Poles in Lithuania

Poles in Lithuania

Polish minority marching in Vilnius (2008)
Total population
183,000 (2021 census)
Regions with significant populations
Vilnius County
Languages
Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, Belarusian
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians

The Poles in Lithuania (Polish: Polacy na Litwie, Lithuanian: Lietuvos lenkai), estimated at 183,000 people in the Lithuanian census of 2021 or 6.5% of Lithuania's total population, are the country's largest ethnic minority.

During the Polish–Lithuanian union, there was an influx of Poles into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the gradual Polonization of its elite and upper classes. At the end of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, almost all of Lithuania's nobility, clergy, and townspeople spoke Polish to some extent and adopted some Polish culture, while still maintaining a Lithuanian identity. In the 19th century, the processes of Polonization also affected Lithuanian and Belarusian peasants and led to the formation of an ethnographic mosaic along a strip of land, stretching from Białystok to Daugavpils and including Vilnius, with a newly formed Polish identity among part of the local population. The rise of the Lithuanian national movement led to conflicts between both groups. Following World War I and the rebirth of both states, there was the Polish–Lithuanian War, whose main focus was Vilnius and the nearby region. In its aftermath, the majority of the Polish population living in the Lithuanian lands found themselves within the Polish borders. However, interwar Lithuania still retained a large Polish minority. During World War II, the Polish population was persecuted by the USSR and Nazi Germany. Post-World War II, the borders were changed, territorial disputes were suppressed as the Soviet Union exercised power over both countries and a significant part of the Polish population, especially the best-educated, was voluntary-forcefully transferred from the Lithuanian SSR to the Polish People's Republic. At the same time, a significant number of Poles relocated from nearby regions of Byelorussian SSR to Vilnius and Vilnius region. After Lithuania regained independence, Lithuania–Poland relations were tense in the 1990s due to alleged discrimination of the Polish minority in Lithuania and pro-Soviet separatism of a fraction of Lithuanian Poles.

Currently, the Polish population is grouped in the Vilnius region, primarily the Vilnius and Šalčininkai districts. In the city of Vilnius alone there are more than 85,000 Poles, who make up about 15% of the Lithuanian capital's population. Most Poles in Lithuania are Roman Catholic and speak Polish, although a minority of them speak Russian or Lithuanian, as their first language.

Statistics

Lithuanian municipalities with Polish minority exceeding 15% of the total population (as of 2021)

According to the Lithuanian census of 2021, the Polish minority in Lithuania numbered 183,421 persons or 6.5% of the population of Lithuania. It is the largest ethnic minority in modern Lithuania, the second largest being the Russian minority. Poles are concentrated in the Vilnius Region. Most Poles live in Vilnius County (170,919 people, or 21% of the county's population); Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, has 85,438 Poles, or 15.4% of the city's population. Especially large Polish communities are found in Vilnius District Municipality (46% of the population) and Šalčininkai District Municipality (76%).

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1825	100,000	—
1897	260,000	+160.0%
1942	356,000	+36.9%
1944	380,000	+6.7%
1947	208,000	−45.3%
1959	230,000	+10.6%
1979	247,000	+7.4%
1989	258,000	+4.5%
2001	235,000	−8.9%
2011	200,000	−14.9%
2021	183,000	−8.5%

Lithuanian municipalities with a Polish minority exceeding 15% of the total population (according to the 2021 census) are listed in the table below:

Poles in Lithuania according to the 2021 Lithuanian census

Municipality name	Area	Total population	Number of Poles	Percentage
Vilnius (including Vilnius district)	2,530 km2	652,785	130,458	20%
Šalčininkai	1,491 km2	30,052	22,934	76%
Trakai	1,208 km2	32,042	8,823	28%
Švenčionys	1,692 km2	22,966	5,585	24%

Languages

Out of the 234,989 Poles in Lithuania, 187,918 (80.0%) consider Polish to be their first language. 22,439 Poles (9.5%) speak Russian as their first language, while 17,233 (7.3%) speak Lithuanian. 6,279 Poles (2.7%) did not indicate their first language. The remaining 0.5% speak various other languages. The Polish regiolect spoken by Lithuanian Poles is classified under Northern Borderlands dialect. Most of Poles who live southwards of Vilnius speak a form of Belarusian vernacular called there "simple speech", that contains many substratical relics from Lithuanian and Polish.

Education

Absolute numbers with Polish language education at Lithuanian rural schools (1980)
District municipality	Lithuanian	Russian	Polish
Vilnius / Wilno	1,250	4,150	6,400
Šalčininkai / Soleczniki	500	2,050	3,200
Trakai / Troki	2,900	50	950
Širvintos / Szyrwinty	2,400	100	100
Švenčionys / Święciany	1,350	600	100
Varėna / Orany	6,000	0	50
Absolute number with Polish language education at Lithuanian urban schools was 5,600

As of 1980, about 20% of Polish Lithuanian students chose Polish as the language of instruction at school. In the same year, about 60–70% of rural Polish communities chose Polish. However, even in towns with a predominantly Polish population, the share of Polish-language education was less than the percentage of Poles. Even though, historically, Poles tended to strongly oppose Russification, one of the most important reasons to choose Russian language education was the absence of a Polish-language college and university learning in the USSR, and during Soviet times Polish minority students in Lithuania were not allowed to get college/university education across the border in Poland. Only in 2007, the first small branch of the Polish University of Białystok opened in Vilnius. In 1980 there were 16,400 school students instructed in Polish. Their number declined to 11,400 in 1990. In independent Lithuania between 1990 and 2001, the number of Polish mother tongue children attending schools with Polish as the language of instruction doubled to over 22,300, then gradually decreased to 18,392 in 2005. In September 2003, there were 75 Polish-language general education schools and 52 which provided education in Polish in a combination of languages (for example Lithuanian-Polish, Lithuanian-Russian-Polish). These numbers fell to 49 and 41 in 2011, reflecting a general decline in the number of schools in Lithuania. Polish government was concerned in 2015 about the education in Polish.

