Poles in Lithuania: Difference between revisions

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

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The Polish minority in Lithuania (Polish: Polacy na Litwie, Lithuanian: Lietuvos lenkai), estimated at 183,000 people, according to the Lithuanian census of 2021, or 6.5% of the total population of Lithuania, is the largest ethnic minority in the country and the second largest Polish diaspora group among the post-Soviet states after the one in Belarus.

The union between the two countries resulted in an influx of Poles into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the gradual Polonisation of its elite and upper classes. At the time of the collapse of the Commonwealth, almost all the nobility, clergy, and townspeople of Lithuania spoke Polish and adopted Polish culture. In the 19th century, the processes of Polonisation also affected the Lithuanian and Belarusian peasantry and led to the formation of a long strip of land with a predominantly Polish population, stretching to Daugavpils and including Vilnius. The rise of the Lithuanian national movement led to conflicts between both groups. After the rebirth of both states hostilities over the ownership of Vilnius and the surrounding region broke out in 1920, as a result, 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 became the object of persecution by the Soviets and the Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators. After the border changes as a result of World War II, a significant part of the Polish population, mainly the best-educated strata, was forced to leave the territory of the Lithuanian SSR. The disputes became politically moot after the Soviet Union exercised power over both countries after World War II. After Lithuania regained independence, Poles are the largest national minority, concentrated mainly in the Vilnius district municipality. Lithuania–Poland relations were tense over the Vilnius Region after Lithuanian independence in 1990.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

Statistics

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1897^[8]	260,000	—
1959^[9]	230,000	−11.5%
1979	247,000	+7.4%
1989	258,000	+4.5%
2001	235,000	−8.9%
2011^[10]	200,000	−14.9%
2021^[1]	183,000	−8.5%

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%).

Lithuanian municipalities with Polish minority exceeding 15% of the total population

Lithuanian municipalities with a Polish minority exceeding 15% of the total population (according to the 2011 census) are listed in the table below:

Poles in Lithuania according to the 2021 Lithuanian census^[1]
Municipality name	County	Total population	Number of Poles	Percentage
Vilnius city municipality	Vilnius	556,490	85,438	15.4%
Vilnius district municipality	Vilnius	96,295	45,020	46.8%
Šalčininkai district municipality	Vilnius	30,052	22,934	76.3%
Trakai district municipality	Vilnius	32,042	8,823	27.5%
Švenčionys district municipality	Vilnius	22,966	5,585	24.3%

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.^[11] The Polish regiolect spoken by Lithuanian Poles is classified under Polish of the North-Eastern Borderland.^[12] Most of Poles who live southwards of Vilnius speak a form of Belarusian vernacular called there "simple speech",^[13] that contains many substratical relics from Lithuanian and Polish.^[14]

Education

Absolute numbers with Polish language education at Lithuanian rural schools (1980)^[15]
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.^[15] 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.^[16] 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.^[17] Polish government was concerned in 2015 about the education in Polish.^[18]

History

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The first Poles appeared in Lithuania long before the Union of Krewo (1385).^[19] The early Polish population was composed among others of war captives (men, women, and children)^[19]^[20]^[a] brought from Mazovia, Kuyavia, Chełmno Land and other Polish territories. Their status as slaves and dispersion contributed to their relatively rapid assimilation.^[22] The Lithuanian slave raids into Poland continued until the second half of the 14th century.^[23]

The process of voluntary Polish migration began in the mid-13th century,^[22] nonetheless Poles did not start to migrate to Lithuania in more noticeable numbers until Christianization of the country.^[22]^[25] 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.^[19] By the end of the 15th century, several Polish families from Podlachia entered the governing elite^[b] of the Grand Duchy.^[26] In the 15th and 16th century, the population of Poles in Lithuania was not large, but they occupied prestigious places and enjoyed supremacy in terms of culture.^[25] With time Polish people became also part of the local landowning class.^[19]^[27]^[c] 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.^[29] Lithuanian nobles welcomed fugitive Polish peasants and settled them on uncultivated land.^[22]^[30] Polish peasants took also part in the colonization of the Neman river area.^[31]

In the 16th century, the largest concentrations of Poles in the GDL were located in Podlachia^[d] the border areas of Samogitia, Lithuania and Belarus, and the cities of Vilnius, Brest, Kaunas, Grodno, Kėdainiai, and Nyasvizh.^[38] Since the end of the 16th century, the influx of Poles to the Grand Duchy significantly increased.^[26]

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.^[25] During that period, the royal and grand ducal courts were nearly entirely Polish speaking.^[39] Under Sigismund August's rule most of the royal courtiers were Poles and the numbers of Poles in Lithuania were additionally augmented by the almost continuous (since the 1550s) presence of Polish military.^[40] 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.^[41] During the Commonwealth's period (1569–1795), much^[quantify] of the Lithuanian nobility was Polonized and joined the szlachta class. By the end of the 17th century, Polish became the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.^[42]^[43]^[44]

Many Poles worked in the Chancellery of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and in Jogaila's Latin Chancellery. Mikołaj Cebulka was appointed the senior secretary in Vytautas' Chancellery.^[19] Klemens from Moskorzew was the Starosta of Vilnius and a commander during the successful defence of the city in 1390, when it was besieged by Vytautas and Teutonic Knights.^[45] In the same year, Jaśko from Oleśnica became the general Starosta of Lithuania.^[46] Another Pole, Mikołaj Sapieński, participated in the Council of Constance as one of three leaders of the Samogitian delegation. 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 the Kingdom of Poland.^[19] There were also numerous Poles among the Jesuits residing in Lithuania, including such prominent figures like Piotr Skarga (1536–1612),^[35] the first rector of the University of Vilnius,^[47] Jakub Wujek (1541–1597), and Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595–1640).^[48] 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.^[35]

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 (ca. 1585 – ca. 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).^[49]

Between 1569 and 1795, part of the Grand Duchy's noble class was Polish. Polish szlachta resided in estates in Lithuanian provinces. According to Polish historians, thousands of Poles (particularly nobles from Masovia and Little Poland) migrated to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after the Union of Lublin. This population movement created a fertile ground for socio-cultural Polonization of the country.^[50] Poor nobles from the Crown rented land from local magnates.^[51] The number of Poles grew also in the towns, among others in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Grodno.^[50]

Cultural and linguistic Polonization resulted in the formation of the Polish speaking areas (such as north-east of Kaunas from the early 15th century). They were mostly inhabited by the high nobility, wealthy and minor Szlachta, affluent middle class, Catholic and Eastern Catholic clergy.^[50]

During the Commonwealth's period, a Polish-dominated territory started to be slowly formed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.^[22] According to Barbara Topolska, by the mid-17th century, Poles made up several percent of the total population in the Grand Duchy.^[26] Władysław Wielhorski estimated that by the end of the 18th century, Polish and Polonized people constituted 25% of the Grand Duchy's inhabitants.^[22] The Polish population grew through assimilation of locals and immigration from Poland,^[22]^[20] while part of it, mainly from lower strata, assimilated with Belarusians and Lithuanians.^[22]

Vilnius

The influx of Poles to Vilnius started in the late 14th century.^[52] 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.^[19] The city became the most important center of the Polish intelligentsia in the Grand Duchy.^[53] 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.^[54] Ethnic Poles made up around 50% of Vilnius' municipal officials during the Baroque period,^[55] and by the 17th century the city became culturally Polish.^[56] Poles predominated in Vilnius in the mid-17th century.^[57]

19th century

Until the early 1830s, Polish remained the administrative language in the former Commonwealth's lands incorporated into the Russian Empire.^[42] 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.^[58] In 1785, Wojciech Bogusławski, who is considered the "father" of Polish theatre, opened the first public theatre in Vilnius.^[59] The Polish-language university was re-established in the city in 1803 and closed in 1832.^[60]

After the 1863 uprising, public use of the Polish language, teaching Polish to peasants, and peasant possession of Polish books became punishable offences.^[61]^[62] In the aftermath of this unsuccessful revolt, the Polonized nobility from the former territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania founded several political and cultural organizations in the Russian Empire – all of them created with a view to a future in which the Belarusian and Lithuanian territories belonged to Poland.^[63] Regardless of their ethnic roots, the Commonwealth's nobles usually chose Polish self-identification in the course of the 19th century.^[64] Most descendants of the Lithuanian noble class opposed the modern Belarusian and Lithuanian national movements and fought for Poland in 1918–1920.^[63]

In the 19th century peasants of Polish nationality^{[clarification needed]} started to appear in Lithuania, mostly by Polonization of Lithuanian peasants^[65] in Dzūkija and to a lesser degree in Aukštaitija.

The position of Vilnius as a significant center of Polish culture influenced the development of national identities among Roman Catholic peasants in the region.^[66] 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.^[67] By the time the Polish–Lithuanian conflict erupted, Poles made up also almost all of the local aristocracy and richer landowners in Vilnius and its surroundings.^[68]

Polish-Lithuanian War

From 1918 to 1921 there were several conflicts, such as the activity of the Polish Military Organisation, Sejny uprising (that was met with massive outrage in Lithuania^[69]) and a foiled attempt at a Polish coup of the Lithuanian government.^[70]^[71] From the documents stolen from Polish Military Organization headquarters safe in Vilnius and given to Prime Minister of Lithuania Augustinas Voldemaras, it is clear that this plot was directed by Józef Piłsudski himself.^[72] The Polish-Lithuanian War and Żeligowski's Mutiny contributed to a worsening of Polish-Lithuanian relations; increasingly Polish-speaking people were viewed with suspicion in Lithuania. 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.^[73]

Interbellum

Both governments – in the era nationalism swept through Europe – treated their respective minorities harshly during the interwar period.

In the Republic of Lithuania

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.^[74] 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).^[75] Although according to Polish Election Committee in fact the number of Poles was much higher, about 10% of total population, this number was based on election results.^[76] Many Poles in Lithuania were signed in as Lithuanians in their passports, and as a result, they also were forced to attend Lithuanian schools. While the number of Polish-language schools in Lithuania increased from 20 to 30 from 1920 to 1923,^[77] and to 78 in 1926,^[78] they decreased to 9 by 1940.^[77] After the establishment of Valdemaras regime in 1926, 58^[78] Polish schools were closed, many Poles were incarcerated, and Polish newspapers were placed under strict censorship.^[79]

In the Republic of Central Lithuania, later that of the Second Polish Republic

A large portion of the Vilnius area was part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period,^[e] 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.^[82]

The Polish government, on the other hand, increased the Polish presence in the Vilnius region. Lithuanian cultural activities in Polish controlled territories were curtailed and closure of Lithuanian newspapers and the arrest of their editors occurred (particularly in the period 1920–1922).^[83] In 1927, as tensions between Lithuania and Poland increased, 48 Lithuanian schools were closed and another 11 Lithuanian activists were deported.^[84] Following Piłsudski's death in 1935, the Lithuanian minority in Poland again became an object of Polonization policies with greater intensity. 266 Lithuanian schools were closed after 1936 and almost all Lithuanian organizations were banned. Further Polonization ensued as the government encouraged settlement of Polish army veterans in the disputed regions.^[85]

After World War II

Polish population in 1959 (≥ 20%)^[86]
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.^[87]^[88]

Ethnic Poles made up from 80%^[89] to over 91% of Vilnius population in 1944.^[90] Every Pole in the city was forced to register for resettlement, and about 80% of Vilnius Poles left for Poland.^[91] 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.^[92]

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 ban any teaching in Polish; those attempts, however, were vetoed by Moscow, which saw them as too nationalistic.^[93] The Soviet census of 1959 showed 230,100 Poles concentrated in the Vilnius region (8.5% of the Lithuanian SSR's population).^[94] 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).^[94] The Polish minority, subject in the past to massive, often voluntary^[95] Russification and Sovietization, and recently to voluntary processes of Lithuanization, shows many and increasing signs of assimilation with Lithuanians.^[94]

In independent Lithuania

Grey: Areas with majority Polish population in modern Lithuania. Red: 1920-1939 Polish-Lithuanian border

The situation of the Polish minority in Lithuania has caused occasional tensions in Polish-Lithuanian relations during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. When Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sought help from the Polish minority.^[96]^[97] The Polish minority, still remembering the 1950s attempts to ban Polish,^[93] was much more supportive of the Soviet Union and afraid that the new Lithuanian government might want to reintroduce the Lithuanization policies.^[93] A pro-Moscow anti-independence movement similar to Internationalist movements in Latvia and Estonia was formed in 1989, called the Unity. The organization was supported by many Poles of Lithuania, making it perhaps more popular with the Polish minority than with the Russophone minority of Lithuania.^[98] This might have surprised the Poles of Warsaw, then seeking a de-communization in Poland and declaring the question of the Polish minority in Lithuania an internal matter of Lithuania. The pro-Moscow stance of some leading Poles of Lithuania compromised at times the activities of more Lithuania-friendly Poles. At the election to the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies, two Poles (one of them Jan Ciechanowicz) were elected to that body, both pro-Moscow.

According to surveys conducted in 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.^[93] The regional authorities in Vilnius and Šalčininkai region, under Polish leadership, with support from Soviet authorities, argued for the establishment of an autonomous region in South Eastern Lithuania, a request that was declined by the Lithuanian government and left lasting resentment among some residents.^[97]^[99] The same Polish regional leaders later voiced support for the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 in Moscow.^[99] The Government of Poland, however, never supported the autonomist tendencies of the Polish minority in Lithuania.

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.^[100] 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).^[101] In 2006 Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Meller asserted that Polish educational institutions in Lithuania are severely underfunded.^[102] Similar concerns were voiced in 2007 by a Polish parliamentary commission.^[103] 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.^[104] 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.^[105] The citizenship law was under discussion during 2007; it was deemed unconstitutional on 13 November 2006.^[106] A proposed constitutional amendment would allow the Polish minority in Lithuania to apply for Polish passports.^[107] 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.^[108]

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.^[109]^[110]^[111]^[112] Poles who registered for Lithuanian citizenship after the fall of the Soviet Union were forced to accept official documents with Lithuanian versions of their names.^[113] 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.^[114]^[115]

Representatives of the Lithuanian government demanded removal of Polish names of the streets in Maišiagala (Mejszagoła), Raudondvaris (Czerwony Dwór), Riešė (Rzesza) and Sudervė (Suderwa)^[116]^[117] 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.^[118]^[119]^[120] The Seimas voted against foreign surnames in Lithuanian passports.^[121]

The situation is further escalated by extremist^[why?] groups on both sides. Lithuanian extremist^{[neutrality is disputed]} nationalist organization Vilnija^[97]^[122]^[123]^[124] seeks the Lithuanization^{[further explanation needed]}^[how?] of Poles living in the Eastern part of Lithuania.^[93] The former Polish Ambassador to Lithuania, Jan Widacki, has criticised some Polish organizations in Lithuania as being far-right and nationalist.^[125] Jan Sienkiewicz has criticized Jan Widacki.^[126]

In late May 2008, the Association of Poles in Lithuania issued a letter, addressed to the government of Lithuania, 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.^[127]^[128]^[129]

Lithuania has not ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.^[130] 60,000 Poles have signed a petition against an education system reform. A school strike was declared and suspended.^[131]

The Law on Ethnic Minorities lapsed in 2010.^[132]

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.^[133] Lucyna Kotłowska was fined €1,700 for the same offense.^[134]

Discrimination

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.^[135] Polish Election Action in Lithuania claimed that the education legislation is discriminatory.^[136] In 2011, former Polish President Lech Wałęsa criticized the government of Lithuania over its alleged discrimination against the Polish minority.^[137]

As of 2018^[update] Lithuania continued to enforce the Lithuanized^{[clarification needed]} spelling of surnames of Poles in Lithuania, with some exceptions, in spite of the 1994 Polish-Lithuanian agreement,^[138] 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.^[136] The removal of illegally-placed Polish or bilingual street signs was enforced, however, some viewed this as discrimination.^[139]^[140]

Culture

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} The suffixes -e/owski, -(ń)ski, and -cki are historically characteristic of Polish names and -e/ovič of Belarusian names.^{[citation needed]} Surnames ending with -e/ovič, which is more frequent among Lithuanians (-e/-avičius), Belarusians, and Lithuanian Poles, is rarer in Poland.^{[citation needed]}

