Trakai District Municipality is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania .
111-610: It has significant Polish minority population in Lithuania, with more than quarter of the population claiming Polish ethnicity. Trakai District Municipality is divided into 8 elderships: The Trakai district became significant early in its history due to the Old Trakai Castle built by the Grand Duke Gediminas in the 13th century. Many other castles were built in the area soon after this one, including
222-584: A Tomasz Snarski about the language rights of Polish minority, in particular about enforced Lithuanization of Polish surnames. Representatives of the Lithuanian government demanded removal of illegally placed Polish names of the streets in Maišiagala , Raudondvaris , Riešė and Sudervė as by a Lithuanian law, all the street name signs must be in a state language. as by constitutional law all names have to be in Lithuanian. Tensions have been reported between
333-553: A combination of languages (for example Lithuanian-Polish, Lithuanian-Russian-Polish). These numbers fell to 49 and 41 in 2011, reflecting a general decline in the number of schools in Lithuania. Polish government was concerned in 2015 about the education in Polish. First Polish people in Lithuania were mainly enslaved war captives . Poles started to migrate to the Grand Duchy in more noticeable numbers after Christianization of
444-408: A commission headed by György Frunda (the so-called "Frunda Report"), which criticized Lithuanian policy toward the Polish minority, particularly the lack of recognition of the Polish university. However, this did not significantly affect Lithuanian politics. In 1996, the special provisions that made an entry of ethno-political parties parliament easier were removed, and from then on they had to meet
555-487: A gateway to the progressive Slavization of the Lithuanian population. This led to the formation of a compact Polish language area between the Lithuanian and Belarusian language areas, with Vilnius as the center. The position of Vilnius as an important Polish cultural center influenced the development of national identities among Roman Catholic peasants in the region. The emergence of the Lithuanian national movement in
666-486: A minority of them speak Russian or Lithuanian, as their first language. Together with Vilnius City, Poles inhabit an area of approximately 4000 km . 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
777-514: 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
888-504: A result, they also were forced to attend Lithuanian schools. Polish education was organized by the "Pochodnia". After the establishment of Valdemaras regime in 1926, 58 Polish schools were closed, many Poles were incarcerated, and Polish newspapers were placed under strict censorship. Poles also had difficult access to higher education. Over time, the Polish language was also removed from the Church and seminaries. The most tragic episode in
999-494: A treaty of good neighborhood. The treaty protected the rights of the Polish minority in Lithuania and the Lithuanian minority in Poland. It also defined nationality as a matter of individual choice, which was contrary to the definition popular among Lithuanian nationalists, and even to the definition given in Lithuania's National Minorities Right Law of 1989, which defined nationality as something inherited. The Treaty defined that to
1110-413: 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. Polish population transfers (1944%E2%80%931946) The Polish population transfers in 1944–1946 from the eastern half of prewar Poland (also known as
1221-451: Is classified under Northern Borderlands dialect . Most of Poles who live southwards of Vilnius speak a form of Belarusian vernacular called there " simple speech ", that contains many substratical relics from Lithuanian and Polish . As of 1980, about 20% of Polish Lithuanian students chose Polish as the language of instruction at school. In the same year, about 60–70% of rural Polish communities chose Polish. However, even in towns with
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#17328008141101332-594: Is difficult to establish the exact number of Poles expelled from Lviv, but it was estimated as between 100,000 and 140,000. In contrast to actions in the Ukrainian SSR, the communist officials in the Byelorussian SSR did not actively support deportation of Poles. Belarusian officials made it difficult for Polish activists to communicate with tuteishians – people who were undecided as to whether they considered themselves Polish or Belarusian. Much of
1443-530: Is governed by the 31 January 1991 Resolution of the Supreme Council of Lithuania No. I-1031 "Concerning name and surname spelling in the passport of the citizen of the Republic of Lithuania". There are the following options. The law says, in part: 2. In the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, the first name and surname of persons of non-Lithuanian origin shall be spelt in Lithuanian. On
1554-627: The GKChP in the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , which doomed any prospect of a return to Soviet rule. Simultaneously, after the August Coup's failure, the Polish autonomous region was immediately declared illegal by the Lithuanian government, which instituted direct rule in those areas. In April 1989, another more moderate organization of Lithuanian Poles, the Association of Poles in Lithuania ( Polish : Związek Polaków na Litwie , ZPL),