History

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

From the 13th century to 1569

The first Poles appeared in Lithuania long before the Union of Krewo in 1385. The early Polish population composed mainly of enslaved war captives, who assimilated relatively quickly. The Lithuanian slave raids into Poland continued until the second half of the 14th century. The process of voluntary Polish migration began in the mid-13th century, nonetheless Poles did not start to migrate to Lithuania in more noticeable numbers until Christianization of the country.

Andrzej Jastrzębiec was the first Bishop of Vilnius. He is depicted in the fresco "Baptism of Lithuania" by Włodzimierz Tetmajer

Between 1387 and 1569, Polish burghers, clergy, merchants, and nobles moved to Lithuania, although this migration was not massive. The Poles were concentrated mainly in urban centers, Catholic monasteries and parishes, royal and noble courts. Many Poles worked in the Grand Ducal latin chancellery. Mikołaj Cebulka was appointed the senior secretary by Vytautas. Klemens Moskarzewski was the starosta of Vilnius and a commander during the city's successful defence in 1390, when it was besieged by Vytautas and Teutonic Knights. In the same year, Jaśko from Oleśnica became the governor of Lithuania on behalf of king Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila). Another Pole, Mikołaj Sapieński, participated in the Council of Constance as one of three leaders of the Samogitian delegation.

By the end of the 15th century, several Polish families from Podlachia entered the governing elite of the Grand Duchy. In the 15th and 16th century, the Polish population in Lithuania was not large, but they occupied prestigious places and enjoyed supremacy in terms of culture. With time Polish people became also part of the local landowning class. When one Polish noble would become established in the Grand Duchy, it triggered a chain of further arrivals, often motivated by family ties or geographic links. Lithuanian nobles welcomed fugitive Polish peasants and settled them on uncultivated land, but they usually assimilated with Belarusians and Lithuanians peasants within few generations. Polish peasants took also part in the colonization of the Neman river area. In the 16th century, the largest concentrations of Poles in the GDL were located in Podlachia the border areas of Samogitia, Lithuania and Belarus, and the cities of Vilnius, Brest, Kaunas, Grodno, Kėdainiai, and Nyasvizh.

As a result of the Union of Krewo, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania found itself under strong cultural and political influence of the Kingdom of Poland. Lithuanian elite started to speak Ruthenian and Polish in the 16th century, and soon afterwards Polish supplanted Ruthenian. During that period, the royal and grand ducal courts were nearly entirely Polish speaking. The numbers of Poles in Lithuania were additionally augmented by the almost continuous (since the 1550s) presence of Polish military. Around 1552, Kalisz Chamberlain Piotr Chwalczewski became administrator of Lithuania's royal castles and estates. Since 1558, he was also responsible for coordination of the agrarian reform which was implemented by specialists brought from Poland. Reformation gave another impetus to the spread of Polish, as the Bible and other religious texts were translated from Latin to Polish. Since the second half of the 16th century, Poles predominated in the life of local Protestant congregations and in their schools and printing houses.

From 1569 to 1795

Since the end of the 16th century, the influx of Poles to the Grand Duchy significantly increased., particularly nobles from Masovia and Lesser Poland. This population movement created a fertile ground for socio-cultural Polonization of the country. Poor nobles from the Crown rented land from local magnates. The number of Poles grew also in the towns, among others in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Grodno. There were also numerous Poles among the Jesuits residing in Lithuania, including such prominent figures like Piotr Skarga (1536–1612), the first rector of the University of Vilnius, Jakub Wujek (1541–1597), and Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595–1640). From 1397 to the 16th century, the Chapter of Vilnius numbered 123 Canons, of whom 90 were from the Crown and Podlachia, and 33 or more were Lithuanians.

While Poles and foreigners were generally prohibited from holding public offices in the Grand Duchy, Polish people gradually gained this right through the acquisition of Lithuanian land. For example, Mikołaj Radzimiński (c. 1585–c. 1630) became a Marshal of Lithuanian Tribunal and the Starosta of Mstsislaw, Piotr Wiesiołowski was the Grand Marshal of Lithuania (nominated in 1615), Janusz Lacki (d. 1646) was Vilnius Chamberlain, Minsk Castellan, and the General Starosta of Samogitia (in 1643–1646).

Already at the beginning of the 16th century Polish became the first language of the Lithuanian magnates. In the following century it was adopted by the Lithuanian nobility in general. Even the nobility of Žemaitija used the Polish language already in the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century the Polish language was adopted by the entire nobility of the Grand Duchy – Lithuanian, Ruthenian, German and Tatar. The Polish language also penetrated other social strata: the clergy, the townspeople, and even the peasants. During the Commonwealth's period, a Polish-dominated territory started to be slowly formed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, such as Liauda, northeast of Kaunas (since the early 15th century). According to the Polish historian Barbara Topolska, by the mid-17th century, Poles made up several percent of the total population in the Grand Duchy. The Polish historian Władysław Wielhorski estimated that by the end of the 18th century, Polish and Polonized people constituted 25% of the Grand Duchy's inhabitants.