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:^[141]

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".^[142]

Organizations

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.^[143] 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.^[144]

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.^[145]^[146]
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)

Notes

^ M. B. Topolska estimates their number at twelve or so thousand in 1201–1382. Numbers as high as 100–170 thousand are also mentioned in historiography.^[21]
^ Which consisted of around 100 families in total^[26]
^ Even though it was either prohibited^[19] or legally restricted.^[27] In the 16th century, Samogitian nobles complained to the Grand Duke of Lithuania about granting land and positions to outsiders, Poles and others. According to Rita Regina Trimonienė, of the 350 foreign nobles who settled in Samogitia (for a shorter or longer period) in the second half of the 16th century and in the first half of the 17th century, 80% were Poles. They established themselves as part of the local economic and political elite.^[28]
^ Podlachia was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between the late 13th century and 1569.^[32]^[33] The region had been long settled by Mazovian Poles^[34] and was governed according to the Polish law since 1513.^[35] In the mid-16th century, the Polish element became predominant among the Podlachian gentry, which led to demands from the local deputies for the complete union of their constituencies with Poland.^[36]^[34] Podlachian towns were also gradually dominated by the Poles.^[35] The total number of Poles in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania decreased with the loss of Podlachia and lands in Ukraine.^[37]
^ In 1923, the Council of Ambassadors and the international community (with the exception of Lithuania) recognized Vilnius and the surrounding area as part of Poland.^[80]^[81]

References

Footnotes

^ ^a ^b ^c "Rodiklių duomenų bazė - Oficialiosios statistikos portalas".
^ "Population by religious community to which they attributed themselves and ethnicity". Department of Statistics (Lithuania). Retrieved 2015-11-10.
^ Evaldas Nekrasas. "Is Lithuania a Northern or Central European Country?" (PDF). Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-25. Retrieved 2008-03-30. In a letter written to Vytautas Landsbergis in December of 1991, Polish President Lech Walesa described Lithuanian-Polish relations as "close to critical."
^ Antanas Valionis; Evaldas Ignatavièius; Izolda Brièkovskienë. "From Solidarity to Partnership: Lithuanian-Polish Relations 1988–1998" (PDF). Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review, 1998, issue 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 25, 2009. Retrieved 2008-03-29. The interval between the restoration of diplomatic relations in September 1991 and the signing of the Treaty on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborly Cooperation on April 26, 1994 was probably the most difficult period for Lithuanian-Polish relations (there were even assertions that relations in this period were "in some ways even worse than before the war").
^ Stephen R. Burant and Voytek Zubek, Eastern Europe's Old Memories and New Realities: Resurrecting the Polish–Lithuanian Union, East European Politics and Societies 1993; 7; 370, online (BEHIND A PAYWALL)
^ Sanford 1999, p. 99.
^ Lane 2001, p. 209.
^ Atlas of Lithuanian SSR, Moscow, 1981 (in Russian), p.129
^ Data from Statistikos Departamentas Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2009-08-09
^ Lithuanian 2011 Population Census in Brief. Lietuvos statistikos departamentas. 2012. p. 20. ISBN 978-9955-797-16-6. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
^ Population by ethnicity and mother tongue Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine. Data from Statistikos Departamentas, 2001 Population and Housing Census.
^ Grek-Pabisowa, Iryda; Biesiadowska-Magdziarz, Beata; Jankowiak, Mirosław; Ostrówka, Małgorzata (2014). "Czym jest i co zawiera Słownik mówionej polszczyzny północnokresowej (What is "A Dictionary of oral Polish language of the north-eastern borderland" and what does it include?)". Studia z Filologii Polskiej i Słowiańskiej (in Polish). 49 (49). Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences: 278–298, 301. doi:10.11649/sfps.2014.024. ISSN 2392-2435.
^ Jankowiak: Polacy na Wileńszczyźnie mówią gwarą białoruską (Mirosław Jankowiak (linguist, specialist in Polish and Belarussian): Poles in Vilnius region do speak Belarusian dialect)
^ Valerijus Čekmonas, Laima Grumadaitė Kalbų paplitimas rytų Lietuvoje (The distribution of the languages in the east of Lithuania) in Lietuvos rytai; straipsnių rinkinys (The east of Lithuania; the collection of the articles) Vilnius 1993; p. 132; ISBN 9986-09-002-4
^ ^a ^b "Атлас Литовской ССР" 1981, Государственный плановый комитет Литовской ССР. Министерство высшего и среднего специального образования Литовской ССР. Главное управление геодезии и картографии при Совете Министров СССР. Москва 1981.
^ Mercator - Education information, documentation, research. The Polish language education in Lithuania see: graph on p.16 (PDF file, 2.2 MB) Accessed 2008-01-14.
^ Arvydas Matulionis et al.The Polish Minority in Lithuania Archived 2014-03-09 at the Wayback Machine. ENRI-East Research Report #8. 2011. p. 18.
^ "The meeting of deputy ministers of education – Poland–Lithuania". www.msz.gov.pl.
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^ ^a ^b Błaszczyk, Grzegorz (1992). Litwa współczesna. PWN. p. 317. ISBN 8301106670.
^ Topolska, Maria Barbara (2002). Społeczeństwo i kultura w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim od XV do XVIII wieku. Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe. p. 30. ISBN 83-89290-07-3.
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^ Błaszczyk, Grzegorz (2007). Dzieje Stosunków Polsko-Litewskich. Vol. II. Od Krewa do Lublina. Part I. Wydawnictwo Poznańskie. pp. 139, 148–149. ISBN 9788371775697.
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^ Davies, Norman (2005). God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795 Revised Edition. Oxford University Press. p. 29. ISBN 0-199253390. Wilno was culturally Polish by the seventeenth century; all the smaller towns contained a strong Jewish element.
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External links

POLES IN LITHUANIA FROM THE SECOND HALF OF 1944 UNTIL 1946: CHOOSING BETWEEN STAYING OR EMIGRATING TO POLAND by VITALIJA STRAVINSKIENĖ, 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
A. Srebrakowski, 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.

[22] M. B. Topolska estimates their number at twelve or so thousand in 1201–1382. Numbers as high as 100–170 thousand are also mentioned in historiography.^[21]

[28] Which consisted of around 100 families in total^[26]

[31] Even though it was either prohibited^[19] or legally restricted.^[27] In the 16th century, Samogitian nobles complained to the Grand Duke of Lithuania about granting land and positions to outsiders, Poles and others. According to Rita Regina Trimonienė, of the 350 foreign nobles who settled in Samogitia (for a shorter or longer period) in the second half of the 16th century and in the first half of the 17th century, 80% were Poles. They established themselves as part of the local economic and political elite.^[28]

[41] Podlachia was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between the late 13th century and 1569.^[32]^[33] The region had been long settled by Mazovian Poles^[34] and was governed according to the Polish law since 1513.^[35] In the mid-16th century, the Polish element became predominant among the Podlachian gentry, which led to demands from the local deputies for the complete union of their constituencies with Poland.^[36]^[34] Podlachian towns were also gradually dominated by the Poles.^[35] The total number of Poles in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania decreased with the loss of Podlachia and lands in Ukraine.^[37]

[86] In 1923, the Council of Ambassadors and the international community (with the exception of Lithuania) recognized Vilnius and the surrounding area as part of Poland.^[80]^[81]

[osp.stat.gov.lt-1] "Rodiklių duomenų bazė - Oficialiosios statistikos portalas".

[2] "Population by religious community to which they attributed themselves and ethnicity". Department of Statistics (Lithuania). Retrieved 2015-11-10.

[3] Evaldas Nekrasas. "Is Lithuania a Northern or Central European Country?" (PDF). Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-25. Retrieved 2008-03-30. In a letter written to Vytautas Landsbergis in December of 1991, Polish President Lech Walesa described Lithuanian-Polish relations as "close to critical."

[4] Antanas Valionis; Evaldas Ignatavièius; Izolda Brièkovskienë. "From Solidarity to Partnership: Lithuanian-Polish Relations 1988–1998" (PDF). Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review, 1998, issue 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 25, 2009. Retrieved 2008-03-29. The interval between the restoration of diplomatic relations in September 1991 and the signing of the Treaty on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborly Cooperation on April 26, 1994 was probably the most difficult period for Lithuanian-Polish relations (there were even assertions that relations in this period were "in some ways even worse than before the war").

[burzub-5] Stephen R. Burant and Voytek Zubek, Eastern Europe's Old Memories and New Realities: Resurrecting the Polish–Lithuanian Union, East European Politics and Societies 1993; 7; 370, online (BEHIND A PAYWALL)

[FOOTNOTESanford199999-6] Sanford 1999, p. 99.

[FOOTNOTELane2001209-7] Lane 2001, p. 209.

[Atlas-8] Atlas of Lithuanian SSR, Moscow, 1981 (in Russian), p.129

[GUS_Litwy-9] Data from Statistikos Departamentas Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2009-08-09

[2011census-10] Lithuanian 2011 Population Census in Brief. Lietuvos statistikos departamentas. 2012. p. 20. ISBN 978-9955-797-16-6. Retrieved 5 August 2018.

[Lithuanian_census-mt-11] Population by ethnicity and mother tongue Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine. Data from Statistikos Departamentas, 2001 Population and Housing Census.

[12] Grek-Pabisowa, Iryda; Biesiadowska-Magdziarz, Beata; Jankowiak, Mirosław; Ostrówka, Małgorzata (2014). "Czym jest i co zawiera Słownik mówionej polszczyzny północnokresowej (What is "A Dictionary of oral Polish language of the north-eastern borderland" and what does it include?)". Studia z Filologii Polskiej i Słowiańskiej (in Polish). 49 (49). Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences: 278–298, 301. doi:10.11649/sfps.2014.024. ISSN 2392-2435.

[13] Jankowiak: Polacy na Wileńszczyźnie mówią gwarą białoruską (Mirosław Jankowiak (linguist, specialist in Polish and Belarussian): Poles in Vilnius region do speak Belarusian dialect)

[VCLG-14] Valerijus Čekmonas, Laima Grumadaitė Kalbų paplitimas rytų Lietuvoje (The distribution of the languages in the east of Lithuania) in Lietuvos rytai; straipsnių rinkinys (The east of Lithuania; the collection of the articles) Vilnius 1993; p. 132; ISBN 9986-09-002-4

[1981_atlas-15] "Атлас Литовской ССР" 1981, Государственный плановый комитет Литовской ССР. Министерство высшего и среднего специального образования Литовской ССР. Главное управление геодезии и картографии при Совете Министров СССР. Москва 1981.

[Mercator-16] Mercator - Education information, documentation, research. The Polish language education in Lithuania see: graph on p.16 (PDF file, 2.2 MB) Accessed 2008-01-14.

[17] Arvydas Matulionis et al.The Polish Minority in Lithuania Archived 2014-03-09 at the Wayback Machine. ENRI-East Research Report #8. 2011. p. 18.

[18] "The meeting of deputy ministers of education – Poland–Lithuania". www.msz.gov.pl.

[Potasenko-19] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Potašenko, Grigorijus (2008). Multinational Lithuania: History of Ethnic Minorities. Šviesa. pp. 23–25. ISBN 978-5430052508.

[Błaszczyk-20] Błaszczyk, Grzegorz (1992). Litwa współczesna. PWN. p. 317. ISBN 8301106670.

[21] Topolska, Maria Barbara (2002). Społeczeństwo i kultura w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim od XV do XVIII wieku. Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe. p. 30. ISBN 83-89290-07-3.

[Srebrakowski-23] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Srebrakowski, Aleksander (2001). Polacy w Litewskiej SSR (in Polish). Adam Marszałek. pp. 23–25. ISBN 83-7174-857-4.

[24] Rowell, S. C. (1994). Lithuania Ascending: A Pagan Empire Within East-Central Europe, 1295-1345. Cambridge University Press. pp. 202–203, 74. ISBN 0-521-45011-X.

[25] Butterwick, Richard; Pawlikowska, Wioletta, eds. (2019). Social and Cultural Relations in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Microhistories. Routledge. p. 25. ISBN 9781032093055.

[Gudavicius-26] Gudavičius, Edvardas (1997). "Lithuania's Road to Europe". Lithuanian Historical Studies. 2 (1): 20–21, 25. doi:10.30965/25386565-00201002. ISSN 2538-6565.

[FOOTNOTETopolska1987149-27] Topolska 1987, p. 149.

[Liedke-29] Liedke, Marzena (2007). "Szlacheckie rody z Korony w działaniach na rzecz ewangelicko-reformowanej Jednoty Litewskiej w XVII wieku". In Łopatecki, Karol; Walczak, Wojciech (eds.). Nad społeczeństwem staropolskim: Kultura, instytucje, gospodarka w XVI-XVIII stuleciu (in Polish). Osrodek Badan Europy. pp. 389–390. ISBN 9788392577201.

[30] Saviščevas, Eugenijus (2014). "Influx of the "outside" nobility into Samogitia in the 16th century" (PDF). Zapiski Historyczne. 79 (4). Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu: 539–541, 544. ISSN 0044-1791.

[32] Drungilas, Jonas (2018). "Doctoral dissertation summary". Integration of the Polish nobility in Samogitia: migration, language, memory, 16th-18th centuries (PhD). Vilnius University. Lithuanian Institute of History. pp. 8–9. Retrieved 5 August 2021.

[33] Topolska, Maria Barbara (1987). "Polacy w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim w XVI–XVIII w. (Przyczynek do dziejów polskiej emigracji na wschód w okresie staropolskim)". Lituano-Slavica Posnaniensia: Studia historica (in Polish). 2. Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań: 148. ISSN 0860-0066.

[FOOTNOTETopolska1987148,_150-34] Topolska 1987, pp. 148, 150.

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[39] Harry E. Dembkowski (1982). The Union of Lublin, Polish Federalism in the Golden Age. East European Monographs. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-88033-009-1.

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[FOOTNOTETopolska1987160-42] Topolska 1987, p. 160.

[43] Davies, Norman (2012). Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations. Viking Penguin. p. 261. ISBN 9780143122951.

[44] Frost, Robert I. (2015). The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania: Volume I: The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569. Oxford University Press. p. 451. ISBN 9780198208693.

[FOOTNOTETopolska2002192-45] Topolska 2002, p. 192.

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[49] Błaszczyk, Grzegorz (2007). Dzieje Stosunków Polsko-Litewskich. Vol. II. Od Krewa do Lublina. Part I. Wydawnictwo Poznańskie. pp. 139, 148–149. ISBN 9788371775697.

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[51] R. Rieber, Alfred (2014). The Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands. Cambridge University Press. p. 158. ISBN 9781107337794.

[FOOTNOTEPotašenko200876-52] Potašenko 2008, p. 76.

[FOOTNOTEPotašenko200874-53] Potašenko 2008, p. 74.

[FOOTNOTEPotašenko200873-54] Potašenko 2008, p. 73.

[55] Sikorska-Kulesza, Joanna (1995). Deklasacja drobnej szlachty na Litwie i Białorusi w XIX wieku (PDF). Oficyna Wydawnicza "Ajaks". pp. 10–11. ISBN 83-85621-37-7.

[56] Sužiedėlis, Saulius (2011). Historical Dictionary of Lithuania (2nd ed.). Scarecrow Press. p. 317. ISBN 978-0810849143.

[FOOTNOTETopolska1987155-57] Topolska 1987, p. 155.

[FOOTNOTETopolska1987158-58] Topolska 1987, p. 158.

[59] Briedis, Laimonas (2009). Vilnius: City of Strangers. Central European University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-9639776449.

[60] Davies, Norman (2005). God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795 Revised Edition. Oxford University Press. p. 29. ISBN 0-199253390. Wilno was culturally Polish by the seventeenth century; all the smaller towns contained a strong Jewish element.

[61] Weeks, Theodore R. (2015). Vilnius between Nations, 1795–2000. Northern Illinois University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0875807300. Vilnius in the mid-17th century was an impressive and wealthy city […] While Poles and Roman Catholicism predominated, Vilnius diverse religious and ethno-linguistic groups managed to live together in the fairly tight urban space.