1665-510: The Jesuits residing in Lithuania. The influx of Poles to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania significantly increased after the Union of Lublin . This population movement created a fertile ground for socio-cultural Polonization of Lithuanian territories. While Poles and foreigners were generally prohibited from holding public offices in the Grand Duchy, Polish people gradually gained this right through
1776-721: The Main Commission to Investigate Crimes Against the Polish Nation in 1997 amounted to a grand total of 320,000 persons deported. Sociologist Tadeusz Piotrowski argues that various other smaller deportations, prisoners of war and political prisoners should be added for a grand total of 400,000 to 500,000 deported. By 1944, the population of ethnic Poles in Western Ukraine was 1,182,100. The Polish government in exile in London affirmed its position of retaining
1887-591: The NKVD arrested 772 Poles in Lviv (where, according to Soviet sources, on 1 October 1944, Poles represented 66.75% of population), among them 14 professors, 6 doctors, 2 engineers, 3 artists, and 5 Catholic priests. The Polish community was outraged about the arrests. The Polish underground press in Lviv characterized these acts as attempts to hasten the deportation of Poles from their city. Those arrested were released after they signed papers agreeing to emigrate to Poland. It
1998-775: The Polish AK and Ukrainians escalated into the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia , led by the nationalist Ukrainian groups including the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army . Although the Soviet government was trying to eradicate these organizations, it did little to support the Polish minority; and instead encouraged population transfer. The haste at which repatriation
2109-609: The Polish Parliament criticized the government of Lithuania over alleged discrimination against the Polish minority. In 2006 Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Meller asserted that Polish educational institutions in Lithuania are severely underfunded. Similar concerns were voiced in 2007 by a Polish parliamentary commission. According to a report issued by the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency in 2004, Poles in Lithuania were
2220-827: The Russian people ". The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 brought an end to the Russian Empire. According to Ukrainian sources from the Cold War period, during the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 the Polish population of Kyiv was 42,800. In July 1917, when relations between the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) and Russia became strained, the Polish Democratic Council of Kyiv supported
2331-628: The Trakai Peninsula Castle and the Trakai Island Castle . For many years, it has been distinguished from much of the rest of Lithuania in having other ethnic groups such as Karaims , Tatars , Russians and Poles living in the vicinity. Trakai was an area holding great significance in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . The Trakai region began to decline politically and economically in the 16th century. During
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#17328008141102442-737: The Tutejszy language . In 2015, Polish linguist Mirosław Jankowiak [ pl ] attested that many of the Vilnius Region's inhabitants who declare Polish nationality speak a Belarusian dialect which they call mowa prosta (' simple speech '). Out of the 234,989 Poles in Lithuania, 187,918 (80.0%) consider Polish to be their first language . 22,439 Poles (9.5%) speak Russian as their first language, while 17,233 (7.3%) speak Lithuanian. 6,279 Poles (2.7%) did not indicate their first language. The remaining 0.5% speak various other languages. The Polish regiolect spoken by Lithuanian Poles
2553-541: The Union of Lublin in 1569, when most of the territory became part of the newly established Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . From 1657 to 1793, some 80 Roman Catholic churches and monasteries were built in Volhynia alone. The expansion of Catholicism in Lemkivshchyna , Chełm Land , Podlaskie , Brześć land , Galicia , Volhynia and Right bank Ukraine was accompanied by the process of gradual Polonization of
2664-551: The Vilnius city municipality in the east. 54°35′06″N 24°47′38″E / 54.58500°N 24.79389°E / 54.58500; 24.79389 Poles in Lithuania The Poles in Lithuania ( Polish : Polacy na Litwie , Lithuanian : Lietuvos lenkai ), also called Lithuanian Poles , estimated at 183,000 people in the Lithuanian census of 2021 or 6.5% of Lithuania 's total population, are
2775-590: The World War II expulsions and shortly after the war, the Soviet Union , forcibly exchanged population between Poland and Lithuania . During 1945–1948, the Soviet Union allowed 197,000 Poles to leave to Poland; in 1956–1959, another 46,600 were able to leave. Ethnic Poles made up 80-91% of Vilnius population in 1944. All Poles in the city were required to register for resettlement. In most cases,
