. According to the first census of the Russian Empire, 1897, the population of the Vilna guberniya was distributed as follows. Keep in mind that the significant territory of the province had a Belarusian speaking majority and as of today is included in Belarus (mostly into the Hrodna voblast, but also in the Minsk voblast, and Vitsebsk voblast).
- Russians — 4.9%
- Ukrainians — 0.1%
- Belarusians — 56.1% (including Roman Catholics)
- Poles — 8.2%
- Lithuanians — 17.6%
- Germans — 0.2%
- Jews — 12.7%
- Tatars — 0.1%
- Others — 0.1%
- Russian language — 20.9% (many of them were Russian-speaking Jews, as may be inferred from the "Religion" tables)
- Ukrainian language — 0.3%
- Belarusian language — 4.3%
- Polish language — 30.1%
- Lithuanian language — 2.1%
- German language — 1.4%
- Yiddish — 40.0%
- Tatar language — 0.5%
- Others — 0.4%
Changes in language and nationality
The data from different times shows the changes in languages. The Lithuanian speaking area was constantly on the decline, while Belorusian speaking area pro rata was on the increase. The XX’th century marks a sudden increase of Polish speaking people and pro rata decrease of Belorusian speakers. Lithuanian speaking “islands” remained in Djatlawa, Lazduny, Gervėčiai etc.- [Lithuanian-Belarusian language boundary in the 4th decade of the 19th century]
- [Lithuanian-Belarusian language boundary in the beginning of the 20th century]
The slavic (Belorusian) speaking areas always bordered the vicinity of eastern Lithuania. During the rule of the Russian tsars, the use the Lithuanian language was as follows:
- The Lingua franca had been Polish in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the middle of XVII century most of the Lithuanian nobility spoke Polish but remained Lithuanians by nationality and were patriots of their country.
- Lithuanian was considered as a inferior, pagan language by the Polish clergy and Russian officials. This idea was constantly reinforced and conveyed to the common people.
- Belorusians were able to understand both the Tsar's officials and the Polish speaking priests. These languages are akin to each other. Thus, many peasants adopted Belorussian and spoke in two-four languages. Their children did not need to speak Lithuanian any longer.
- After the uprising in 1863-1864 the Latin alphabet was forbidden, Lithuanians were oppressed even more. Catholocism (with the Polish clergy dominating) naturally become a symbol of resistance. Since Polish was considered the language of Catholicism by the common people, a good number of Lithuanian speakers of this area declared themselves as Poles during the censuses. By doing so, they felt they were emphasising that they were Catholics.
A considerable number of Lithuanians began to speak Belorusian mixed with lithuanianisms and became “tuteishi” ("the locals”). They did not assign themselves to any nation. These people said they were speaking "paprostu" ("the common language, the language of the simple people").
People who spoke “paprostu” were considered to be Poles by various governments. The polonization, exercised by clergy (also spreading from estates) and later implemented by the Polish government was uncompromising. About 100-200 thousands colonists from Poland were brought in. Many Lithuanian schools were closed. In 1938, the Polish administration left only two Lithuanian primary schools and one gymnasium (the Gymnasium of Vytautas Didysis) in the entire area.The soviets at the beginning stopped the polonization. But they soon restored it. The Poles were protected by the local governments of the area. Lithuanian were replaced in public functions by Poles and Russians.
During this long period of foreign rule, many people became indoctrinated with negative attitudes towards the Lithuanian language and to be ashamed of their descent and inspite of speaking “paprostu”, to consider themselves to be Poles.
Conflict
Following the start of the Polish-Soviet war, in 1919 the territory was occupied by the Red Army which defeated and pushed back Polish self-defence units, but shortly afterwards the Bolsheviks were pushed back by the Polish Army. 1920, saw Central Lithuania occupied by the Red Army for the second time, although Russia officially recognized the sovereignty of Lithuanian Soviet Republic over the city. Lenin was probably waiting for the capture of Warsaw, to occupy the remainder of Lithuania. However, when the Red Army was defeated in the Battle of Warsaw, the Soviets made the decision to hand the city back over to Lithuania. Despite these decisions, Lithuania seized the southern Suvalkai region (Polish: Suwałki region) as well. The rationale for this was that several parts of the region had clear Lithuanian ethnic majorities. When the Polish army reached the Lithuanian lines on (August 26, 1920), a war erupted that lasted October 7, 1920.
This made the compromise even harder to achieve, since the newly-established state of Lithuania declined to negotiate on the status of the Vilnius area, claiming it as its capital and denying any Polish influence over it, whatsoever. A cease-fire agreement was signed on October 7, 1920, but it did not solve the issue. The Polish commander Józef Piłsudski, ordered his subordinate, General Lucjan Żeligowski, to defect with his 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division and capture the city, without declaring war on Lithuania.
General Żeligowski entered the city on October 8 1920, almost unopposed.