[62] Weeks, Theodore. R (2013). "Jews and others in Vilna-Wilno-Vilnius: Invisible neighbors, 1831-1948". In Bartov, Omer; Weitz, Eric D. (eds.). Shatterzone of Empires: Coexistence and Violence in the German, Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman Borderlands. Indiana University Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0253006356.

[FOOTNOTEPotašenko200877-63] Potašenko 2008, p. 77.

[64] Andreas, Kasekamp (2018). A History of the Baltic States. Palgrave. pp. 62, 66. ISBN 9781137573643.

[65] Miller, Alekseĭ I. (2008). "Identity and loyalty in the language policy of the Romanov Empire at her Western Borderland". Romanov Empire and Nationalism: Essays in the Methodology of Historical Research. Central European University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-9639776197.

[66] Borzecki, Jerzy (2008). The Soviet-Polish Peace of 1921 and the Creation of Interwar Europe. Yale University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0300121216.

[Kotljarchuk-67] Kotljarchuk, Andrej (2006). In the shadows of Poland and Russia The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden in the European crisis of the mid-17th century. Södertörn University. p. 283. ISBN 91-89315-63-4. The enormous class of former Lithuanian nobles transformed themselves into Poles, culturally and politically.

[68] Friedrich, Karin; Pendzich, Barbara, eds. (2009). Citizenship and Identity in a Multinational Commonwealth. Poland–Lithuania in Context, 1550–1772. Brill. p. 275. ISBN 9789004169838.

[69] Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia Vol. 11. 2007.

[70] Eberhardt, Piotr (1996). Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis. M.E. Sharpe. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-7656-1833-7.

[FOOTNOTEEberhardt199627-71] Eberhardt 1996, p. 27.

[72] Iršėnas, Marius; Račiūnaitė, Tojana, eds. (2015). The Lithuanian Millennium: History, Art and Culture. Vilnius Academy of Arts Press. p. 539. ISBN 9786094470974.

[KA-73] Editors: Gintautas Surgailis; Algirdas Ažubalis; Grzegorz Blaszyk; Pranas Jankauskas; Eriks Jekabsons; Waldemar Rezmer; et al. (2003). "Karo archyvas XVIII". Karo Archyvas (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija: 188–189. ISSN 1392-6489. {{cite journal}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[74] Juozas, Rainys (1936). P.O.W. : (Polska Organizacja Wojskowa) Lietuvoje. Kaunas: Spaudos fondas. p. 184.

[75] Julius, Būtėnas; Mečys Mackevičius (1995). Mykolas Sleževičius: advokatas ir politikas. Vilnius: Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla. p. 263. ISBN 9986-413-31-1.

[LKA-76] Lesčius, Vytautas (2004). Lietuvos kariuomenė nepriklausomybės kovose 1918-1920. Vilnius: Vilnius University, Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija. p. 269. ISBN 9955-423-23-4.

[MacQueen_context-77] MacQueen, Michael (1998). "The Context of Mass Destruction: Agents and Prerequisites of the Holocaust in Lithuania". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 12 (1): 22–48. doi:10.1093/hgs/12.1.27. The irredentist campaign tainted Lithuanian society with currents of hatred and revenge directed against the Poles. In fact, the largest social organization in interwar Lithuania was the League for the Liberation of Vilnius (Vilniaus Vadavimo Safunga, or WS), which trumpeted the irredentist line in its magazine "Our Vilnius" (Mūsų Vilnius).

[78] Fearon, James D.; Laitin, David D. (2006). "Lithuania" (PDF). Stanford University. p. 4. Retrieved 2008-06-02. Lithuanian nationalists resented demands by Poles for greater cultural autonomy (similar to that granted to the Jewish minority), holding that most of Lithuania's Poles were really deracinated Lithuanians who merely needed to be re-Lithuanianized. Resentments were exacerbated when Lithuanian Poles expressed a desire to "re-unite" the country with Poland. As a result, the nationalizing Lithuanian state took measures to confiscate Polish-owned land. It also restricted Polish religious services, schools, Polish publications, Polish voting rights. Poles were often referred to in the press in this period as the "lice of the nation"

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[84] Gross, Jan. T. (2002). Evolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia. Princeton University Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0691096032.

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[93] Stravinskienė, Vitalija (2004). "Poles In Lithuania From The Second Half Of 1944 Until 1946: Choosing Between Staying Or Emigrating To Poland (English Summary)". Lietuvos istorijos metraštis. 2. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2008-06-02.