Vilnius

The influx of Poles to Vilnius started in the late 14th century. Vilnius was also the only place in present-day Lithuania where, in the 15th century, an ethnically restricted Polish community was established. Another larger one was likely formed in the area of present-day Belarus. The city became the most important center of the Polish intelligentsia in the Grand Duchy. In the 16th century, Poles constituted 40% of all professors at Vilnius Academy, in the 17th century – 60%, and they were 30% of the teaching cadre in the 18th century. Ethnic Poles made up around 50% of Vilnius' municipal officials during the Baroque period, and by the 17th century the city became culturally Polish. Poles predominated in Vilnius in the mid-17th century. In 1785, Wojciech Bogusławski, who is considered the "father" of Polish theatre, opened the first public theatre in Vilnius.

19th century

Until the early 1830s, Polish remained the administrative language in the former Commonwealth's lands incorporated into the Russian Empire, which were unofficially called the Western Krai. Throughout the 19th century, Poles formed the largest Christian nationality in Vilnius, and during the first half of the 19th century, the government of the city was composed mainly of them. The Polish-language university was re-established in the city in 1803 and closed in 1832. After the 1863 uprising, public use of the Polish language, teaching Polish to peasants, and peasant possession of Polish books became punishable offences. Regardless of their ethnic roots, the Commonwealth's nobles usually chose Polish self-identification in the course of the 19th century.

Polish map from 1912 showing the distribution of Polish population (incorporates data from pre-World War I census)

Polish Interwar map of distribution of Polish population (incorporates data from the 1916 census)

In the 19th century Polish culture was spreading among the lower classes of Lithuania, mainly in Dzūkija and to a lesser degree in Aukštaitija. A complicated linguistic situation developed on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Polish speakers used a "Kresy" variant of Polish (Northern Borderlands dialect) that retained archaic Polish features as well as many remnants of Belarusian and some features of Lithuanian. Linguists distinguish between official language, used in the Church and cultural activities, and colloquial language, closer to the speech of the common people. Inhabitants of a significant part of the Vilnius region used a variant of the Belarusian language, which was influenced mainly by Polish, but also by Lithuanian, Russian and Jewish. This language was referred to as "simple speech" (Polish: mowa prosta), and was treated by many as a dialect variety of Polish. In fact, it was a kind of "mixed language" serving as an interdialect of the cultural borderland. This language became a gateway to the progressive Slavization of the Lithuanian population. The knowledge of Slavonic intedialect made it easier for Lithuanians to communicate with their Slavic neighbors, who spoke Polish, Russian, or Belarusian. The attractiveness and cultural prestige of the Polish language and its common use in church caused the process to continue and lead to the full adoption of the Polish language. Among the Belarusian population, the usage of Polish was limited to official relations, while at home, the local language was still spoken. As a result, the Lithuanian language retreated under the pressure of Polish faster than Belarusian. This led to the formation of a compact Polish language area between the Lithuanian and Belarusian language areas, with Vilnius as the center. The position of Vilnius as a significant center of Polish culture influenced the development of national identities among Roman Catholic peasants in the region. A significant part of the population of the Polish–Lithuanian–Belarusian borderlands for a long time did not have a clearly declared nationality and described themselves as "locals" (tutejszy). In all the population censuses conducted after the end of the 19th century and in a number of other political events, the Slavic speaking population inhabiting the area around Vilnius opted for Polish nationality.

The emergence of the Lithuanian national movement in the 1880s slowed down the process of Polonization of the ethnically Lithuanian population, but also cemented a sense of national identity among a significant portion of the Polish-speaking Lithuanian population. The feeling of a two-tier Lithuanian-Polish national identity, present throughout the period, had to give way to a clear national declaration. Previously, every inhabitant of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been considered a Lithuanian, but in the face of the emergence of the Lithuanian national movement, which considered only those who spoke Lithuanian as Lithuanians, Polish-speaking residents of Lithuania more and more often declared themselves as Poles. The dispute over the auxiliary language of services (Polish or Lithuanian) in the churches on the eastern border of ethnic Lithuania, which heated up from the end of the nineteenth century, influenced the formation of Polish consciousness and the adoption of the Polish language among those believers whose ancestors had abandoned Lithuanian for plain speech.

Polish-Lithuanian conflict

By the time of the Polish–Lithuanian war, Poles made up also almost all of the local aristocracy and richer landowners in Vilnius and its surroundings. Most descendants of the Lithuanian noble class opposed the Belarusian and Lithuanian national revivals and fought for Poland in 1918–1920. From 1918 to 1921 there were several conflicts, such as the activity of the Polish Military Organisation, Sejny uprising and a foiled attempt at a Polish coup of the Lithuanian government. As a result of the Polish-Lithuanian war and Żeligowski's mutiny the border between independent Lithuania and Poland was drawn more or less according to the linguistic division of the region. Nevertheless, many Poles lived in the Lithuanian state and a significant Lithuanian minority found itself within the Polish borders. The loss of Vilnius was a painful blow to Lithuanian aspirations and identity. The irredentist demand for its recovery became one of the most important elements of socio-political life in interwar Lithuania and resulted in the emergence of hostility and resentment against the Poles.

Interbellum

Polish Interwar map of Polish minority in Lithuania (in brown) in 1923, speculations, based on the election results in Lithuania

In the Republic of Lithuania

Poles in the interwar Lithuanian state, between 1923–1924

Threelingual street sign of Vytautas avenue in the Temporary capital of Lithuania Kaunas during the interwar with Polish language inscription

In interwar Lithuania, people declaring Polish ethnicity were officially described as Polonized Lithuanians who needed to be re-Lithuanized, Polish-owned land was confiscated, Polish religious services, schools, publications and voting rights were restricted. According to the Lithuanian census of 1923 (not including Vilnius and Klaipėda regions), there were 65,600 Poles in Lithuania (3.2% of the total population). Although according to Polish Election Committee in fact the number of Poles was 202,026, so about 10% of total population. This number was based on election results. The Poles were concentrated in the districts of Kaunas, Kėdainiai, Kaišiadorys and Ukmergė, in each of which they constituted 20–30% of the population.