Republic of Central Lithuania
A new country was created under the name of the Republic of Central Lithuania. After the staged mutiny, Lucjan Żeligowski, proclaimed an uprising of local people. On October 12, 1920, he announced the creation of a provisional government. Soon the courts and the police were formed by his decree of January 7, 1921, and the civil rights of Central Lithuania were granted to all people living in the area on January 1, 1919, or for five years prior to August 1, 1914.The symbols of the state were a red flag with Polish White Eagle and Lithuanian Vytis and a coat of arms being a mixture of Polish, Lithuanian and Vilnian symbols, similar to the Coat of Arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Extensive diplomatic negotiatiations continued behind the scenes. Lithuania proposed creating a confederation of Baltic Western Lithuania (with Lithuanian as an official language) and Central Lithuania (with Polish as an official language). Poland added the condition that the new state must be also federated with Poland, pursuing the Józef Piłsudski's goal of creating the Międzymorze Federation. Lithuanians chose to reject this condition. With nationalistic sentiments rising all over Europe, many Lithuanians were afraid that such a Federation, resembling the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from centuries ago, would be a threat to Lithuanian culture, as during the Commonwealth times the many of the of Lithuanian upper class (nobility - the szlachta) polonized themselves.
General elections were decreed to take place on January 9, 1921, and the regulations governing this election were to be issued prior to November 28, 1920. However, due to the League of Nations mediation, and the Lithuanian boycott of the voting, the elections were postponed.
Mediation
Meanwhile in Brussels peace talks were held under the auspice of the League of Nations. The initial agreement had been signed by both sides on November 29 1920, and the talks started on March 3 1921. The League of Nations to accept the Polish proposal of a plebiscite on the future of Central Lithuania. As a compromise, the so called "Hymans' plan" was proposed (named after the Belgian envoy to the conference). It consisted of 15 points, among them were:
- Both sides guarantee each other's independence.
- Central Lithuania is incorporated into the Federation of Lithuania, composed of two cantons - the Lithuanian-inhabitated Samogitia and multiethnic (Belarusian, Polish, Jewish and Lithuanian) Wilno area. Both cantons will have separate governments, parliaments, official languages and a common federative capital in Vilnius/Wilno.
- Lithuanian and Polish governments will create interstate commissions on both foreign affairs, trade and industry measures and local policies.
- Poland and Lithuania will sign a defensive alliance treaty.
- Poland will gain usage of ports in Lithuania.
A new plan was presented to the governments of Lithuania and Poland in September 1921. It was basically a modification of "Hymans' plan", with the difference that the area of Klaipėda was to be incorporated into Lithuania while Central Lithuania was to be granted a certain level of internal autonomy instead of a cantonal status. However, both Poland and Lithuania openly criticized it and finally this turn of talks came to a halt as well.
Resolution
After the talks in Brussels failed, the tensions in the area grew. The most important issue was the huge army Central Lithuania fielded (27,000). General Żeligowski decided to pass the power to the civil authorities and confirmed the date of the elections (January 8 1922). There was a significant propaganda campaign over the issue of the elections as both Poles and Lithuanians tried to win the support of other ethnic groups present in the area. Eventually, Lithuania decided to boycott the elections stating that according to International law the territory is still a sovereign part of Lithuania proper and only the Bolshevist Socialist Party of Lithuania and Belarus took part in it.
Apart from the Lithuanian organisations that eventually decided to boycott the voting, most of the parties that took part in it were supporting the idea of incorporation of the area into Poland - with different grades of . 63,9% of the entire population took part in the voting, but among different ethnic groups the attendance was lower (41% of Belarusians, 15,3% Jews and 8,2% of Lithuanians). The elections where boycotted by Lithuanians, most of the Jews and some Belorussians; a certain percentage had doubts over whether they should vote.Zigmantas Kiaupa. The History of Lithuania. 2002, 2004. ISBN 9955-584-87-4 Poles were the only major ethnic group out of which the majority of people voted. This and possibility of fraud were the pretexts for Lithuania not to recognise it. Also, the Lithuanian side argued that the election area covered only the territory of Central Lithuania, that is the areas under Lithuanian administration prior to Żeligowski's action, while it should also cover the areas promised to Lithuania in the Lithuanian-Soviet agreement of July 12, 1920, known as the Vilnius region.
The two biggest political groups in the newly-elected parliament were the "Polish Voting Committee" (43 seats) and the "Popular Councils" (34 seats). All the other groups gained 29 seats altogether. The parliament gathered on February 1, 1922 and on February 20 after a fierce discussion, incorporation into Poland had been passed. The Polish Sejm passed the law proposed by the Central Lithuanian parliament on March 22, 1922 and two days later the Republic of Central Lithuania ceased to exist. All of its territory was incorporated into the newly-formed Wilno Voivodship.
The border changes were accepted by the League of Nations in 1923, but Lithuania declined to accept the Polish authority over the area of Wilno. Instead, it continued to treat the so-called Vilnius Region as part of its own territory and the city itself as its constitutional capital, with Kaunas being only a temporary seat of government.
Aftermath
It was not until the Polish ultimatum of 1938, when the Lithuanian authorities acquiesced to resume diplomatical relations with Poland, and de facto accepted the borders of its neighbour. After the Soviet-Nazi pact and the Polish Defence War of 1939, Lithuania was given Vilnius, and its surroundings up to 30 km, on October 10, 1939. A part of the region was given to the Belarusian SSR.See also
- History of Vilnius
- Wilno Voivodship
- History of Poland
- History of Lithuania
- Former countries in Europe after 1815
References
External links
- [ethnic composition: languages majorities in 1935]
- [Lithuanian-Belarusian language boundary in the 4th decade of the 19th century]
- [State symbols of Central Lithuania]
- [Depatriation and resettlement of Ethnic Poles]
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