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 }}
-The '''Polish minority in Lithuania''' ({{lang-pl|Polacy na Litwie}}, {{lang-lt|Lietuvos lenkai}}), estimated at 183,000 people, according to the Lithuanian census of 2021, or 6.5% of the total population of [[Lithuania]], is the largest [[minority group|ethnic minority]] in the country and the second largest [[Polish diaspora]] group among the [[post-Soviet states]] after [[Poles in Belarus|the one in Belarus]]. According to Polish{{Sfn|Turska|1930|pp=219-225}} and Lithuanian research,{{Sfn|Lipscomb|Committee for a Free Lithuania|1958|p=A4962}}{{Sfn|Budreckis|1967}}{{Sfn|Šapoka|2013|p=216}}{{Sfn|Zinkevičius|2014}} they are mostly [[Slavicisation|Slavicized]] [[Lithuanians]], although the American political scientist [[Walter Clemens]] mentions a [[Belarusians|Belarusian]] origin.{{Sfn|Clemens|1991|p=150|ps=; In reality, many Poles in Lithuania were the offspring of Polonized Lithuanians or Belarussians}}
+The '''Polish minority in Lithuania''' ({{lang-pl|Polacy na Litwie}}, {{lang-lt|Lietuvos lenkai}}), estimated at 183,000 people, according to the Lithuanian census of 2021, or 6.5% of the total population of [[Lithuania]], is the largest [[minority group|ethnic minority]] in the country and the second largest [[Polish diaspora]] group among the [[post-Soviet states]] after [[Poles in Belarus|the one in Belarus]].
+The union between the two countries resulted in an influx of Poles into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the gradual Polonisation of its elite and upper classes. At the time of the collapse of the Commonwealth, almost all the nobility, clergy, and townspeople of Lithuania spoke Polish and adopted Polish culture. In the 19th century, the processes of Polonisation also affected the Lithuanian and Belarusian peasantry and led to the formation of a long strip of land with a predominantly Polish population, stretching to [[Daugavpils]] and including Vilnius. The rise of the Lithuanian national movement led to conflicts between both groups. After the rebirth of both states [[Polish–Lithuanian War|hostilities]] over the ownership of [[Vilnius]] and the surrounding region broke out in 1920, as a result, 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 became the object of persecution by the Soviets and the Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators. After the border changes as a result of World War II, a significant part of the Polish population, mainly the best-educated strata, was forced to leave the territory of the [[Lithuanian SSR]]. The disputes became politically moot after the [[Soviet Union]] exercised power over both countries after [[World War II]]. After Lithuania regained independence, Poles are the largest national minority, concentrated mainly in the Vilnius district municipality. [[Lithuania–Poland relations]] were tense over the [[Vilnius Region]] after Lithuanian independence in 1990.<ref>{{cite web|author=Evaldas Nekrasas|title=Is Lithuania a Northern or Central European Country?|publisher=Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review|url=http://www.lfpr.lt/uploads/File/1998-1/Nekrasas.pdf|quote=In a letter written to Vytautas Landsbergis in December of 1991, Polish President Lech Walesa described Lithuanian-Polish relations as "close to critical."|page=5|access-date=2008-03-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225173300/http://www.lfpr.lt/uploads/File/1998-1/Nekrasas.pdf|archive-date=2009-02-25|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author1=Antanas Valionis|author2=Evaldas Ignatavièius|author3=Izolda Brièkovskienë|title=From Solidarity to Partnership: Lithuanian-Polish Relations 1988–1998|publisher=Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review, 1998, issue 2|url=http://www.lfpr.lt/uploads/File/1998-2/Valionis.pdf|quote=The interval between the restoration of diplomatic relations in September 1991 and the signing of the Treaty on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborly Cooperation on April 26, 1994 was probably the most difficult period for Lithuanian-Polish relations (there were even assertions that relations in this period were "in some ways even worse than before the war").|access-date=2008-03-29|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225173256/http://www.lfpr.lt/uploads/File/1998-2/Valionis.pdf|archive-date=February 25, 2009}}</ref><ref name="burzub">Stephen R. Burant and Voytek Zubek, ''Eastern Europe's Old Memories and New Realities: Resurrecting the Polish–Lithuanian Union'', East European Politics and Societies 1993; 7; 370, [http://eep.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/7/2/370.pdf online] (BEHIND A PAYWALL)</ref>{{Sfn|Sanford|1999|p=99}}{{Sfn|Lane|2001|p=209}}
-During the [[Polish–Lithuanian union]], Poles entered the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] and there was a gradual [[Polonization]] of the Lithuanian elite and upper classes. Regardless, the Polish and Lithuanian identities were separate throughout the period, regardless of cultural Polonization.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Stone |first=Daniel Z. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AxETCgAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover |title=The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386-1795 |date=2014-07-01 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-295-80362-3 |pages=63 |language=}}</ref> Even in the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]], which united both [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Poland]] and Lithuania, the [[Statutes of Lithuania#Third Statute|Third Lithuanian Statute]] did not even mention the union.<ref name=":0" /> In addition, from 1588 until 1840, the [[Lithuanian Statutes]] forbade [[Polish nobility]] from purchasing [[Manor house|manors]] in Lithuanian territory.{{Sfn|Budreckis|1967}} At the time of the Commonwealth's collapse in 1795, almost all the nobility, clergy, and townspeople of Lithuania spoke Polish and adopted [[Polish Culture|Polish culture]].
-In the 19th century, the Lithuanian and Belarusian peasantry were affected by Polonization, leading to the existence of an area stretching to [[Daugavpils]] and including Vilnius with many Polish-language speakers. During that century, there was the [[Lithuanian National Revival]], which viewed Polonization as a threat to Lithuanian identity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eberhardt |first=Piotr |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLfX1q3kJzgC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover |title=Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-Century Central-Eastern Europe |last2=Owsinski |first2=Jan |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-1833-7 |pages=25 |language= |author-link=Piotr Eberhardt}}</ref> There was tension in the region, and following [[World War I]] and the rebirth of both states, there was the [[Polish–Lithuanian War]], which involved [[Vilnius]] and the [[Vilnius Region|region]] surrounding it. Since 1920, Vilnius and its region, with its complex [[Demographic history of the Vilnius region|demographic history]], was within the Polish [[puppet state]] of [[Republic of Central Lithuania|Central Lithuania]] and later the [[Second Polish Republic]]. So, many Lithuanians lived in interwar Poland while Lithuania had a large minority of Polish-language speakers.
-During [[World War II]], the Polish population became the object of persecution by the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Nazi Germany]] and their collaborators. After the border changes resulting from World War II, a significant part of the Polish population, mainly the best-educated, was forced to [[Polish population transfers (1944–1946)|leave]] the [[Lithuanian SSR]]. The disputes became politically moot after the Soviet Union exercised power over both countries after World War II. After Lithuania regained independence, Poles are the largest national minority, concentrated mainly in the Vilnius district municipality. [[Lithuania–Poland relations]] were tense over the Vilnius Region after Lithuanian independence in 1990.<ref>{{cite web|author=Evaldas Nekrasas|title=Is Lithuania a Northern or Central European Country?|publisher=Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review|url=http://www.lfpr.lt/uploads/File/1998-1/Nekrasas.pdf|quote=In a letter written to Vytautas Landsbergis in December of 1991, Polish President Lech Walesa described Lithuanian-Polish relations as "close to critical."|page=5|access-date=2008-03-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225173300/http://www.lfpr.lt/uploads/File/1998-1/Nekrasas.pdf|archive-date=2009-02-25|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author1=Antanas Valionis|author2=Evaldas Ignatavièius|author3=Izolda Brièkovskienë|title=From Solidarity to Partnership: Lithuanian-Polish Relations 1988–1998|publisher=Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review, 1998, issue 2|url=http://www.lfpr.lt/uploads/File/1998-2/Valionis.pdf|quote=The interval between the restoration of diplomatic relations in September 1991 and the signing of the Treaty on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborly Cooperation on April 26, 1994 was probably the most difficult period for Lithuanian-Polish relations (there were even assertions that relations in this period were "in some ways even worse than before the war").|access-date=2008-03-29|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225173256/http://www.lfpr.lt/uploads/File/1998-2/Valionis.pdf|archive-date=February 25, 2009}}</ref><ref name="burzub">Stephen R. Burant and Voytek Zubek, ''Eastern Europe's Old Memories and New Realities: Resurrecting the Polish–Lithuanian Union'', East European Politics and Societies 1993; 7; 370, [http://eep.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/7/2/370.pdf online] (BEHIND A PAYWALL)</ref>{{Sfn|Sanford|1999|p=99}}{{Sfn|Lane|2001|p=209}}
 ==Statistics==
@@ Line 79: / Line 75: @@
 ===Languages===
-Out of the 234,989 Poles in Lithuania, 187,918 (80.0%) consider [[Polish language|Polish]] to be their [[first language]]. 22,439 Poles (9.5%) speak [[Russian language|Russian]] as their first language, while 17,233 (7.3%) speak [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]. 6,279 Poles (2.7%) did not indicate their first language. The remaining 0.5% speak various other languages.<ref name="Lithuanian census-mt">[http://www.stat.gov.lt/en/pages/view/?id=1763 Population by ethnicity and mother tongue] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929124541/http://www.stat.gov.lt/en/pages/view/?id=1763 |date=2007-09-29 }}. Data from Statistikos Departamentas, 2001 Population and Housing Census.</ref> The Polish [[regiolect]] spoken by Lithuanian Poles is classified under [[Dialects of Polish#Northern Kresy dialect|Polish of the North-Eastern Borderland]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grek-Pabisowa |first1=Iryda |last2=Biesiadowska-Magdziarz |first2=Beata |last3=Jankowiak |first3=Mirosław |last4=Ostrówka |first4=Małgorzata |title=Czym jest i co zawiera Słownik mówionej polszczyzny północnokresowej (What is "A Dictionary of oral Polish language of the north-eastern borderland" and what does it include?)|journal=Studia z Filologii Polskiej i Słowiańskiej |date=2014 |volume=49 |issue=49 |pages=278–298, 301 |url=https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/sfps/article/view/sfps.2014.024  |publisher=Institute of Slavic Studies, [[Polish Academy of Sciences]] |doi=10.11649/sfps.2014.024 |language=pl|issn=2392-2435}}</ref> Most of Poles who live southwards of Vilnius speak a form of Belarusian vernacular called there "[[simple speech]]",<ref>[https://kresy24.pl/jankowiak-polacy-na-wilenszczyznie-mowia-gwara-bialoruska/ Jankowiak: Polacy na Wileńszczyźnie mówią gwarą białoruską (Mirosław Jankowiak (linguist, specialist in Polish and Belarussian): Poles in Vilnius region do speak Belarusian dialect)]</ref> that contains many substratical relics from Lithuanian and Polish.<ref name="VCLG">Valerijus Čekmonas, Laima Grumadaitė ''Kalbų paplitimas rytų Lietuvoje (The distribution of the languages in the east of Lithuania)'' in ''Lietuvos rytai; straipsnių rinkinys (The east of Lithuania; the collection of the articles)'' Vilnius 1993; p. 132; {{ISBN|9986-09-002-4}}</ref>
+Out of the 234,989 Poles in Lithuania, 187,918 (80.0%) consider [[Polish language|Polish]] to be their [[first language]]. 22,439 Poles (9.5%) speak [[Russian language|Russian]] as their first language, while 17,233 (7.3%) speak [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]. 6,279 Poles (2.7%) did not indicate their first language. The remaining 0.5% speak various other languages.<ref name="Lithuanian census-mt">[http://www.stat.gov.lt/en/pages/view/?id=1763 Population by ethnicity and mother tongue] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929124541/http://www.stat.gov.lt/en/pages/view/?id=1763 |date=2007-09-29 }}. Data from Statistikos Departamentas, 2001 Population and Housing Census.</ref> The Polish [[regiolect]] spoken by Lithuanian Poles is classified under [[Dialects of Polish#Northern Kresy dialect|Polish of the North-Eastern Borderland]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grek-Pabisowa |first1=Iryda |last2=Biesiadowska-Magdziarz |first2=Beata |last3=Jankowiak |first3=Mirosław |last4=Ostrówka |first4=Małgorzata |title=Czym jest i co zawiera Słownik mówionej polszczyzny północnokresowej (What is "A Dictionary of oral Polish language of the north-eastern borderland" and what does it include?)|journal=Studia z Filologii Polskiej i Słowiańskiej |date=2014 |volume=49 |issue=49 |pages=278–298, 301 |url=https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/sfps/article/view/sfps.2014.024  |publisher=Institute of Slavic Studies, [[Polish Academy of Sciences]] |doi=10.11649/sfps.2014.024 |language=pl|issn=2392-2435}}</ref> Most of Poles who live southwards of Vilnius speak a form of Belarusian vernacular called there "[[simple speech]]",<ref>[https://kresy24.pl/jankowiak-polacy-na-wilenszczyznie-mowia-gwara-bialoruska/ Jankowiak: Polacy na Wileńszczyźnie mówią gwarą białoruską (Mirosław Jankowiak (linguist, specialist in Polish and Belarussian): Poles in Vilnius region do speak Belarusian dialect)]</ref> that contains many substratical relics from [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] and [[Polish language|Polish]].<ref name="VCLG">Valerijus Čekmonas, Laima Grumadaitė ''Kalbų paplitimas rytų Lietuvoje (The distribution of the languages in the east of Lithuania)'' in ''Lietuvos rytai; straipsnių rinkinys (The east of Lithuania; the collection of the articles)'' Vilnius 1993; p. 132; {{ISBN|9986-09-002-4}}</ref>
 ==Education==
@@ Line 123: / Line 119: @@
 ! colspan="4" style="background:#efefef;"|Absolute number with Polish language education at Lithuanian [[Urban area|urban]] schools was 5,600
 |}
-As of 1980, about 20% of Polish Lithuanian students chose Polish as the language of instruction at school.<ref name="1981_atlas">"Атлас Литовской ССР" 1981, Государственный плановый комитет Литовской ССР. Министерство высшего и среднего специального образования Литовской ССР. Главное управление геодезии и картографии при Совете Министров СССР. Москва 1981.</ref> 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.<ref name="Mercator">Mercator - Education information, documentation, research. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160119044135/http://www1.fa.knaw.nl/mercator/regionale_dossiers/PDFs/polish_in_lithuania.pdf The Polish language education in Lithuania] see: graph on p.16 (PDF file, 2.2 MB) Accessed 2008-01-14.</ref> 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.<ref>Arvydas Matulionis et al.''[http://www.enri-east.net/wp-content/uploads/pl%28LT%29_FINAL_Feb3_09022012.pdf The Polish Minority in Lithuania] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309053505/http://www.enri-east.net/wp-content/uploads/pl%28LT%29_FINAL_Feb3_09022012.pdf |date=2014-03-09 }}''. ENRI-East Research Report #8. 2011. p. 18.</ref> Polish government was concerned in 2015 about the education in Polish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.msz.gov.pl/en/p/wilno_lt_a_en/c/MOBILE/news/the_meeting_of_deputy_ministers_of_education___poland_lithuania|title=The meeting of deputy ministers of education – Poland–Lithuania|website=www.msz.gov.pl}}</ref>
+As of 1980, about 20% of Polish Lithuanian students chose Polish as the language of instruction at school.<ref name="1981_atlas">"Атлас Литовской ССР" 1981, Государственный плановый комитет Литовской ССР. Министерство высшего и среднего специального образования Литовской ССР. Главное управление геодезии и картографии при Совете Министров СССР. Москва 1981.</ref> 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.<ref name="Mercator">Mercator - Education information, documentation, research. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160119044135/http://www1.fa.knaw.nl/mercator/regionale_dossiers/PDFs/polish_in_lithuania.pdf The Polish language education in Lithuania] see: graph on p.16 (PDF file, 2.2 MB) Accessed 2008-01-14.</ref> 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.<ref>Arvydas Matulionis et al.''[http://www.enri-east.net/wp-content/uploads/pl%28LT%29_FINAL_Feb3_09022012.pdf The Polish Minority in Lithuania] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309053505/http://www.enri-east.net/wp-content/uploads/pl%28LT%29_FINAL_Feb3_09022012.pdf |date=2014-03-09 }}''. ENRI-East Research Report #8. 2011. p. 18.</ref> Polish government was concerned in 2015 about the education in Polish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.msz.gov.pl/en/p/wilno_lt_a_en/c/MOBILE/news/the_meeting_of_deputy_ministers_of_education___poland_lithuania|title=The meeting of deputy ministers of education – Poland–Lithuania|website=www.msz.gov.pl}}</ref>
 ==History==
@@ Line 132: / Line 128: @@
 [[File:Chrzest Litwy 1388.JPG|thumb|[[Andrzej Jastrzębiec]] was the first Bishop of Vilnius.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Butterwick |editor1-first=Richard |editor2-last=Pawlikowska |editor2-first=Wioletta |title=Social and Cultural Relations in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Microhistories |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781032093055 |page=25}}</ref> He is depicted in the fresco "Baptism of Lithuania" by [[Włodzimierz Tetmajer]]]]
-The process of voluntary Polish migration began in the mid-13th century,<ref name=Srebrakowski/> nonetheless Poles did not start to migrate to Lithuania in more noticeable numbers until [[Christianization of Lithuania|Christianization]] of the country.<ref name=Srebrakowski/><ref name=Gudavicius/> Between 1387 and 1569, Polish [[Burgher (social class)|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.<ref name=Potasenko/>  By the end of the 15th century, several Polish families from [[Podlachia]] entered the governing elite{{efn|Which consisted of around 100 families in total{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=149}}}} of the Grand Duchy.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=149}} In the 15th and 16th century, the population of Poles in Lithuania was not large, but they occupied prestigious places and enjoyed supremacy in terms of culture.<ref name=Gudavicius/> With time Polish people became also part of the local landowning class.<ref name=Potasenko/><ref name=Liedke>{{cite book |last1=Liedke |first1=Marzena |editor1-last=Łopatecki |editor1-first=Karol |editor2-last=Walczak |editor2-first=Wojciech |title=Nad społeczeństwem staropolskim: Kultura, instytucje, gospodarka w XVI-XVIII stuleciu |date=2007 |publisher=Osrodek Badan Europy |isbn=9788392577201 |pages=389–390 |language=pl |chapter=Szlacheckie rody z Korony w działaniach na rzecz ewangelicko-reformowanej Jednoty Litewskiej w XVII wieku}}</ref>{{efn|Even though it was either prohibited<ref name=Potasenko/> or legally restricted.<ref name=Liedke/> In the 16th century, Samogitian nobles complained to the Grand Duke of Lithuania about granting land and positions to outsiders, Poles and others. According to Rita Regina Trimonienė, of the 350 foreign nobles who settled in Samogitia (for a shorter or longer period)  in the second half of the 16th century and in the first half of the 17th century, 80% were Poles. They established themselves as part of the local economic and political elite.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Saviščevas |first1=Eugenijus |title=Influx of the "outside" nobility into Samogitia in the 16th century |journal=Zapiski Historyczne |date=2014 |volume=79 |issue=4 |pages=539–541, 544 |url=https://www.zapiskihistoryczne.pl/files/issues/6156cf9cee7f83dcd26520e4607a274f_ZH_2014-4_Saviscevas.pdf |publisher=Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu |issn=0044-1791}}</ref>}} When one Polish noble would become established in the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Grand Duchy]], it triggered a chain of further arrivals, often motivated by family ties or geographic links.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Drungilas  |first=Jonas  |date=2018 |title=Integration of the Polish nobility in Samogitia: migration, language, memory, 16th-18th centuries. |type= PhD|chapter=Doctoral dissertation summary |publisher=Vilnius University. Lithuanian Institute of History |chapter-url=https://epublications.vu.lt/object/elaba:26526111/ |access-date=5 August 2021|pages=8–9}}</ref> Lithuanian nobles welcomed [[fugitive peasants|fugitive]] Polish peasants and settled them on uncultivated land.<ref name=Srebrakowski/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Topolska |first1=Maria Barbara |title=Polacy w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim w XVI–XVIII w. (Przyczynek do dziejów polskiej emigracji na wschód w okresie staropolskim) |journal=Lituano-Slavica Posnaniensia: Studia historica |date=1987 |volume=2 |page=148 |publisher=[[Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań]] |language=pl |issn=0860-0066}}</ref> Polish peasants took also part in the colonization of the [[Neman river]] area.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|pages=148, 150}}