The Polish Parliamentary Faction numbered three deputies after 1921 elections (Bronisław Laus, Adolf Grajewski and Józef Śnielewski), four deputies after the 1923 elections (Wiktor Budzyński, Bolesław Lutyk, Wincenty Rumpel and Kazimierz Wołkowycki) and four again after 1926 elections (Jan Bucewicz, Wiktor Budzyński, Tomasz Giżyński and Bolesław Lutyk). However, their possibilities for action were limited, because, like all minority representatives, they were excluded from parliamentary committees.

In 1919, Poles owned 90% of estates larger than 100 ha. By 1928, 2,997 large estates with a total area of 555,207 ha were parceled out, and 52,935 new farms were created in their place and given to Lithuanian peasants. A large part of Polish landowners who were deprived of their property left Lithuania.

Polish schools in the interwar Lithuania

	1925/1926	1926/1927	1927/1928	1928/1929
Number of Polish elementary schools	7	75	20	14
Number of employed Polish teachers	10	90	22	17
Number of pupils	365	4 089	554	450

Many Poles in Lithuania were signed in as Lithuanians in their passports, and as a result, they also were forced to attend Lithuanian schools. Polish education was organized by the Association for the Promotion of Culture and Education among Poles in Lithuania "Pochodnia". While the number of Polish-language schools in Lithuania increased from 20 to 30 from 1920 to 1923, and to 78 in 1926, they decreased to 9 by 1940. After the establishment of Valdemaras regime in 1926, 58 Polish schools were closed, many Poles were incarcerated, and Polish newspapers were placed under strict censorship. All national minorities in Lithuania were excluded from studying medicine in the country. And at the Pedagogical Institute of the Republic in Klaipėda Poles were subject to numerus clausus. At other universities Poles were not restricted and in 1929 there were about 150 Polish students in Lithuania. Most Poles chose to study abroad. In 1928, the Union of Polish Academic Youth of Lithuania (ZPAML) was founded. As a result of the introduction of a new restrictive law on associations, ZPMAL ended its activities at the end of 1938, along with 14 other Polish organizations.

There were six Polish periodicals in Lithuania, including the most important daily "Dzień Kowieński" (later "Dzień Polski"). They were subject to censorship and numerous restrictions. Over time, the Polish language was also removed from the Church. Since 1929, there has been no teaching of the Polish language at the Kaunas Seminary. Polish priests were transferred to parishes with a majority of Lithuanian believers. Services in Polish were often interrupted by Lithuanian nationalists. This situation intensified especially in the first half of 1924 in Kaunas, when masses were drowned out and the faithful beaten. These situations occurred in most towns where Poles constituted a significant percentage. As a result, just before the war there were only 2 Polish priests working in Lithuania, and only in a few parishes masses were celebrated partially in Polish. The most tragic episode in the history of Poles in interwar Lithuania was an anti-Polish demonstration organized by the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union on May 23, 1930 in Kaunas, which turned into a riot. Seats of Polish organizations, editorial offices, Polish schools and a Polish gymnasium were demolished.

Politically, Polish circles were divided into two groups. The first derived from the traditions of the Krajowcy group and was based on loyalty to the Lithuanians. They were concentrated around the Polish Central Committee in Kaunas. The second group, composed mainly of young people, mainly academic youth, pushed a more nationalist stance, intensified by the repressive policies of the state. This second group was supported by Warsaw and concentrated around the ZPMAL. In 1937 a conflict broke out between the youth leader Tomasz Surwiłło and Alfons Bojko, the editor-in-chief of the "Chata Rodzinna" ("Family Cottage") magazine. The former was supported by Warsaw.

Poles took an active part in the social life of the country. At Kaunas University the rector was law professor Michał Römer. Włodzimierz Szyłkarski taught philosophy, Maria Arcimowiczowa taught Egyptology, Helena Szwejkowska taught Polish literature and language, and Antoni Ignacy Weryha-Darewski taught financial law.

In the Second Polish Republic

See also: Demographic history of the Vilnius region

A large portion of the Vilnius area was part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period, particularly the area of the Republic of Central Lithuania, which had a significant Polish speaking population. For example, the Wilno Voivodeship (25% of it is a part of modern Lithuania and 75% – modern Belarus) in 1931 contained 59.7% Polish speakers and only 5.2% Lithuanian speakers.

After World War II

Polish population in 1959 (≥ 20%)

Raion	%
City of Vilnius	20.00%
Vilnius	81.44%
Šalčininkai	83.87%
Nemenčinė	73.21%
Eišiškės	67.40%
Trakai	48.17%
Švenčionys	23.86%
Vievis	22.87%

During the World War II expulsions and shortly after the war, the Soviet Union, during its efforts to establish the People's Republic of Poland, forcibly exchanged population between Poland and Lithuania. During 1945–1948, the Soviet Union allowed 197,000 Poles to leave to Poland; in 1956–1959, another 46,600 were able to leave.