+The process of voluntary Polish migration began in the mid-13th century,<ref name=Srebrakowski/> nonetheless Poles did not start to migrate to Lithuania in more noticeable numbers until [[Christianization of Lithuania|Christianization]] of the country.<ref name=Srebrakowski/><ref name=Gudavicius/> Between 1387 and 1569, Polish [[Burgher (social class)|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.<ref name=Potasenko/>  By the end of  the 15th century, several Polish families from [[Podlachia]] entered the governing elite{{efn|Which consisted of around 100 families in total{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=149}}}} of the Grand Duchy.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=149}} In the 15th and 16th century, the population of Poles in Lithuania was not large, but they occupied prestigious places and enjoyed supremacy in terms of culture.<ref name=Gudavicius/> With time Polish people became also part of the local landowning class.<ref name=Potasenko/><ref name=Liedke>{{cite book |last1=Liedke |first1=Marzena |editor1-last=Łopatecki |editor1-first=Karol |editor2-last=Walczak |editor2-first=Wojciech |title=Nad społeczeństwem staropolskim: Kultura, instytucje, gospodarka w XVI-XVIII stuleciu |date=2007 |publisher=Osrodek Badan Europy |isbn=9788392577201 |pages=389–390 |language=pl |chapter=Szlacheckie rody z Korony w działaniach na rzecz ewangelicko-reformowanej Jednoty Litewskiej w XVII wieku}}</ref>{{efn|Even though it was either prohibited<ref name=Potasenko/> or legally restricted.<ref name=Liedke/> In the 16th century, Samogitian nobles complained to the Grand Duke of Lithuania about granting land and positions to outsiders, Poles and others. According to Rita Regina Trimonienė, of the 350 foreign nobles who settled in Samogitia (for a shorter or longer period)  in the second half of the 16th century and in the first half of the 17th century, 80% were Poles. They established themselves as part of the local economic and political elite.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Saviščevas |first1=Eugenijus |title=Influx of the "outside" nobility into Samogitia in the 16th century |journal=Zapiski Historyczne |date=2014 |volume=79 |issue=4 |pages=539–541, 544 |url=https://www.zapiskihistoryczne.pl/files/issues/6156cf9cee7f83dcd26520e4607a274f_ZH_2014-4_Saviscevas.pdf |publisher=Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu |issn=0044-1791}}</ref>}} When one Polish noble would become established in the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Grand Duchy]], it triggered a chain of further arrivals, often motivated by family ties or geographic links.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Drungilas  |first=Jonas  |date=2018 |title=Integration of the Polish nobility in Samogitia: migration, language, memory, 16th-18th centuries. |type= PhD|chapter=Doctoral dissertation summary |publisher=Vilnius University. Lithuanian Institute of History |chapter-url=https://epublications.vu.lt/object/elaba:26526111/ |access-date=5 August 2021|pages=8–9}}</ref> Lithuanian nobles welcomed [[fugitive peasants|fugitive]] Polish peasants and settled them on uncultivated land.<ref name=Srebrakowski/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Topolska |first1=Maria Barbara |title=Polacy w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim w XVI–XVIII w. (Przyczynek do dziejów polskiej emigracji na wschód w okresie staropolskim) |journal=Lituano-Slavica Posnaniensia: Studia historica |date=1987 |volume=2 |page=148 |publisher=[[Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań]] |language=pl |issn=0860-0066}}</ref> Polish peasants took also part in the colonization of the [[Neman river]] area.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|pages=148, 150}}
-In the 16th century, the largest concentrations of Poles in the GDL were located in Podlachia{{efn|Podlachia was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between the late 13th century and 1569.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|pages=28, 118}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Marples |first1=David R. |title=History of Belarus. Lithuanian and Polish rule |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Belarus/History#ref33453 |website=britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |access-date=10 September 2021|quote=The Union of Lublin (1569) made Poland and Lithuania a single, federated state. Although Lithuania retained the title of grand duchy and its code of laws, its western province Podlasia which had been heavily settled by Polish colonists—was ceded to Poland}}</ref> The region had been long settled by [[Mazovia]]n Poles<ref name=Reddaway/> and was governed according to the Polish law since [[Podlaskie Voivodeship (1513–1795)|1513]].{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=28}} In the mid-16th century, the Polish element became predominant among the Podlachian gentry, which led to demands from the local deputies for the complete union of their constituencies with Poland.<ref>{{cite book|author=Harry E. Dembkowski|title=The Union of Lublin, Polish Federalism in the Golden Age|year=1982|publisher=East European Monographs|isbn=978-0-88033-009-1|page=62}}</ref><ref name=Reddaway>{{cite book |editor1-last=Reddaway he|editor1-first=W. F. |title=The Cambridge History of Poland: From Augustus II to Pilsudski (1697–1935) |date=1950 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=437}}</ref> Podlachian towns were also gradually dominated by the Poles.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=28}} The total number of Poles in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania decreased with the loss of Podlachia and lands in Ukraine.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=118|}}}}  the border areas of [[Samogitia]], [[Lithuania]] and [[Belarus]], and the cities of Vilnius, [[Brest, Belarus|Brest]], [[Kaunas]], [[Grodno]], [[Kėdainiai]], and [[Nyasvizh]].{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=160}} Since the end of the 16th century, the influx of Poles to the Grand Duchy significantly increased.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=149}}
+In the 16th century, the largest concentrations of Poles in the GDL were located in Podlachia{{efn|Podlachia was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between the late 13th century and 1569.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|pages=28, 118}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Marples |first1=David R. |title=History of Belarus. Lithuanian and Polish rule |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Belarus/History#ref33453 |website=britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |access-date=10 September 2021|quote=The Union of Lublin (1569) made Poland and Lithuania a single, federated state. Although Lithuania retained the title of grand duchy and its code of laws, its western province Podlasia which had been heavily settled by Polish colonists—was ceded to Poland}}</ref> The region had been long settled by [[Mazovia]]n Poles<ref name=Reddaway/> and was governed according to the Polish law since [[Podlaskie Voivodeship (1513–1795)|1513]].{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=28}} In the mid-16th century, the Polish element became predominant among the Podlachian gentry, which led to demands from the local deputies for the complete union of their constituencies with Poland.<ref>{{cite book|author=Harry E. Dembkowski|title=The Union of Lublin, Polish Federalism in the Golden Age|year=1982|publisher=East European Monographs|isbn=978-0-88033-009-1|page=62}}</ref><ref name=Reddaway>{{cite book |editor1-last=Reddaway he|editor1-first=W. F. |title=The Cambridge History of Poland: From Augustus II to Pilsudski (1697–1935) |date=1950 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=437}}</ref> Podlachian towns were also gradually dominated by the Poles.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=28}} The total number of Poles in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania decreased with the loss of Podlachia and lands in Ukraine.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=118|}}}}  the border areas of [[Samogitia]], [[Lithuania]] and [[Belarus]], and the cities of [[Vilnius]], [[Brest, Belarus|Brest]], [[Kaunas]], [[Grodno]], [[Kėdainiai]], and [[Nyasvizh]].{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=160}} Since the end of the 16th century, the influx of Poles to the Grand Duchy significantly increased.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=149}}
-As a result of the Union of Krewo, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania found itself under strong [[Culture of Poland|cultural]] and political influence of the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Kingdom of Poland]]. Lithuanian elite started to speak [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]] and Polish in the 16th century, and soon afterwards Polish supplanted Ruthenian.<ref name=Gudavicius>{{cite journal |last1=Gudavičius |first1=Edvardas |title=Lithuania's Road to Europe |journal=Lithuanian Historical Studies |date=1997 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=20–21, 25 |doi=10.30965/25386565-00201002 |issn=2538-6565}}</ref> During that period, the royal and grand ducal courts were nearly entirely Polish-speaking.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Norman |title=Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations |date=2012 |publisher=Viking Penguin |isbn=9780143122951 |page=261}}</ref> Under [[Sigismund August]]'s rule most of the royal [[courtiers]] were Poles and the numbers of Poles in Lithuania were additionally augmented by the almost continuous (since the 1550s) presence of  Polish military.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frost |first1=Robert I. |title=The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania: Volume I: The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569 |date=2015 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780198208693 |page=451}}</ref> [[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, their schools and printing houses.{{sfn|Topolska|2002|page=192}} During the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Commonwealth]]'s period (1569–1795), much{{How much|date=July 2019}} of the [[Lithuanian nobility]] was Polonized and joined the [[szlachta]] class. By the end of the 17th century, Polish became the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.<ref name=Kamusella>{{Cite book |last= Kamusella |first= Tomasz |year= 2008 |title= The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |page= 137|isbn= 9780230550704}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Senn |first1=Alfred Erich |title=The Emergence of Modern Lithuania |date=1959 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=9780231893602 |page=17}}</ref>{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=161}}
+As a result of the Union of Krewo, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania found itself under strong [[Culture of Poland|cultural]] and political influence of the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Kingdom of Poland]]. Lithuanian elite started to speak [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]] and Polish in the 16th century, and soon afterwards Polish supplanted Ruthenian.<ref name=Gudavicius>{{cite journal |last1=Gudavičius |first1=Edvardas |title=Lithuania's Road to Europe |journal=Lithuanian Historical Studies |date=1997 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=20–21, 25 |doi=10.30965/25386565-00201002 |issn=2538-6565}}</ref> During that period, the royal and grand ducal courts were nearly entirely Polish speaking.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Norman |title=Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations |date=2012 |publisher=Viking Penguin |isbn=9780143122951 |page=261}}</ref> Under [[Sigismund August]]'s rule most of the royal [[courtiers]] were Poles and the numbers of Poles in Lithuania were additionally augmented by the almost continuous (since the 1550s) presence of  Polish military.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frost |first1=Robert I. |title=The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania: Volume I: The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569 |date=2015 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780198208693 |page=451}}</ref> [[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.{{sfn|Topolska|2002|page=192}} During the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Commonwealth]]'s period (1569–1795), much{{How much|date=July 2019}} of the [[Lithuanian nobility]] was Polonized and joined the [[szlachta]] class.
+By the end of the 17th century, Polish became the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.<ref name=Kamusella>{{Cite book |last= Kamusella |first= Tomasz |year= 2008 |title= The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |page= 137|isbn= 9780230550704}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Senn |first1=Alfred Erich |title=The Emergence of Modern Lithuania |date=1959 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=9780231893602 |page=17}}</ref>{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=161}}
-Many Poles worked in the Chancellery of  the Grand Duke of Lithuania and in [[Jogaila]]'s Latin Chancellery. Mikołaj Cebulka was appointed the senior secretary in [[Vytautas]]' Chancellery.<ref name=Potasenko/> Klemens from [[Moskorzew]] was the [[Starosta]] of Vilnius and a commander during the successful defence of the city in 1390, when it was [[Lithuanian Civil War (1389–1392)|besieged]] by Vytautas and [[Teutonic Knights]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Błaszczyk |first1=Grzegorz |title=Dzieje Stosunków Polsko-Litewskich. Vol. II. Od Krewa do Lublina. Part I|date=2007 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Poznańskie |isbn=9788371775697 |pages=139, 148–149}}</ref> In the same year, Jaśko from [[Oleśnica]] became the general Starosta of Lithuania.{{sfn|Błaszczyk|2007|page=149}} Another Pole, Mikołaj Sapieński, participated in the [[Council of Constance]] as one of three leaders of the [[Samogitians|Samogitian]] delegation. 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 the Kingdom of Poland.<ref name=Potasenko/> There were also numerous Poles among the [[Jesuits]] residing in Lithuania, including such prominent figures like [[Piotr Skarga]] (1536–1612),{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=28}} the first rector of the [[University of Vilnius]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=R. Rieber |first1=Alfred |title=The Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands |date=2014 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9781107337794 |page=158}}</ref> [[Jakub Wujek]] (1541–1597), and [[Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski]] (1595–1640).{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=76}} From 1397 to the 16th century, the Chapter of Vilnius numbered 123 [[Canon (priest)|Canons]], of whom 90 were from the Crown and Podlachia, and 33 or more were Lithuanians.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=28}}
+Many Poles worked in the Chancellery of  the Grand Duke of Lithuania and in [[Jogaila]]'s Latin Chancellery. Mikołaj Cebulka was appointed the senior secretary in [[Vytautas]]' Chancellery.<ref name=Potasenko/> Klemens from [[Moskorzew]] was the [[Starosta]] of Vilnius and a commander during the successful defence of the city in 1390, when it was [[Lithuanian Civil War (1389–1392)|besieged]] by Vytautas and [[Teutonic Knights]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Błaszczyk |first1=Grzegorz |title=Dzieje Stosunków Polsko-Litewskich. Vol. II. Od Krewa do Lublina. Part I|date=2007 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Poznańskie |isbn=9788371775697 |pages=139, 148–149}}</ref> In the same year, Jaśko from [[Oleśnica]] became the general Starosta of Lithuania.{{sfn|Błaszczyk|2007|page=149}} Another Pole, Mikołaj Sapieński, participated in the [[Council of Constance]] as one of three leaders of the [[Samogitians|Samogitian]] delegation. 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 the Kingdom of Poland.<ref name=Potasenko/> There were also numerous Poles among the [[Jesuits]] residing in Lithuania, including such prominent figures like [[Piotr Skarga]] (1536–1612),{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=28}} the first rector of the [[University of Vilnius]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=R. Rieber |first1=Alfred |title=The Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands |date=2014 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9781107337794 |page=158}}</ref> [[Jakub Wujek]] (1541–1597), and [[Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski]] (1595–1640).{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=76}} From 1397 to the 16th century, the Chapter of Vilnius numbered 123 [[Canon (priest)|Canons]], of whom 90 were from the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Crown]] and Podlachia, and 33 or more were Lithuanians.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=28}}
 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 (ca. 1585  – ca. 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).{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=74}}
-Between 1569 and 1795, part of the Grand Duchy's noble class was Polish. Polish szlachta resided in estates in Lithuanian provinces. According to Polish historians, thousands of Poles (particularly nobles from [[Masovia]] and [[Lesser Poland|Little Poland]]) migrated to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after the [[Union of Lublin]]. This population movement created a fertile ground for the country's socio-cultural Polonization.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=73}} Poor nobles from the Crown rented land from local [[Magnates of Poland and Lithuania|magnates]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sikorska-Kulesza |first1=Joanna |title=Deklasacja drobnej szlachty na Litwie i Białorusi w XIX wieku |date=1995 |publisher=Oficyna Wydawnicza "Ajaks" |isbn=83-85621-37-7 |pages=10–11 |url=http://otworzksiazke.pl/images/ksiazki/deklasacja_drobnej_szlachty_na_litwie_i_bialorusi_w_XIX_wieku/deklasacja_drobnej_szlachty_na_litwie_i_bialorusi_w_XIX_wieku.pdf }}</ref>