Ethnic Poles made up from 80% to over 91% of Vilnius population in 1944. Every Pole in the city was forced to register for resettlement, and about 80% of Vilnius Poles left for Poland. By March 1946, around 129,000 people from Kaunas region declared their willingness to be relocated to Poland. In most cases, the Soviet authorities blocked the departure of Poles who were interwar Lithuanian citizens and only less than 8,000 of the registered (8.3%) managed to leave for Poland. In 1956–1959, around 3,000 people from Kaunas were repatriated to Poland.

In the 1950s the remaining Polish minority was a target of several attempted campaigns of Lithuanization by the Communist Party of Lithuania, which tried to stop any teaching in Polish; those attempts, however, were vetoed by Moscow, which saw them as nationalistic. The Soviet census of 1959 showed 230,100 Poles concentrated in the Vilnius region (8.5% of the Lithuanian SSR's population). The Polish minority increased in size, but more slowly than other ethnic groups in Lithuania; the last Soviet census of 1989 showed 258,000 Poles (7.0% of the Lithuanian SSR's population). The Polish minority, subject in the past to massive, often voluntary Russification and Sovietization, and recently to voluntary processes of Lithuanization, shows many and increasing signs of assimilation with Lithuanians.

In independent Lithuania

Grey: Areas with majority Polish population in Lithuania as of early 2000s. Red: 1920–1939 Polish-Lithuanian border

1990-2000

When Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990 large part of the Polish minority, still remembering the 1950s attempts to ban Polish, was afraid that the independent Lithuanian government might want to reintroduce the Lithuanization policies. Furthermore, some Lithuanian nationalists, notably the Vilnija organization which was founded in 1988, considered eastern Lithuania's inhabitants as Polonized Lithuanians. Due to their view of ethnicity as primordial, they argued that the Lithuanian state should work to restore their "true" identity. Although, many Poles in Lithuania do have Lithuanian ancestry, they considered themselves ethnically Polish.

According to the historian Alfred E. Senn, the Polish minority was divided into three main groups: Vilnius' inhabitants supported Lithuanian independence, the residents of Vilnius' southeastern districts and Šalčininkai were pro-Soviet, while the third group scattered throughout the country did not have a clear position. According to surveys from the spring of 1990, 47% of Poles in Lithuania supported the pro-Soviet Communist party (in contrast to 8% support among ethnic Lithuanians), while 35% supported Lithuanian independence.

In November 1988, Yedinstvo (literally "Unity"), a pro-Soviet movement that was against Lithuanian independence, was formed. Two Polish representatives of this party were elected to the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies in April 1989 (Jan Ciechanowicz and Anicet Brodawski). Under Polish leadership and with Soviet support, the regional authorities in Vilnius and Šalčininkai region declared an autonomous region, the Polish National Territorial Region. The same Polish politicians later voiced support for the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 in Moscow. Yedinstvo collapsed after the failure of the GKChP in the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, which doomed any prospect of a return to Soviet rule. Simultaneously, after the August Coup's failure, the Polish autonomous region was immediately declared illegal by the Lithuanian government, which instituted direct rule in those areas, thus causing resentment among some residents. The Government of Poland, however, never supported the autonomist tendencies of the Polish minority in Lithuania.. Yedinstvo lost influence after the August 1991 Coup and since then it's inactive.

In April 1989, another more moderate organization of Lithuanian Poles, the Association of Poles in Lithuania (Polish: Związek Polaków na Litwie, ZPL), was established. Its first leader was Jan Sienkiewicz. ZPL supported 1991 Lithuanian independence referendum. On 29 January 1991, Lithuanian government granted minorities right of schooling in their native language and use of it in official institutions. Nonetheless, still no Polish person was included in the central government, also local governments in Polish-speaking regions were suspended after some of its leaders backed August 1991 Coup, and in their place governors were appointed. In addition, a new Citizenship Law was enacted in December 1991, that granted citizenship to every person that lived in eastern Lithuania before 1940, if they didn't have citizenship of another country, thus excluding most Polish persons that emigrated to Poland after the war.

Such a situation caused an international uproar and tension in Polish-Lithuanian relations. Eventually, direct rule was lifted and local elections were organised in December 1992. The ZPL also strengthened its attitude, demanding that the Polish minority be granted a number of rights, such as the establishment of a Polish university, increasing the rights of the Polish language, increasing subsidies from the central budget, and others. ZPL took part in the 1992 parliamentary elections winning 2.07% of the votes and four seats in Seimas.

In 1994, Lithuanian parliament limited participation in local elections to political parties, which forced ZPL to establish Electoral Action for Lithuanian Poles (Polish: Akcja Wyborcza Polaków na Litwie, AWPL). AWPL quickly dominated local political scene. In January 1995 new Language Law was enacted which required representatives of local institutions to know Lithuanian language, also all secondary schools were required to teach Lithuanian.

Another source of conflict was the memory of World War II. Immediately after independence, former members of the Home Army established a veterans' club, but the Lithuanian courts refused to register it. It succeeded only in 1995 under the name of the Polish War Veterans' Club. It was not until 2004, after Lithuania joined the European Union, that the court allowed registration under the name of the Home Army Veterans' Club. Many Lithuanians viewed the Home Army as an anti-Lithuanian organization that committed crimes against the civilian population and had fought for Vilnius' inclusion in post-war Poland, while Poles saw the Home Army as a patriotic, anti-fascist organization.

Polish-Lithuanian relations eased only in 1994, when both countries signed a treaty of good neighborhood. The treaty protected rights of Polish minority in Lithuania and Lithuanian minority in Poland. It also defined nationality as a matter of individual choice, which was contrary to the definition popular among Lithuanian nationalists, and even to the definition given in Lithuania's National Minorities Right Law of 1989, which defined nationality as something inherited. The Treaty defined that to the Polish ethinic minority belongs persons who have Lithuanian citizenship, are of Polish origin or consider themselves to belong to the Polish nationality, culture and traditions as well as viewing the Polish language as their native language.

The situation of the Polish minority assumed international significance again in 1995 after the publication of a Council of Europe report prepared by a commission headed by György Frunda (the so-called "Frunda Report"), which criticized Lithuanian policy toward the Polish minority, particularly the lack of recognition of the Polish university. However, this did not significantly affect Lithuanian politics. In 1996, the special provisions that made an entry of ethno-political parties parliament easier were removed, and from then on they had to meet the usual electoral threshold. The restoration of property lost during the communist period was also a burning issue, which was implemented very slowly in the lands inhabited by Poles. Poles protested against the expansion of Vilnius' borders.

After 2000

Current tensions arise regarding Polish education and the spelling of names. The United States Department of State stated, in a report issued in 2001, that the Polish minority had issued complaints concerning its status in Lithuania, and that members of the Polish Parliament criticized the government of Lithuania over alleged discrimination against the Polish minority. In recent years, the Lithuanian government budgets 40,000 litas (~€10,000) for the needs of the Polish minority (out of the 2 million Eur budget of the Department of National Minorities). In 2006 Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Meller asserted that Polish educational institutions in Lithuania are severely underfunded. Similar concerns were voiced in 2007 by a Polish parliamentary commission. According to a report issued by the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency in 2004, Poles in Lithuania were the second least-educated minority group in Lithuania. The branch of the University of Białystok in Vilnius educates mostly members of the Polish minority.

A report by the Council of Europe, issued in 2007, stated that on the whole, minorities were integrated quite well into the everyday life of Lithuania. The report expressed a concern with Lithuanian nationality law, which contains a right of return clause. The citizenship law was under discussion during 2007; it was deemed unconstitutional on 13 November 2006. A proposed constitutional amendment would allow the Polish minority in Lithuania to apply for Polish passports. Several members of the Lithuanian Seimas, including Gintaras Songaila and Andrius Kubilius, publicly stated that two members of the Seimas who represent Polish minority there (Waldemar Tomaszewski and Michal Mackiewicz) should resign, because they accepted the Karta Polaka.

Lithuanian constitutional law stipulates that everyone (not only Poles) who has Lithuanian citizenship and resides within the country has to write their name in the Lithuanian alphabet and according to the Lithuanian pronunciation; for example, the name Kleczkowski has to be spelled Klečkovski in official documents. Poles who registered for Lithuanian citizenship after dissolution of the Soviet Union were forced to accept official documents with Lithuanian versions of their names. On April 24, 2012 the European Parliament accepted for further consideration the petition (number 0358/2011) submitted by a Tomasz Snarski about the language rights of Polish minority, in particular about enforced Lithuanization of Polish surnames.

Representatives of the Lithuanian government demanded removal of illegally put Polish names of the streets in Maišiagala, Raudondvaris, Riešė and Sudervė as by a Lithuanian law, all the street name signs must be in a state language. as by constitutional law all names have to be in Lithuanian. Tensions have been reported between the Lithuanian Roman Catholic clergy and its Polish parishioniers in Lithuania. The Seimas voted against foreign surnames in Lithuanian passports.

The situation is further escalated by extremist groups on both sides. Lithuanian extremist nationalist organization Vilnija seeks the Lithuanization of Poles living in Eastern Lithuania. The former Polish Ambassador to Lithuania, Jan Widacki, has criticised some Polish organizations in Lithuania as being far-right and nationalist. Jan Sienkiewicz has criticized Jan Widacki.

In late May 2008, the Association of Poles in Lithuania issued a letter, addressed to Lithuania's government, complaining about anti-minority (primarily, anti-Polish) rhetoric in media, citing upcoming parliamentary elections as a motive, and asking for better treatment of the ethnic minorities. The association has also filed a complaint with the Lithuanian prosecutor, asking for investigation of the issue.

Lithuania has not ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. 60,000 Poles have signed a petition against an education system reform. A school strike was declared and suspended.

The Law on Ethnic Minorities lapsed in 2010.

In 2014 Šalčininkai District Municipality administrative director Bolesław Daszkiewicz was fined about €12,500 for failure to execute a court ruling to remove Lithuanian-Polish street signs. Lucyna Kotłowska was fined €1,700 for the same offense.

Discrimination

See also: Lithuanization

There are opinions in some Polish media that the Polish minority in Lithuania is facing discrimination. As mentioned above, Petition 0358/2011 on language rights of Poles living in Lithuania was filed with the European Parliament in 2011. Polish Election Action in Lithuania claimed that the education legislation is discriminatory. In 2011, former Polish President Lech Wałęsa criticized the government of Lithuania over its alleged discrimination against the Polish minority.

As of 2018 Lithuania continued to enforce the Lithuanized spelling of surnames of Poles in Lithuania, with some exceptions, in spite of the 1994 Polish-Lithuanian agreement, Lithuanian legislative system and the Constitution, see section "Surnames" for details.

The refusal of Lithuanian authorities to install bilingual road signs (against the legislative base of Lithuania) in areas densely populated by Lithuanian Poles is at times described by the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania and some Polish media as linguistic discrimination. The removal of illegally-placed Polish or bilingual street signs was enforced, however, some viewed this as discrimination.