+Between 1569 and 1795, part of the Grand Duchy's noble class was Polish. Polish [[szlachta]] resided in estates in Lithuanian provinces. According to Polish historians, thousands of Poles (particularly nobles from [[Masovia]] and [[Lesser Poland|Little Poland]]) migrated to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after the [[Union of Lublin]]. This population movement created a fertile ground for socio-cultural Polonization of the country.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=73}} Poor nobles from the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Crown]] rented land from local [[Magnates of Poland and Lithuania|magnates]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sikorska-Kulesza |first1=Joanna |title=Deklasacja drobnej szlachty na Litwie i Białorusi w XIX wieku |date=1995 |publisher=Oficyna Wydawnicza "Ajaks" |isbn=83-85621-37-7 |pages=10–11 |url=http://otworzksiazke.pl/images/ksiazki/deklasacja_drobnej_szlachty_na_litwie_i_bialorusi_w_XIX_wieku/deklasacja_drobnej_szlachty_na_litwie_i_bialorusi_w_XIX_wieku.pdf }}</ref>
 The number of Poles grew also in the towns, among others in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Grodno.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=73}}
-Cultural and linguistic [[Polonization]] resulted in the formation of the Polish-speaking areas (such as in [[Liauda]] to the northeast of Kaunas from the early 15th century). They were mostly inhabited by the high nobility, wealthy and minor Szlachta, affluent middle class, [[Catholic]] and [[Eastern Catholic]] clergy.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=73}}
+Cultural and linguistic [[Polonization]] resulted in the formation of the Polish speaking areas (such as north-east of [[Kaunas]] from the early 15th century). They were mostly inhabited by the high nobility, wealthy and minor Szlachta, affluent middle class, [[Catholic]] and [[Eastern Catholic]] clergy.{{sfn|Potašenko|2008|page=73}}
 During the Commonwealth's period, a Polish-dominated territory started to be slowly formed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.<ref name=Srebrakowski/> According to Barbara Topolska, by the mid-17th century, Poles made up several percent of the total population in the Grand Duchy.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=149}} Władysław Wielhorski estimated that by the end of the 18th century, Polish and Polonized people constituted 25% of the Grand Duchy's inhabitants.<ref name=Srebrakowski/> The Polish population grew through assimilation of locals and immigration from Poland,<ref name=Srebrakowski/><ref name=Błaszczyk/> while part of it, mainly from lower strata, assimilated with Belarusians and Lithuanians.<ref name=Srebrakowski/>
 ====Vilnius====
-The influx of Poles to Vilnius started in the late 14th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sužiedėlis |first1=Saulius |title=Historical Dictionary of Lithuania |date=2011 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0810849143 |page=317 |edition=2nd }}</ref> 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.<ref name=Potasenko/> The city became the most important centre of the Polish intelligentsia in the Grand Duchy.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=155}} 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.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=158}} Ethnic Poles made up around 50% of Vilnius' municipal officials during the [[Baroque]] period,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Briedis |first1=Laimonas |title=Vilnius: City of Strangers |date=2009 |publisher=[[Central European University Press]] |isbn=978-9639776449 |page=58}}</ref> and by the 17th century the city became culturally Polish.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Norman |title=God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795 Revised Edition |date=2005 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-199253390 |page=29|quote=Wilno was culturally Polish by the seventeenth century; all the smaller towns contained a strong Jewish element.}}</ref> Poles predominated in Vilnius in the mid-17th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weeks |first1=Theodore R. |title=Vilnius between Nations, 1795–2000 |date=2015 |publisher=[[Northern Illinois University Press]] |isbn=978-0875807300|page=16|quote=Vilnius in the mid-17th century was an impressive and wealthy city […] While Poles and Roman Catholicism predominated, Vilnius diverse religious and ethno-linguistic groups managed to live together in the fairly tight urban space.}}</ref>
+The influx of Poles to Vilnius started in the late 14th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sužiedėlis |first1=Saulius |title=Historical Dictionary of Lithuania |date=2011 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0810849143 |page=317 |edition=2nd }}</ref> 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.<ref name=Potasenko/> The city became the most important center of the Polish intelligentsia in the Grand Duchy.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=155}} 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.{{sfn|Topolska|1987|page=158}} Ethnic Poles made up around 50% of Vilnius' municipal officials during the [[Baroque]] period,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Briedis |first1=Laimonas |title=Vilnius: City of Strangers |date=2009 |publisher=[[Central European University Press]] |isbn=978-9639776449 |page=58}}</ref> and by the 17th century the city became culturally Polish.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Norman |title=God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795 Revised Edition |date=2005 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-199253390 |page=29|quote=Wilno was culturally Polish by the seventeenth century; all the smaller towns contained a strong Jewish element.}}</ref> Poles predominated in Vilnius in the mid-17th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weeks |first1=Theodore R. |title=Vilnius between Nations, 1795–2000 |date=2015 |publisher=[[Northern Illinois University Press]] |isbn=978-0875807300|page=16|quote=Vilnius in the mid-17th century was an impressive and wealthy city […] While Poles and Roman Catholicism predominated, Vilnius diverse religious and ethno-linguistic groups managed to live together in the fairly tight urban space.}}</ref>
 === 19th century ===
@@ Line 159: / Line 156: @@
 [[File:Mapa rozsiedlenia ludności polskiej z uwzględnieniem spisów z 1916 roku.jpg|250px|thumb|Polish [[Lithuania–Poland relations#Interbellum|Interwar map]] of distribution of Polish population (incorporates data from the 1916 census)]]
-In the 19th century peasants of Polish nationality{{Clarify|date=July 2019}} started to appear in Lithuania, mostly by Polonization of Lithuanian peasants<ref>{{cite book | year=2007 | title=Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia Vol. 11 }}</ref> in [[Dzūkija]] and to a lesser degree in [[Aukštaitija]].
+In the 19th century peasants of Polish nationality{{Clarify|date=July 2019}} started to appear in Lithuania, mostly by [[Polonization]] of Lithuanian peasants<ref>{{cite book | year=2007 | title=Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia Vol. 11 }}</ref> in [[Dzūkija]] and to a lesser degree in [[Aukštaitija]].
-The position of Vilnius as a significant centre of Polish culture influenced the development of national identities among [[Roman Catholic]] peasants in the region.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eberhardt |first1=Piotr |title=Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis |date=1996 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-1833-7|page=179}}</ref> In all the population censuses conducted after the end of the 19th century and in a number of other political events, the [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] speaking population inhabiting the area around Vilnius opted for Polish nationality.{{sfn|Eberhardt|1996|page=27}} By the time the [[Polish-Lithuanian war|Polish–Lithuanian conflict]] erupted, Poles made up also almost all of the local aristocracy and richer landowners in Vilnius and its surroundings.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Iršėnas |editor1-first=Marius |editor2-last=Račiūnaitė |editor2-first=Tojana |title=The Lithuanian Millennium: History, Art and Culture |date=2015 |publisher=Vilnius Academy of Arts Press |isbn=9786094470974 |page=539}}</ref>
+The position of Vilnius as a significant center of Polish culture influenced the development of national identities among [[Roman Catholic]] peasants in the region.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eberhardt |first1=Piotr |title=Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis |date=1996 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-1833-7|page=179}}</ref> In all the population censuses conducted after the end of the 19th century and in a number of other political events, the [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] speaking population inhabiting the area around Vilnius opted for Polish nationality.{{sfn|Eberhardt|1996|page=27}} By the time the [[Polish-Lithuanian war|Polish–Lithuanian conflict]] erupted, Poles made up also almost all of the local aristocracy and richer landowners in Vilnius and its surroundings.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Iršėnas |editor1-first=Marius |editor2-last=Račiūnaitė |editor2-first=Tojana |title=The Lithuanian Millennium: History, Art and Culture |date=2015 |publisher=Vilnius Academy of Arts Press |isbn=9786094470974 |page=539}}</ref>
 === Polish-Lithuanian War ===
-From 1918 to 1921 there were several conflicts, such as the activity of the [[Polish Military Organisation]], [[Sejny Uprising|Sejny uprising]] (that was met with massive outrage in Lithuania<ref name="KA">{{cite journal |author=Editors: Gintautas Surgailis; Algirdas Ažubalis; Grzegorz Blaszyk; Pranas Jankauskas; Eriks Jekabsons; Waldemar Rezmer | title = Karo archyvas XVIII | journal = Karo Archyvas | publisher = Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija | year = 2003 | location = Vilnius | pages = 188–189 | language = lt | issn = 1392-6489 |display-authors=etal}}</ref>) and a foiled attempt at a Polish coup of the Lithuanian government.<ref>{{cite book|last=Juozas|first =Rainys|title=P.O.W. : (Polska Organizacja Wojskowa) Lietuvoje |publisher=Spaudos fondas|year=1936|location=Kaunas|page=184}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Julius | first = Būtėnas |author2=Mečys Mackevičius | title = Mykolas Sleževičius: advokatas ir politikas | publisher = Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla | year = 1995 | location = Vilnius | page = 263 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XDg1AAAAMAAJ|isbn =9986-413-31-1}}</ref> From the documents stolen from Polish Military Organization headquarters safe in Vilnius and given to [[Prime Minister of Lithuania]] [[Augustinas Voldemaras]], it is clear that this plot was directed by [[Józef Piłsudski]] himself.<ref name="LKA">{{cite book | last = Lesčius | first = Vytautas | title = Lietuvos kariuomenė nepriklausomybės kovose 1918-1920 | publisher = [[Vilnius University]], [[Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija]] | year = 2004 | location = Vilnius | page = 269 |isbn = 9955-423-23-4 }}</ref> The [[Polish-Lithuanian War]] and [[Żeligowski's Mutiny]] contributed to a worsening of [[Polish-Lithuanian relations]]; increasingly Polish-speaking people were viewed with suspicion in Lithuania. 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.<ref name="MacQueen_context">{{cite journal |last1=MacQueen |first1=Michael |title=The Context of Mass Destruction: Agents and Prerequisites of the Holocaust in Lithuania |journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |date=1998 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=22–48 |doi=10.1093/hgs/12.1.27 |quote=The irredentist campaign tainted Lithuanian society with currents of hatred and revenge directed against the Poles. In fact, the largest social organization in interwar Lithuania was the [[League for the Liberation of Vilnius]] (Vilniaus Vadavimo Safunga, or WS), which trumpeted the irredentist line in its magazine "Our Vilnius" (Mūsų Vilnius).}}</ref>
+From 1918 to 1921 there were several conflicts, such as the activity of the [[Polish Military Organisation]], [[Sejny Uprising|Sejny uprising]] (that was met with massive outrage in Lithuania<ref name="KA">{{cite journal |author=Editors: Gintautas Surgailis; Algirdas Ažubalis; Grzegorz Blaszyk; Pranas Jankauskas; Eriks Jekabsons; Waldemar Rezmer | title = Karo archyvas XVIII | journal = Karo Archyvas | publisher = Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija | year = 2003 | location = Vilnius | pages = 188–189 | language = lt | issn = 1392-6489 |display-authors=etal}}</ref>) and a foiled attempt at a Polish coup of the Lithuanian government.<ref>{{cite book|last=Juozas|first =Rainys|title=P.O.W. : (Polska Organizacja Wojskowa) Lietuvoje |publisher=Spaudos fondas|year=1936|location=Kaunas|page=184}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Julius | first = Būtėnas |author2=Mečys Mackevičius | title = Mykolas Sleževičius: advokatas ir politikas | publisher = Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla | year = 1995 | location = Vilnius | page = 263 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XDg1AAAAMAAJ|isbn =9986-413-31-1}}</ref> From the documents stolen from Polish Military Organization headquarters safe in [[Vilnius]] and given to [[Prime Minister of Lithuania]] [[Augustinas Voldemaras]], it is clear that this plot was directed by [[Józef Piłsudski]] himself.<ref name="LKA">{{cite book | last = Lesčius | first = Vytautas | title = Lietuvos kariuomenė nepriklausomybės kovose 1918-1920 | publisher = [[Vilnius University]], [[Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija]] | year = 2004 | location = Vilnius | page = 269 |isbn = 9955-423-23-4 }}</ref> The [[Polish-Lithuanian War]] and [[Żeligowski's Mutiny]] contributed to a worsening of [[Polish-Lithuanian relations]]; increasingly Polish-speaking people were viewed with suspicion in Lithuania. 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.<ref name="MacQueen_context">{{cite journal |last1=MacQueen |first1=Michael |title=The Context of Mass Destruction: Agents and Prerequisites of the Holocaust in Lithuania |journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |date=1998 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=22–48 |doi=10.1093/hgs/12.1.27 |quote=The irredentist campaign tainted Lithuanian society with currents of hatred and revenge directed against the Poles. In fact, the largest social organization in interwar Lithuania was the [[League for the Liberation of Vilnius]] (Vilniaus Vadavimo Safunga, or WS), which trumpeted the irredentist line in its magazine "Our Vilnius" (Mūsų Vilnius).}}</ref>
 === Interbellum ===
@@ Line 172: / Line 169: @@
 ==== In the Republic of Lithuania ====
 [[File:Polish National Green Mountain School No. 36 students at the Lithuanian afforestation festival with the historical state flag of Lithuania Vytis (Waikymas).jpg|thumb|Poles in the [[interwar]] Lithuanian state, between 1923–1924]]
-In interwar Lithuania, people declaring Polish ethnicity were officially described as Polonized Lithuanians who needed to be re-[[Lithuanization|Lithuanized]], Polish-owned land was confiscated, Polish religious services, schools, publications and voting rights were restricted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnic/Random%20Narratives/LithuaniaRN1.3.pdf |title=Lithuania|access-date=2008-06-02 |last= Fearon |first=James D. |author2=Laitin, David D. |year= 2006 |publisher= Stanford University |page=4 |quote= Lithuanian nationalists resented demands by Poles for greater cultural autonomy (similar to that granted to the Jewish minority), holding that most of Lithuania's Poles were really deracinated Lithuanians who merely needed to be re-Lithuanianized. Resentments were exacerbated when Lithuanian Poles expressed a desire to "re-unite" the country with Poland. As a result, the nationalizing Lithuanian state took measures to confiscate Polish-owned land. It also restricted Polish religious services, schools, Polish publications, Polish voting rights. Poles were often referred to in the press in this period as the "lice of the nation"}}</ref> 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).<ref>It was the only census carried out in Lithuania during the interwar period. {{cite book |last=Vaitiekūnas |first=Stasys |title=Lietuvos gyventojai: Per du tūkstantmečius |year=2006 |publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas |location=Vilnius |isbn=5-420-01585-4 |page=189|language=lt}}</ref> Although according to Polish Election Committee in fact the number of Poles was much higher, about 10% of total population, this number was based on election results.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Krivickas|first=Vladas|title=The Polish Minority in Lithuania, 1918-1926|journal=The Slavonic and East European Review|volume=53|pages=78–91}}</ref> Many Poles in Lithuania were signed in as Lithuanians in their passports, and as a result, they also were forced to attend Lithuanian schools. While the number of Polish-language schools in Lithuania increased from 20 to 30 from 1920 to 1923,<ref name="setkus" /> and to 78 in 1926,<ref name="Lossowski">{{cite journal|last1=Łossowski|first1=Piotr|title=National minorities in the Baltic states 1919–1940|journal=Acta Poloniae Historica|date=1972|issue=25|page=98|url=http://rcin.org.pl/Content/5608/WA303_19701_1972-25_APH_04_o.pdf}}</ref> they decreased to 9 by 1940.<ref name="setkus">{{cite book |last=Šetkus |first=Benediktas |title=Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės |url=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/ |access-date=2007-02-11 |year=2002 |publisher=Elektroninės leidybos namai |location=Vilnius |isbn=9986-9216-9-4 |chapter=Tautinės mažumos Lietuvoje |chapter-url=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/?id=1026 |language=lt |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303191252/http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/ |archive-date=2008-03-03 }}</ref> After the establishment of Valdemaras regime in 1926, 58<ref name="Lossowski" /> Polish schools were closed, many Poles were incarcerated, and Polish newspapers were placed under strict censorship.<ref>Richard M. Watt. (1998). ''Bitter glory: Poland and its fate, 1918-1939.'' Hippocrene Books. p. 255.</ref>
+In interwar Lithuania, people declaring Polish ethnicity were officially described as [[Polonization|Polonized]] Lithuanians who needed to be re-[[Lithuanization|Lithuanized]], Polish-owned land was confiscated, Polish religious services, schools, publications and voting rights were restricted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnic/Random%20Narratives/LithuaniaRN1.3.pdf |title=Lithuania|access-date=2008-06-02 |last= Fearon |first=James D. |author2=Laitin, David D. |year= 2006 |publisher= Stanford University |page=4 |quote= Lithuanian nationalists resented demands by Poles for greater cultural autonomy (similar to that granted to the Jewish minority), holding that most of Lithuania's Poles were really deracinated Lithuanians who merely needed to be re-Lithuanianized. Resentments were exacerbated when Lithuanian Poles expressed a desire to "re-unite" the country with Poland. As a result, the nationalizing Lithuanian state took measures to confiscate Polish-owned land. It also restricted Polish religious services, schools, Polish publications, Polish voting rights. Poles were often referred to in the press in this period as the "lice of the nation"}}</ref> 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).<ref>It was the only census carried out in Lithuania during the interwar period. {{cite book |last=Vaitiekūnas |first=Stasys |title=Lietuvos gyventojai: Per du tūkstantmečius |year=2006 |publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas |location=Vilnius |isbn=5-420-01585-4 |page=189|language=lt}}</ref> Although according to Polish Election Committee in fact the number of Poles was much higher, about 10% of total population, this number was based on election results.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Krivickas|first=Vladas|title=The Polish Minority in Lithuania, 1918-1926|journal=The Slavonic and East European Review|volume=53|pages=78–91}}</ref> Many Poles in Lithuania were signed in as Lithuanians in their passports, and as a result, they also were forced to attend Lithuanian schools. While the number of Polish-language schools in Lithuania increased from 20 to 30 from 1920 to 1923,<ref name="setkus" /> and to 78 in 1926,<ref name="Lossowski">{{cite journal|last1=Łossowski|first1=Piotr|title=National minorities in the Baltic states 1919–1940|journal=Acta Poloniae Historica|date=1972|issue=25|page=98|url=http://rcin.org.pl/Content/5608/WA303_19701_1972-25_APH_04_o.pdf}}</ref> they decreased to 9 by 1940.<ref name="setkus">{{cite book |last=Šetkus |first=Benediktas |title=Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės |url=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/ |access-date=2007-02-11 |year=2002 |publisher=Elektroninės leidybos namai |location=Vilnius |isbn=9986-9216-9-4 |chapter=Tautinės mažumos Lietuvoje |chapter-url=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/?id=1026 |language=lt |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303191252/http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/ |archive-date=2008-03-03 }}</ref> After the establishment of [[Augustinas Voldemaras|Valdemaras]] regime in 1926, 58<ref name="Lossowski" /> Polish schools were closed, many Poles were incarcerated, and Polish newspapers were placed under strict censorship.<ref>Richard M. Watt. (1998). ''Bitter glory: Poland and its fate, 1918-1939.'' Hippocrene Books. p. 255.</ref>