Surnames

The surnames of Lithuanian Poles that are of Polish forms, many of them ending in suffixes -e/owski, -e/owicz, rarer -(ń)ski, and more rare -cki (Lithuanian spelling -e/ovski, -e/ovič, -(n)ski, -cki), are commonly the same as their counterparts in Poland and usually have cognates among Lithuanian surnames, which reflects the Polonization of Lithuanian surnames, which happened during the 16th to 19th century when Polish priests Polonized Lithuanian surnames by adding Polish suffixes.

The suffixes -e/ovich (Lith. -e/-avičius or -e/ovič, Pol. -e/owicz) originate from East Slavic languages and were untypical in Polish surnames, and they entered into Polish language only with the Polonization of Lithuania's nobility. Patronymy of the -e/ovich type was a specific for the Lithuanian state and was frequently used in naming people in official documents. It applied to everyone in the country, no matter what language they spoke and what they called themselves. This system of naming people influenced greatly the formation of current Lithuanian, Belarusian and Polish surnames.

Frequently, the Slavicization of Lithuanian surnames was conscious and systematic, because Lithuanian suffixes remained (for example, in marriage and baptism registration books) when it did not remind the foreign scribe of a patronym, like the names Grigaitis, Griškūnas, Matulionis, Vaitkūnas (forms of baptismal names like Grigas, Griška, Matulis, Vaitkus rarely appear). So, Lithuanian suffixes were unchanged in names when the non-Lithuanian scribe did not know they were suffixes, such as Vilkaitis, Oželaitis, Meškutaitis, Šukaitis, Kuprelionis and others, as these scribes did not suspect that Vilkaitis is Vilkas' son, Oželaitis is Oželis' son, Meškutaitis is Meškutis' son, and so on. The foreign-language scribes wrote Lithuanian names without endings where the Slavs do not have them, so they wrote Mindovg, Gedimin, Olgird, Vitovt instead of Mindaugas, Gediminas, Algirdas, Vytautas. Only in Latin texts was the suffix usually preserved because Latin has masculine noun suffixes. Cases where Latin-language documents do not have the Lithuanian endings are due to the names being taken from Slavic sources.

Eventually, in Lithuania, with the dominance of the Polish language, the patronymic suffixes -e/ovič that were used in documents written in the old Chancellery Slavic were replaced by Polish -ski suffixes, such as -e/owski, -inski, -icki and so on. These were translated into -(i)auskas, -inskas, -ickas, leading to Lithuanian names like Petrauskas, Žilinskas or Judickas. In the baptism and marriage registers, in addition to patronymes such as Adamowicz, Janowicz, Michałowicz, Romanowicz, we often find Adamowski, Janowski, Michałowski, Romanowski and sometimes even the same person is named in two different ways.

Generally, Polonization was much harsher in the Church metrics of the 18th century than the 17th and it depended significantly from the individual author. From their very beginning until the 19th century, all church metrics were written in Latin. In the Samogitian diocese and churches of the Curonian deanery, the metrics were written in Polish only from 1828 to 1848. In the Vilnius diocese and the churches of the Žiemgala deanery, it began to be written in Polish earlier, as some metrics began to write in Polish in 1798, and all the metrics since 1803 were written in Polish. Notably, the Latin-language metrics often wrote the names of mothers and unmarried girls with the Lithuanian suffix -aycia and those of married women with the word -iene, although less with the latter. The Lithuanian suffixes -aitė and -ienė stopped appearing when writing in Polish. By order of the Russian authorities, all Church metrics began to be written in Russian since 1849.

There is a common use of the Balto-Slavic patronymic suffixes: Pol. -e/owski and -e/owicz, Lith. -(i)auskas and -e/avičius, and Belarusian -оўскі and -e/овіч.

The suffixes -e/owski, -(ń)ski, and -cki are historically characteristic of Polish names and -e/ovič of Belarusian names.

Surnames ending with -e/ovič, which is more frequent among Lithuanians (-e/-avičius), Belarusians, and Lithuanian Poles, is rarer in Poland.

Name/surname spelling

The official spelling of the all non-Lithuanian (hence Polish) name in a person's passport is governed by the 31 January 1991 Resolution of the Supreme Council of Lithuania No. I-1031 "Concerning name and surname spelling in the passport of the citizen of the Republic of Lithuania". There are the following options. The law says, in part:

2. In the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, the first name and surname of persons of non-Lithuanian origin shall be spelt in Lithuanian. On the citizen's request in writing, the name and surname can be spelt in the order established as follows:

a) according to pronunciation and without grammatisation (i.e. without Lithuanian endings) or b) according to pronunciation alongside grammatisation (i.e. adding Lithuanian endings).

3. The names and surnames of the persons, who have already possessed citizenship of other State, shall be written according to the passport of the State or an equivalent document available in the passport of the Republic of Lithuania on its issue.

This resolution was challenged in 1999 in the Constitutional Court upon a civil case of a person of Polish ethnicity who requested his name to be entered in the passport in Polish. The Constitutional Court upheld the 1991 resolution. At the same time, it was stressed out citizen's rights to spell their name whatever they like in areas "not linked with the sphere of use of the state language pointed out in the law".

In 2022, the Seimas passed a law allowing members of ethnic minorities to use the full Latin alphabet, including q, w and x, letters which are not considered part of the Lithuanian alphabet, but not characters with diacritics (such as ł and ä), in their legal name if they declare their status as an ethnic minority and prove that their ancestors used that name. In response, several ethnically Polish Lithuanian politicians changed their legal names to be closer to the Polish spelling, most notably Justice Minister Ewelina Dobrowolska (formerly spelled "Evelina Dobrovolska"), but requests for name changes from the general population were low.