 ==== In the Republic of Central Lithuania, later that of the Second Polish Republic ====
@@ Line 178: / Line 175: @@
 A large portion of the Vilnius area was part of the [[Second Polish Republic]] during the [[interwar period]],{{efn|In 1923, the [[Council of Ambassadors]] and the international community (with the exception of Lithuania) recognized Vilnius and the surrounding area as part of Poland.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gross |first1=Jan. T. |title=Evolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia |date=2002 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0691096032 |page=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Borzecki |first1=Jerzy |title=The Soviet-Polish Peace of 1921 and the Creation of Interwar Europe |date=2008 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0300121216 |page=252}}</ref>}} particularly the area of the [[Republic of Central Lithuania]], which had a significant Polish speaking population. For example, the [[Wilno Voivodeship (1926–1939)|Wilno Voivodeship]] (25% of it is a part of modern Lithuania and 75% - modern Belarus) [[Polish census of 1931|in 1931]] contained 59.7% Polish speakers and only 5.2% Lithuanian speakers.<ref name="note1">{{cite journal|year=1939|title=Drugi Powszechny Spis Ludności z dnia 9 XII 1931 r|journal=Statystyka Polski|language=pl|volume=D|issue=34}}</ref>
-The Polish government, on the other hand, increased the Polish presence in the Vilnius region. Lithuanian cultural activities in Polish controlled territories were curtailed and the closure of Lithuanian newspapers and the arrest of their editors occurred (particularly in the period 1920–1922).<ref name="Čepėnas">{{cite book |last=Čepėnas |first=Pranas |author-link=Pranas Čepėnas | title=Naujųjų laikų Lietuvos istorija |year=1986 |publisher=Dr. Griniaus fondas |location=Chicago |pages=655–656}}</ref> In 1927, as tensions between Lithuania and Poland increased, 48 Lithuanian schools were closed and another 11 Lithuanian activists were deported.<ref name="Żołędowski114">Żołędowski, Cezary (2003). ''Białorusini i Litwini w Polsce, Polacy na Białorusi i Litwie'' (in Polish). Warszawa: ASPRA-JR. {{ISBN|8388766767}}, p. 114.</ref> Following Piłsudski's death in 1935, the [[Lithuanian minority in Poland]] again became an object of Polonization policies with greater intensity. 266 Lithuanian schools were closed after 1936 and almost all Lithuanian organizations were banned. Further Polonization ensued as the government encouraged [[Osadnik|settlement of Polish army veterans]] in the disputed regions.<ref name="Fearon">{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnic/Random%20Narratives/LithuaniaRN1.3.pdf |title=Lithuania|access-date=2007-06-18 |last=Fearon |first=James D. |author2=Laitin, David D. |year=2006 |publisher=Stanford University |pages=4 |quote=From 1936 till 1939, 266 Lithuanian schools were closed in the entire territory of the former Vilnius Territory. Activities of almost all Lithuanian cultural organizations were banned there. In the areas controlled by Poland, resentments grew as a new settlement of Polish army veterans with economic ties to Poland brought greater Polonization.}}</ref>
+The Polish government, on the other hand, increased the Polish presence in the Vilnius region. Lithuanian cultural activities in Polish controlled territories were curtailed and closure of Lithuanian newspapers and the arrest of their editors occurred (particularly in the period 1920–1922).<ref name="Čepėnas">{{cite book |last=Čepėnas |first=Pranas |author-link=Pranas Čepėnas | title=Naujųjų laikų Lietuvos istorija |year=1986 |publisher=Dr. Griniaus fondas |location=Chicago |pages=655–656}}</ref> In 1927, as tensions between Lithuania and Poland increased, 48 Lithuanian schools were closed and another 11 Lithuanian activists were deported.<ref name="Żołędowski114">Żołędowski, Cezary (2003). ''Białorusini i Litwini w Polsce, Polacy na Białorusi i Litwie'' (in Polish). Warszawa: ASPRA-JR. {{ISBN|8388766767}}, p. 114.</ref> Following [[Józef Piłsudski|Piłsudski's]] death in 1935, the [[Lithuanian minority in Poland]] again became an object of Polonization policies with greater intensity. 266 Lithuanian schools were closed after 1936 and almost all Lithuanian organizations were banned. Further Polonization ensued as the government encouraged [[Osadnik|settlement of Polish army veterans]] in the disputed regions.<ref name="Fearon">{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnic/Random%20Narratives/LithuaniaRN1.3.pdf |title=Lithuania|access-date=2007-06-18 |last=Fearon |first=James D. |author2=Laitin, David D. |year=2006 |publisher=Stanford University |pages=4 |quote=From 1936 till 1939, 266 Lithuanian schools were closed in the entire territory of the former Vilnius Territory. Activities of almost all Lithuanian cultural organizations were banned there. In the areas controlled by Poland, resentments grew as a new settlement of Polish army veterans with economic ties to Poland brought greater Polonization.}}</ref>
 === After World War II ===
@@ Line 207: / Line 204: @@
 Ethnic Poles made up from 80%<ref>{{cite book |last1=Streikus |first1=Arūnas |editor1-last=Balkelis |editor1-first=Tomas |editor2-last=Davoliūtė |editor2-first=Violeta |title=Population Displacement in Lithuania in the Twentieth Century: Experiences, Identities and Legacies |date=2016 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004314092 |page=223 |chapter=Religious Life in a Displaced Society: The Case of Post-war Lithuania, 1945–1960}}</ref> to over 91% of Vilnius population in 1944.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Service |first1=Hugo |title=Germans to Poles Communism, Nationalism and Ethnic Cleansing after the Second World War |date=2013 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-67148-5 |page=312}}</ref> Every Pole in the city was forced to register for resettlement, and about 80% of Vilnius Poles left for Poland.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Snyder |first1=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Snyder |title=The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999 |date=2003 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0300105865 |pages=91–92}}</ref> By March 1946, around 129,000 people from [[Liauda|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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Buchowski |first1=Krzysztof |author-link=Krzysztof Buchowski |title=Polacy w niepodległym państwie litewskim. 1918-1940 |date=1999 |publisher=[[University of Białystok]] |isbn=8387881066 |page=293}}</ref>
-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 ban any teaching in Polish; those attempts, however, were vetoed by [[Moscow]], which saw them as too nationalistic.<ref name="Budryte"/> The Soviet census of 1959 showed 230,100 Poles concentrated in the Vilnius region (8.5% of the Lithuanian SSR's population).<ref name="Eberhardt">{{cite web |url= http://www.wspolnota-polska.org.pl/index.php?id=kw4_5_06|title= Liczebność i rozmieszczenie ludności polskiej na Litwie (Numbers and distribution of Polish population in Lithuania)|access-date=2008-06-02 |last=Eberhardt |first=Piotr |author-link=Piotr Eberhart |language= pl}}</ref> 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).<ref name="Eberhardt"/> The Polish minority, subject in the past to massive, often voluntary<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnic/Random%20Narratives/LithuaniaRN1.3.pdf |title=Lithuania|access-date=2008-06-02 |last= Fearon |first=James D. |author2=Laitin, David D. |year= 2006 |publisher= Stanford University |page=4 |quote= For example, in Vilnius where in the Soviet years education in Polish was offered by some 13–14 schools, only 25 percent of the children born to [[Monoethnicity|monoethnic]] Polish families attended Polish schools. About 50% of them chose Russian schools, and only 10% Lithuanian schools.}}</ref> [[Russification]] and [[Sovietization]], and recently to voluntary processes of Lithuanization, shows many and increasing signs of [[Cultural assimilation|assimilation]] with [[Lithuanians]].<ref name="Eberhardt"/>
+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 ban any teaching in Polish; those attempts, however, were vetoed by [[Moscow]], which saw them as too nationalistic.<ref name="Budryte"/> The Soviet census of 1959 showed 230,100 Poles concentrated in the Vilnius region (8.5% of the Lithuanian SSR's population).<ref name="Eberhardt">{{cite web |url= http://www.wspolnota-polska.org.pl/index.php?id=kw4_5_06|title= Liczebność i rozmieszczenie ludności polskiej na Litwie (Numbers and distribution of Polish population in Lithuania)|access-date=2008-06-02 |last=Eberhardt |first=Piotr |author-link=Piotr Eberhart |language= pl}}</ref> 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).<ref name="Eberhardt"/> The Polish minority, subject in the past to massive, often voluntary<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnic/Random%20Narratives/LithuaniaRN1.3.pdf |title=Lithuania|access-date=2008-06-02 |last= Fearon |first=James D. |author2=Laitin, David D. |year= 2006 |publisher= Stanford University |page=4 |quote= For example, in Vilnius where in the Soviet years education in Polish was offered by some 13–14 schools, only 25 percent of the children born to [[Monoethnicity|monoethnic]] Polish families attended Polish schools. About 50% of them chose Russian schools, and only 10% Lithuanian schools.}}</ref> [[Russification]] and [[Sovietization]], and recently to voluntary processes of [[Lithuanization]], shows many and increasing signs of [[Cultural assimilation|assimilation]] with [[Lithuanians]].<ref name="Eberhardt"/>
 ==In independent Lithuania==
 [[File:Polacy-na-litwie.png|thumb|left|200px|Grey: Areas with majority Polish population in modern Lithuania. Red: 1920-1939 Polish-Lithuanian border]]
-The situation of the Polish minority in Lithuania has caused occasional tensions in [[Polish-Lithuanian relations]] during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. When Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, Soviet President [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] sought help from the Polish minority.<ref>[http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnic/Random%20Narratives/LithuaniaRN1.3.pdf Lithuania]. [[Stanford University]], 2006</ref><ref name=peters>''Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-century Eastern Europe'', Cambridge University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-521-00774-7}}, Roger Dale Petersen, [https://books.google.com/books?id=lX5C3CcwJc4C&pg=PA153&dq=Vilnija+poles&hl=pl Google Print, p.153]</ref> The Polish minority, still remembering the 1950s attempts to ban Polish,<ref name="Budryte"/> was much more supportive of the Soviet Union and afraid that the new Lithuanian government might want to reintroduce the Lithuanization policies.<ref name="Budryte"/> A pro-Moscow anti-independence movement similar to Internationalist movements in Latvia and Estonia was formed in 1989, called the [[Yedinstvo (Lithuania)|Unity]]. The organization was supported by many Poles of Lithuania, making it perhaps more popular with the Polish minority than with the Russophone minority of Lithuania.<ref>{{Cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/globalconvulsion00vanh | url-access = registration | page = [https://archive.org/details/globalconvulsion00vanh/page/253 253] | quote = Jedność Vienybė. | title = Global convulsions: Race, ethnicity, and nationalism at the end of the twentieth century | publisher = SUNY Press | isbn = 978-0-7914-3235-8 | last1 = Van Horne | first1 = Winston A | year = 1997}}</ref> This might have surprised the Poles of Warsaw, then seeking a de-communization in Poland and declaring the question of the Polish minority in Lithuania an internal matter of Lithuania. The pro-Moscow stance of some leading Poles of Lithuania compromised at times the activities of more Lithuania-friendly Poles. At the election to the Soviet [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]], two Poles (one of them [[Jan Ciechanowicz]]) were elected to that body, both pro-Moscow.
+The situation of the Polish minority in Lithuania has caused occasional tensions in [[Polish-Lithuanian relations]] during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. When Lithuania declared its independence from the [[Soviet Union]] in 1990, Soviet President [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] sought help from the Polish minority.<ref>[http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnic/Random%20Narratives/LithuaniaRN1.3.pdf Lithuania]. [[Stanford University]], 2006</ref><ref name=peters>''Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-century Eastern Europe'', Cambridge University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-521-00774-7}}, Roger Dale Petersen, [https://books.google.com/books?id=lX5C3CcwJc4C&pg=PA153&dq=Vilnija+poles&hl=pl Google Print, p.153]</ref> The Polish minority, still remembering the 1950s attempts to ban Polish,<ref name="Budryte"/> was much more supportive of the Soviet Union and afraid that the new Lithuanian government might want to reintroduce the Lithuanization policies.<ref name="Budryte"/> A pro-Moscow anti-independence movement similar to Internationalist movements in Latvia and Estonia was formed in 1989, called the [[Yedinstvo (Lithuania)|Unity]]. The organization was supported by many Poles of Lithuania, making it perhaps more popular with the Polish minority than with the Russophone minority of Lithuania.<ref>{{Cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/globalconvulsion00vanh | url-access = registration | page = [https://archive.org/details/globalconvulsion00vanh/page/253 253] | quote = Jedność Vienybė. | title = Global convulsions: Race, ethnicity, and nationalism at the end of the twentieth century | publisher = SUNY Press | isbn = 978-0-7914-3235-8 | last1 = Van Horne | first1 = Winston A | year = 1997}}</ref> This might have surprised the Poles of Warsaw, then seeking a de-communization in Poland and declaring the question of the Polish minority in Lithuania an internal matter of Lithuania. The pro-Moscow stance of some leading Poles of Lithuania compromised at times the activities of more Lithuania-friendly Poles. At the election to the Soviet [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]], two Poles (one of them [[Jan Ciechanowicz]]) were elected to that body, both pro-Moscow.
-According to surveys conducted in 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.<ref name="Budryte">{{cite book | author =Dovile Budryte | title =Taming Nationalism?: Political Community Building in the Post-Soviet Baltic States | year =2005 | pages =147–148 | publisher =Ashgate Publishing | location =Aldershot | isbn =0-7546-3757-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UJMzpeUHkQcC&pg=PA149 | author-link =Dovile Budryte }}</ref> The regional authorities in Vilnius and Šalčininkai region, under Polish leadership, with support from Soviet authorities, argued for the establishment of an [[Polish National Territorial Region|autonomous region]] in South Eastern Lithuania, a request that was declined by the Lithuanian government and left lasting resentment among some residents.<ref name=peters/><ref name="Moser"/> The same Polish regional leaders later voiced support for the [[Soviet coup attempt of 1991]] in Moscow.<ref name="Moser">{{cite book | author =Robert G. Moser | title =Ethnic Politics After Communism| year =2005 |page = 130 | publisher =Cornell University Press| location =Aldershot | isbn = 0-8014-7276-8| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QodWT_BdOs8C&pg=RA1-PA130 }}</ref> The [[Government of Poland]], however, never supported the autonomist tendencies of the Polish minority in Lithuania.
+According to surveys conducted in 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.<ref name="Budryte">{{cite book | author =Dovile Budryte | title =Taming Nationalism?: Political Community Building in the Post-Soviet Baltic States | year =2005 | pages =147–148 | publisher =Ashgate Publishing | location =Aldershot | isbn =0-7546-3757-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UJMzpeUHkQcC&pg=PA149 | author-link =Dovile Budryte }}</ref> The regional authorities in Vilnius and Šalčininkai region, under Polish leadership, with support from Soviet authorities, argued for the establishment of an [[Polish National-Territorial Region|autonomous region]] in South Eastern Lithuania, a request that was declined by the Lithuanian government and left lasting resentment among some residents.<ref name=peters/><ref name="Moser"/> The same Polish regional leaders later voiced support for the [[Soviet coup attempt of 1991]] in Moscow.<ref name="Moser">{{cite book | author =Robert G. Moser | title =Ethnic Politics After Communism| year =2005 |page = 130 | publisher =Cornell University Press| location =Aldershot | isbn = 0-8014-7276-8| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QodWT_BdOs8C&pg=RA1-PA130 }}</ref> The [[Government of Poland]], however, never supported the autonomist tendencies of the Polish minority in Lithuania.
-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 [[Sejm|Polish Parliament]] criticized the government of Lithuania over alleged discrimination against the Polish minority.<ref>[https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/eur/691.htm Lithuania -Country Reports on Human Rights Practices]. [[US Department of State]], February 23, 2001. Accessed September 14, 2007.</ref> In recent years, the Lithuanian government budgeted 40,000 [[Lithuanian litas|litas]] (~€10,000) for the needs of the Polish minority (out of the 2 million Eur budget of the Department of National Minorities).<ref>{{in lang|pl}} Tadeusz Andrzejewski, [http://www.tygodnik.lt/200612/aktualia3.html IX posiedzenie podzespołu ds. edukacji mniejszości narodowych w sprawach litewskiej oświaty na Sejneńszczyźnie], Tygodnik Wileńszczyzny, 23 - 29 marca 2006 r. nr 12</ref> In 2006 Polish Foreign Minister [[Stefan Meller]] asserted that Polish educational institutions in Lithuania are severely underfunded.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://ks.sejm.gov.pl:8009/kad5/010/50101113.htm 5 kadencja, 10 posiedzenie, 1 dzień (15.02.2006) 2 punkt porządku dziennego: Informacja Ministra Spraw Zagranicznych o zadaniach polskiej polityki zagranicznej w 2006 r.]{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Similar concerns were voiced in 2007 by a Polish parliamentary commission.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://www.ryszardbender.pl/senat/komisja.html Posiedzenie Komisji w dniu 11 kwietnia 2007 roku] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071221124846/http://www.ryszardbender.pl/senat/komisja.html |date=2007-12-21 }}, Komisja Spraw Emigracji i Łączności z Polakami za Granicą.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fra.europa.eu/fra/material/pub/RAXEN/4/edu/CC/EDU-Lithuania-final.pdf|title=RAXEN_CC National Focal Point Lithuania|access-date=2007-08-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610231147/http://fra.europa.eu/fra/material/pub/RAXEN/4/edu/CC/EDU-Lithuania-final.pdf|archive-date=2007-06-10|url-status=dead}}</ref> The branch of the [[University of Białystok]] in [[Vilnius]] educates mostly members of the Polish minority.
+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 [[Sejm|Polish Parliament]] criticized the government of Lithuania over alleged discrimination against the Polish minority.<ref>[https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/eur/691.htm Lithuania -Country Reports on Human Rights Practices]. [[US Department of State]], February 23, 2001. Accessed September 14, 2007.</ref> In recent years, the Lithuanian government budgets 40,000 [[Lithuanian litas|litas]] (~€10,000) for the needs of the Polish minority (out of the 2 million Eur budget of the Department of National Minorities).<ref>{{in lang|pl}} Tadeusz Andrzejewski, [http://www.tygodnik.lt/200612/aktualia3.html IX posiedzenie podzespołu ds. edukacji mniejszości narodowych w sprawach litewskiej oświaty na Sejneńszczyźnie], Tygodnik Wileńszczyzny, 23 - 29 marca 2006 r. nr 12</ref> In 2006 Polish Foreign Minister [[Stefan Meller]] asserted that Polish educational institutions in Lithuania are severely underfunded.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://ks.sejm.gov.pl:8009/kad5/010/50101113.htm 5 kadencja, 10 posiedzenie, 1 dzień (15.02.2006) 2 punkt porządku dziennego: Informacja Ministra Spraw Zagranicznych o zadaniach polskiej polityki zagranicznej w 2006 r.]{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Similar concerns were voiced in 2007 by a Polish parliamentary commission.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://www.ryszardbender.pl/senat/komisja.html Posiedzenie Komisji w dniu 11 kwietnia 2007 roku] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071221124846/http://www.ryszardbender.pl/senat/komisja.html |date=2007-12-21 }}, Komisja Spraw Emigracji i Łączności z Polakami za Granicą.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fra.europa.eu/fra/material/pub/RAXEN/4/edu/CC/EDU-Lithuania-final.pdf|title=RAXEN_CC National Focal Point Lithuania|access-date=2007-08-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610231147/http://fra.europa.eu/fra/material/pub/RAXEN/4/edu/CC/EDU-Lithuania-final.pdf|archive-date=2007-06-10|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ViewDoc 2007">[https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1134263&BackColorInternet=DBDCF2&BackColorIntranet=FDC864&BackColorLogged=FFC679#P192_38971 Memorandum to the Lithuanian Government Assessment of the progress made in implementing the 2004 recommendations of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights] [[Council of Europe]], 16 May 2007.</ref> The citizenship law was under discussion during 2007; it was deemed unconstitutional on 13 November 2006.<ref name="lrkt.lt">{{cite web|url=http://www.lrkt.lt/dokumentai/2006/r061113.htm|title=Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucinis Teismas|access-date=25 April 2015}}</ref> A proposed constitutional amendment would allow the Polish minority in Lithuania to apply for Polish passports.<ref>[http://finanse.wp.pl/POD,1,wid,9102035,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=144ac Polish press review - Government & Economy]. Wirtualna Polska, 10/08/2007</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rp.pl/artykul/38,266163.html|title=Litewski Sejm gra Kartą Polaka|work=Rzeczpospolita|access-date=25 April 2015}}</ref>
@@ Line 223: / Line 220: @@
 Representatives of the Lithuanian government demanded removal of Polish names of the streets in [[Maišiagala]] (Mejszagoła), [[Raudondvaris]] (Czerwony Dwór), Riešė (Rzesza) and Sudervė (Suderwa)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vilniaus-r.lt/index.php?id=4061|title=Przedstawiciel rządu na powiat wileński narusza Konwencję Ramową RE<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=2007-12-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080104190654/http://www.vilniaus-r.lt/index.php?id=4061|archive-date=2008-01-04|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.efhr.eu/2012/09/24/polish-names-of-streets-are-an-eyesore-again/?lang=en|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130217112143/http://www.efhr.eu/2012/09/24/polish-names-of-streets-are-an-eyesore-again/?lang=en|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-02-17|title=Strona nie została znaleziona — EUROPEJSKA FUNDACJA PRAW CZŁOWIEKA}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.magwil.lt/archiwum/2005/wmw-10/pazd-3.htm|title=New Page 1|access-date=25 April 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113021239/http://www.magwil.lt/archiwum/2005/wmw-10/pazd-3.htm|archive-date=13 January 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.balticsww.com/pope.htm |title=The Divine Painting |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061006184227/http://www.balticsww.com/pope.htm |archive-date=2006-10-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lcn.lt/en/bl/news/?newsid=1647|title=News|access-date=25 April 2015}}</ref> The Seimas voted against foreign surnames in Lithuanian passports.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/2010/04/08/seimas-votes-against-original-foreign-surnames-in-passports-again/ |title=Seimas votes against original foreign surnames in passports again &#124; The Lithuania TribuneThe Lithuania Tribune |publisher=Lithuaniatribune.com |access-date=2013-10-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301042133/http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/2010/04/08/seimas-votes-against-original-foreign-surnames-in-passports-again/ |archive-date=2012-03-01 }}</ref>
-The situation is further escalated by extremist{{Why|date=July 2020}} groups on both sides. Lithuanian extremist{{POV statement|date=July 2020}} [[nationalist]] organization [[Vilnija]]<ref name=peters/><ref name="GW_2001">{{cite journal | title =Litewska prokuratura przesłuchuje weteranów AK | journal = [[Gazeta Wyborcza]] | url=http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/swiat/1,34175,151474.html |language=pl |quote=Vilnija to organizacja skrajna, nacjonalistyczna, której głównym celem jest likwidacja skutków wielowiekowej dominacji Polski nad Litwą i tzw. okupacji Wileńszczyzny w międzywojniu. |access-date=2009-05-10 }}</ref><ref name="Media_2">{{cite journal | author =Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs |date=September 2004 | title =Dr Garsva – prezes nacjonalistycznego stowarzyszenia Vilnija (...) | journal = Media Zagraniczne O Polsce (Foreign Media on Poland) | volume =XIII | issue =2409 (3162) |language=pl}}</ref><ref name="Tygodnik">{{cite journal |date=November 2005 | title =Uknuli prowokację | journal =[[Tygodnik Wileńszczyzny]] | url =http://www.tygodnik.lt/200511/aktualia.html | access-date =2008-06-02 |language=pl}}</ref> seeks the Lithuanization{{Explain|date=July 2020}}{{How|date=July 2020}} of Poles living in the Eastern part of Lithuania.<ref name="Budryte"/> The former Polish Ambassador to Lithuania, [[Jan Widacki]], has criticised some Polish organizations in Lithuania as being far-right and nationalist.<ref>{{cite web | author=BNS | title=Buvęs ambasadorius kritikuoja Lietuvos lenkų lyderius (''Ex-ambassador criticizes leaders of Polish community'')| publisher=[[Delfi.lt]]| url= http://www.delfi.lt/archive/article.php?id=20424| access-date=2008-06-02 |language=lt}}</ref> [[Jan Senkevič|Jan Sienkiewicz]] has criticized Jan Widacki.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/dodatki/plus_minus_070609/plus_minus_a_4.html |title=Wiadomości &#124; wiadomości tv.rp.pl, informacje, ekonomia, prawo &#124; rp.pl |publisher=Rzeczpospolita.pl |language= pl |access-date=2013-10-25}}</ref>
+The situation is further escalated by extremist{{Why|date=July 2020}} groups on both sides. Lithuanian extremist{{POV statement|date=July 2020}} [[nationalist]] organization [[Vilnija]]<ref name=peters/><ref name="GW_2001">{{cite journal | title =Litewska prokuratura przesłuchuje weteranów AK | journal = [[Gazeta Wyborcza]] | url=http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/swiat/1,34175,151474.html |language=pl |quote=Vilnija to organizacja skrajna, nacjonalistyczna, której głównym celem jest likwidacja skutków wielowiekowej dominacji Polski nad Litwą i tzw. okupacji Wileńszczyzny w międzywojniu. |access-date=2009-05-10 }}</ref><ref name="Media_2">{{cite journal | author =Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs |date=September 2004 | title =Dr Garsva – prezes nacjonalistycznego stowarzyszenia Vilnija (...) | journal = Media Zagraniczne O Polsce (Foreign Media on Poland) | volume =XIII | issue =2409 (3162) |language=pl}}</ref><ref name="Tygodnik">{{cite journal |date=November 2005 | title =Uknuli prowokację | journal =[[Tygodnik Wileńszczyzny]] | url =http://www.tygodnik.lt/200511/aktualia.html | access-date =2008-06-02 |language=pl}}</ref> seeks the [[Lithuanization]]{{Explain|date=July 2020}}{{How|date=July 2020}} of Poles living in the Eastern part of [[Lithuania]].<ref name="Budryte"/> The former Polish Ambassador to Lithuania, [[Jan Widacki]], has criticised some Polish organizations in Lithuania as being far-right and nationalist.<ref>{{cite web | author=BNS | title=Buvęs ambasadorius kritikuoja Lietuvos lenkų lyderius (''Ex-ambassador criticizes leaders of Polish community'')| publisher=[[Delfi.lt]]| url= http://www.delfi.lt/archive/article.php?id=20424| access-date=2008-06-02 |language=lt}}</ref> [[Jan Senkevič|Jan Sienkiewicz]] has criticized Jan Widacki.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/dodatki/plus_minus_070609/plus_minus_a_4.html |title=Wiadomości &#124; wiadomości tv.rp.pl, informacje, ekonomia, prawo &#124; rp.pl |publisher=Rzeczpospolita.pl |language= pl |access-date=2013-10-25}}</ref>
 In late May 2008, the [[Association of Poles in Lithuania]] issued a letter, addressed to the government of Lithuania, 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.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://www.rp.pl/artykul/137412.html Polacy atakowani w mediach], rp.pl, 21-05-2008</ref><ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://fakty.interia.pl/swiat/news/litwa-polacy-zwracaja-sie-do-wladz-o-pomoc,1114321 Litwa: Polacy zwracają się do władz o pomoc], interia.pl, 21-05-2008 {{dead link|date=May 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Zwiazek-Polakow-na-Litwie-apeluje-o-zaprzestanie-kampanii-przeciwko-mniejszosciom-narodowym-1770706.html Związek Polaków na Litwie apeluje o zaprzestanie kampanii przeciwko mniejszościom narodowym], 21-05-2008</ref>
@@ Line 245: / Line 242: @@
 ===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 [[cognate]]s among [[Lithuanian name|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.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} 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 language|Belarusian]] -оўскі and -e/овіч.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} The suffixes -e/owski, -(ń)ski, and -cki are historically characteristic of [[Polish name]]s and -e/ovič of [[Belarusian name]]s.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} Surnames ending with -e/ovič, which is more frequent among Lithuanians (-e/-avičius), Belarusians, and Lithuanian Poles, is rarer in Poland.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}
+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 [[cognate]]s among [[Lithuanian name|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.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} There is a common use of the Balto-Slavic patronymic suffixes: [[Polish language|Pol.]] -e/owski and -e/owicz, [[Lithuanian language|Lith.]] -(i)auskas and -e/avičius, and [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] -оўскі and -e/овіч.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} The suffixes -e/owski, -(ń)ski, and -cki are historically characteristic of [[Polish name]]s and -e/ovič of [[Belarusian name]]s.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} Surnames ending with -e/ovič, which is more frequent among Lithuanians (-e/-avičius), Belarusians, and Lithuanian Poles, is rarer in Poland.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}
 ====Name/surname spelling====
@@ Line 264: / Line 261: @@
 Poles in Lithuania are organized into several groups and associations.
-The [[Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance]] ({{lang-lt|Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija|links=no}}, {{lang-pl|Akcja Wyborcza Polaków na Litwie|links=no}}) 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 council]]s.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://encyklopedia.interia.pl/haslo?hid=216646 AKCJA WYBORCZA POLAKÓW NA LITWIE]. [[Encyklopedia Interia]]. Last accessed 20 January 2007.</ref> It cooperates with other minorities, mainly the [[Lithuanian Russian Union]].
+The [[Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance]] ({{lang-lt|Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija}}, {{lang-pl|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 council]]s.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://encyklopedia.interia.pl/haslo?hid=216646 AKCJA WYBORCZA POLAKÓW NA LITWIE]. [[Encyklopedia Interia]]. Last accessed 20 January 2007.</ref> It cooperates with other minorities, mainly the [[Lithuanian Russian Union]].
-The [[Association of Poles in Lithuania]] ({{lang-pl|Związek Polaków na Litwie|links=no}}) 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.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://encyklopedia.interia.pl/haslo?hid=114890 ZWIĄZEK POLAKÓW NA LITWIE]. [[Encyklopedia Interia]]. Last accessed 20 January 2007.</ref>
+The [[Association of Poles in Lithuania]] ({{lang-pl|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.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} [http://encyklopedia.interia.pl/haslo?hid=114890 ZWIĄZEK POLAKÓW NA LITWIE]. [[Encyklopedia Interia]]. Last accessed 20 January 2007.</ref>
 ==Prominent Poles==
@@ Line 278: / Line 275: @@
 * [[Sofija Pšibiliauskienė]] – writer ({{lang-pl|Zofia Przybylewska}})
 * [[Marija Lastauskienė]] – writer ({{lang-pl|Maria Lastowska}})
-* Medard Czobot – politician ({{lang-lt|[[Medardas Čobotas]]}})
+* [[Medardas Čobotas|Medard Czobot]] – politician ({{lang-lt|Medardas Čobotas}})
 ===Since 1990===
@@ Line 284: / Line 281: @@
 * [[Darjuš Lavrinovič]] ({{lang-pl|Dariusz Ławrynowicz}}) – basketball player
 * [[Kšyštof Lavrinovič]] ({{lang-pl|Krzysztof Ławrynowicz}}) – basketball player
-* [[Artur Liudkovski]] ({{lang-pl|Artur Ludkowski}}) – former deputy mayor of Vilnius
+* [[Artur Liudkovski]] ({{lang-pl|Artur Ludkowski}}) – former deputy mayor of [[Vilnius]]
 * [[Jaroslav Neverovič|Jarosław Niewierowicz]] ({{lang-lt|Jaroslav Neverovič}}) – former minister of energy, former vice-minister of foreign affairs
-* Czesław Okińczyc ({{lang-lt|[[Česlav Okinčic]]}}) – politician, journalist
+* [[Česlav Okinčic|Czesław Okińczyc]] ({{lang-lt|Česlav Okinčic}}) – politician, journalist
 * [[Artur Plokšto|Artur Płokszto]] ({{lang-lt|Artur Plokšto}}) – secretary of Ministry of National Defence
-* Leokadia Poczykowska ({{lang-lt|[[Leokadija Počikovska]]}}) – politician
+* [[Leokadija Počikovska|Leokadia Poczykowska]] ({{lang-lt|Leokadija Počikovska}}) – politician
-* Ewelina Saszenko ({{lang-lt|[[Evelina Sašenko]]}}) – singer
+* [[Ewelina Saszenko]] ({{lang-lt|Evelina Sašenko}}) – singer
 * [[Jan Senkevič|Jan Sienkiewicz]] ({{lang-lt|Jan Senkevič}}) –– politician, journalist
 * [[Valdemar Tomaševski]] ({{lang-pl|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.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.lrkm.lt/go.php/lit/Kulturos_ministerijoje_pradejo_dirbti_tr/2276/1| title = ''Kultūros ministerijoje pradėjo dirbti trečiasis viceministras''| access-date = 2012-08-13| archive-url = https://archive.today/20120804211348/http://www.lrkm.lt/go.php/lit/Kulturos_ministerijoje_pradejo_dirbti_tr/2276/1| archive-date = 2012-08-04| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kresy.pl/wydarzenia,polityka?zobacz/litewski-rzad-powolal-wiceministra-ds-mniejszosci-narodowych|title=Litewski rząd powołał wiceministra ds. mniejszości narodowych :: polityka|work=Kresy.pl|access-date=25 April 2015}}</ref>
 * [[Jarosław Wołkonowski]] – dean of branch of [[University of Białystok]] in Vilnius
-* Alina Orłowska – singer ({{lang-lt|[[Alina Orlova]]}})
+* [[Alina Orlova|Alina Orłowska]] – singer ({{lang-lt|Alina Orlova}})
-* Michał Mackiewicz – politician ({{lang-lt|[[Michal Mackevič]]}})
+* [[Michal Mackevič|Michał Mackiewicz]] – politician ({{lang-lt|Michal Mackevič}})
-* Irena Litwinowicz – politician ({{lang-lt|[[Irena Litvinovič]]}})
+* [[Irena Litvinovič|Irena Litwinowicz]] – politician ({{lang-lt|Irena Litvinovič}})
-* Zbigniew Balcewicz – politician ({{lang-lt|[[Zbignev Balcevič]]}})
+* [[Zbignev Balcevič|Zbigniew Balcewicz]] – politician ({{lang-lt|Zbignev Balcevič}})
 ==See also==
@@ Line 304: / Line 301: @@
 * [[Lithuanian minority in Poland]]
 * [[Pochodnia]], Polish cultural association in the interwar Lithuania
-* [[Polish National Territorial Region]]
+* [[Polish National-Territorial Region]]
 == Notes ==
@@ Line 315: / Line 312: @@
 ;Bibliography
-*{{Cite news |last=Butkus |first=Alvydas |date=16 December 2015 |title=Lietuvos gyventojai tautybės požiūriu |url=https://alkas.lt/2015/12/16/a-butkus-lietuvos-gyventojai-tautybes-poziuriu/}}
+*{{Cite news|last=Butkus|first=A.|date=16 December 2015|title=Lietuvos gyventojai tautybės požiūriu|url=https://alkas.lt/2015/12/16/a-butkus-lietuvos-gyventojai-tautybes-poziuriu/}}
 *{{Cite journal|last=Budreckis|first=Algirdas|date=1967|title=Etnografinės Lietuvos Rytinės ir Pietinės Sienos|url=http://partizanai.org/karys-1967m-7-8/5742-etnografines-lietuvos-rytines-ir-pietines-sienos|journal=[[Karys]]}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Clemens |first=Walter C. |url=https://archive.org/details/balticindependen0000clem/page/150/mode/2up?q=%22Poles+in+Lithuania%22 |title=Baltic Independence and Russian Empire |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |year=1991 |location=0-312-04806-8 |pages=150 |author-link=Walter Clemens}}
+*{{Cite book|last=Clemens|first=Walter C.|url=https://archive.org/details/balticindependen0000clem/page/150/mode/2up?q=%22Poles+in+Lithuania%22|title=Baltic Independence and Russian Empire|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|year=1991|location=0-312-04806-8|pages=150}}
-* {{Cite book |last=Sanford |first=George |title=Poland: the conquest of history |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=1999 |author-link=George Sanford (political scientist)}}
+* {{Cite book|last=Sanford|first=George|title=Poland: the conquest of history|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|year=1999}}
 *{{Cite book|last=Šapoka|first=Adolfas|url=https://archive.org/details/sapoka-rastai-t.-1-2013/page/216/mode/2up?q=Tutejszy|title=Raštai|publisher=Edukologija|year=2013|volume=I - Vilniaus Istorija|location=Vilnius|language=Lithuanian}}
 *{{cite journal |last= Kupczak |first= Janusz M. |year= 1998 | title= Z problematyki stosunków narodowościowych na Litwie współczesnej |journal= Politologia |volume= XXII }}
-* {{Cite book |last=Lane |first=A. Thomas |title=Lithuania: Stepping Westward |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2001}}
+* {{Cite book|last=Lane|first=A. T.|title=Lithuania: Stepping Westward|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2001}}
 *{{Cite journal|last1=Lipscomb|first1=Glenard P.|author2-link=Committee for a Free Lithuania|last2=Committee for a Free Lithuania|date=29 May 1958|title=Extension of Remarks|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_may-27-june-19-1958_104_appendix/page/n107/mode/2up?q=Tutejszy|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=104 - Appendix}}
 * {{cite book | last = Łossowski | first = Piotr | author-link = Piotr Łossowski |author2=Bronius Makauskas | others = Scientific Editor Andrzej Koryna | title = Kraje bałtyckie w latach przełomu 1934-1944 | isbn = 83-88909-42-8 | publisher = Instytut Historii PAN; Fundacja Pogranicze | location = Warszawa | year = 2005 | language = pl }}

v t e Ethnic groups in Lithuania
Lithuanians
Largest ethnic minorities	Poles Russians Belarusians Ukrainians	Lithuania portal
Smaller ethnic minorities	Jews Karaims Tatars Latvians Armenians
Other	Kursenieki Prussian Lithuanians Samogitians Tutejszy Roma