Organizations

Single-member constituencies – first place after the first round of 2020 Lithuanian parliamentary election(AWPL in pink)

Poles in Lithuania are organized into several groups and associations.

The Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance (Lithuanian: Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija, Polish: Akcja Wyborcza Polaków na Litwie) is an ethnic minority-based political party formed in 1994, able to exert significant political influence in the administrative districts where Poles form a majority or significant minority. This party has held seats in the Seimas (Parliament of Lithuania) for the past decade. In the 2020 Lithuanian parliamentary election it received just below 5% of the national vote. The party is more active in local politics and controls several municipal councils. It cooperates with other minorities, mainly the Lithuanian Russian Union.

The Association of Poles in Lithuania (Polish: Związek Polaków na Litwie) is an organization formed in 1989 to bring together Polish activists in Lithuania. It numbers between 6,000 and 11,000 members. Its work concerns the civil rights of the Polish minority and engages in educational, cultural, and economic activities.

Prominent Poles

Prior to 1940

• Gabriel Narutowicz – president of Poland
• Józef Piłsudski – Polish statesman
• Wiktor Budzyński – politician
• Kanuty Rusiecki – painter
• Michał Pius Römer – lawyer
• Sofija Pšibiliauskienė – writer (Polish: Zofia Przybylewska)
• Marija Lastauskienė – writer (Polish: Maria Lastowska)
• Medard Czobot – politician (Lithuanian: Medardas Čobotas)

Since 1990

• Anicet Brodawski – a Polish autonomist leader during the late 1980s
• Darjuš Lavrinovič (Polish: Dariusz Ławrynowicz) – basketball player
• Kšyštof Lavrinovič (Polish: Krzysztof Ławrynowicz) – basketball player
• Artur Liudkovski (Polish: Artur Ludkowski) – former deputy mayor of Vilnius
• Jarosław Niewierowicz (Lithuanian: Jaroslav Neverovič) – former minister of energy, former vice-minister of foreign affairs
• Czesław Okińczyc (Lithuanian: Česlav Okinčic) – politician, journalist
• Artur Płokszto (Lithuanian: Artur Plokšto) – secretary of Ministry of National Defence
• Leokadia Poczykowska (Lithuanian: Leokadija Počikovska) – politician
• Ewelina Saszenko (Lithuanian: Evelina Sašenko) – singer
• Jan Sienkiewicz (Lithuanian: Jan Senkevič) –– politician, journalist
• Valdemar Tomaševski (Polish: Waldemar Tomaszewski) – leader of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance
• Stanisław Widtmann (Stanislavas Vidtmannas) – (as of 2011) vice-minister of culture in ethnic minorities affairs.
• Jarosław Wołkonowski – dean of branch of University of Białystok in Vilnius
• Alina Orłowska – singer (Lithuanian: Alina Orlova)
• Michał Mackiewicz – politician (Lithuanian: Michal Mackevič)
• Irena Litwinowicz – politician (Lithuanian: Irena Litvinovič)
• Zbigniew Balcewicz – politician (Lithuanian: Zbignev Balcevič)

See also

• Krajowcy
• Kresy
• Lithuanian minority in Poland
• Pochodnia, Polish cultural association in the interwar Lithuania
• Polish National Territorial Region

Bibliography

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• Januszewska-Jurkiewicz, Joanna (2010). Stosunki narodowościowe na Wileńszczyźnie w latach 1920–1939 [National Relations in the Vilnius Region in the Years 1920–1939]. Katowice.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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• Zinkevičius, Zigmas (2010-11-20). "Lietuviškos ir nelietuviškos pavardės". Gimtoji kalba (in Lithuanian). Vol. 9. pp. 7–11.
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• Zinkevičius, Zigmas (21 August 2018). "Suvalkų ir Augustavo krašto pavardės. Polonizacijos apybraiža (II)" [Surnames of Suvalkai and Augustavas region. Outline of Polonization (II)]. alkas.lt (in Lithuanian).

External links

• Vitalija Stravinskienė, Poles In Lithuania From The Second Half Of 1944 Until 1946: Choosing Between Staying Or Emigrating To Poland, The Lithuanian Institute of History, January 19, 2006
• Chronology for Poles in Lithuania
• The Polish language in education in Lithuania
• Discrimination in Lithuania
• Observance of Polish minority rights in Lithuania Report by «Wspólnota Polska», Union of Poles in Lithuania and the Association of Teachers of Polish Schools in Lithuania, 2009
• The Polish national minority in Lithuania : three reports later.
• Organizacje Polonii na Litwie (Organizations of Polonia in Lithuania) (in Polish)
• Polonia na świecie (Polonia worldwide) with section on Lithuania (in Polish)
• "Polacy na Litwie" (in Polish). Archived from the original on 2005-04-03. (Poles in Lithuania)
• Losy ludności polskiej na Litwie (Fate of Polish population in Lithuania) (in Polish)
• Jan Sienkiewicz, Przestrzeganie praw polskiej grupy etnicznej w Republice Litewskiej (Respecting the rights of the Polish minority in Lithuania) (in Polish)
• Polacy na Litwie w prawie (Lithuanian law on minorities) (in Polish)
• Srebrakowski A., Rozwój polskojęzycznej prasy na terenie Litwy po 1944 r. Archived 2019-04-01 at the Wayback Machine
• Srebrakowski A., Szkolnictwo polskojęzyczne na Litwie 1944–1991 Archived 2019-04-01 at the Wayback Machine
• Srebrakowski A., Polacy w Litewskiej SRR Archived 2020-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
• Srebrakowski A., Statystyczny obraz Polaków z Litwy.