2886-530: The 16th century, the largest concentrations of Poles in the GDL were located in Podlachia, the border areas of Samogitia , Lithuania and Belarus , and the cities of Vilnius , Brest , Kaunas , Grodno , Kėdainiai , and Nyasvizh . During that period, the royal and grand ducal courts were nearly entirely composed of Polish speakers. Polish quickly supplanted Ruthenian as the language of Lithuanian elite after
2997-492: The 1880s slowed down the process of Polonization of the ethnically Lithuanian population, but also cemented a sense of national identity among a significant portion of the Polish-speaking Lithuanian population. The feeling of a two-tier Lithuanian-Polish national identity, present throughout the period, had to give way to a clear national declaration. From 1918 to 1921 there were several conflicts, such as
3108-568: The 18th century, resulted in the expulsions of ethnic Poles from their homes in the east for the first time in the history of the nation. Some 80,000 Poles were escorted to Siberia by the Russian imperial army in 1864 in the single largest deportation action undertaken within the Russian Partition . "Books were burned; churches destroyed; priests murdered;" wrote Norman Davies . Meanwhile, Ukrainians were officially considered "part of
3219-631: The 1939 borders. Nikita Khrushchev , however, approached Stalin personally to keep the territories gained through the illegal and secret Molotov–Ribbentrop pact under continued Soviet occupation. The residents of the Western Ukraine and Byelorussia, as well as those of the Wilno district, which had been annexed to the Soviet Union under the Ribentrop-Molotov pact of 23 August and 28 September 1939, had all been under German occupation for between two and half to three years, and were finally annexed to
3330-455: The 1990s due to alleged discrimination of the Polish minority in Lithuania. Currently, the Polish population is grouped in the Vilnius region, primarily the Vilnius and Šalčininkai districts. In the city of Vilnius alone there are more than 85,000 Poles, who make up about 15% of the Lithuanian capital's population. Most Poles in Lithuania are Roman Catholic and speak Polish, although
3441-624: The 1992 parliamentary elections winning 2.07% of the votes and four seats in Seimas. In 1994, Lithuanian parliament limited participation in local elections to political parties, accordingly ZPL established Electoral Action for Lithuanian Poles ( Polish : Akcja Wyborcza Polaków na Litwie , AWPL). In January 1995 a new Language Law was enacted which required representatives of local institutions to know Lithuanian language, also all secondary schools were required to teach Lithuanian. Polish–Lithuanian relations eased only in 1994, when both countries signed
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3552-572: The 1994 Polish–Lithuanian agreement, Lithuanian legislative system and the Constitution , see section " Surnames " for details. In 1989–2010 , Lithuanian-Polish bilingual street signs were considered legal in Lithuania if placed in the areas with significant Polish populations. However, the Law on National Minorities, which guaranteed this, was discontinued. As a result, such signs are now prohibited and Lithuanian courts enforce their removal under
3663-495: The 19th century, the processes of Polonization also affected Lithuanian and Belarusian peasants 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. Following World War I and the rebirth of both states, there was the Polish–Lithuanian War , whose main focus
3774-630: The Allied leaders Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, Franklin D. Roosevelt of the U.S., and Joseph Stalin of the USSR, during the conferences at Tehran and Yalta. The Polish transfers were among the largest of several post-war expulsions in Central and Eastern Europe , which displaced a total of about 20 million people. According to official data, during the state-controlled expulsion between 1945 and 1946, roughly 1,167,000 Poles left
3885-535: The Bolshevik and nationalist terror campaigns of the new war triggered the flight of Poles and Jews from Soviet Russia to newly sovereign Poland. In 1922 Bolshevik Russian Red Army , with their Bolshevik allies in Ukraine overwhelmed the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic , including the annexed Ukrainian territories into the Soviet Union . In that year, 120,000 Poles stranded in the east were expelled to
3996-473: The Church and cultural activities, and colloquial language, closer to the speech of the common people. Inhabitants of a significant part of the Vilnius region used a variant of the Belarusian language, which was influenced mainly by Polish, referred to as "simple speech" ( Polish : mowa prosta ). It was a kind of "mixed language" serving as an interdialect of the cultural borderland. This language became
4107-400: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, such as Liauda , northeast of Kaunas (since the early 15th century). The Polish historian Władysław Wielhorski [ pl ] estimated that by the end of the 18th century, Polish and Polonized people constituted 25% of the Grand Duchy's inhabitants. Until the 1830s, Polish was the administrative language in the so called Western Krai , which included
4218-511: The Lithuanian Roman Catholic clergy and its Polish parishioniers in Lithuania. The Seimas voted against foreign surnames in Lithuanian passports. In late May 2008, the Association of Poles in Lithuania issued a letter, addressed to Lithuania's government, complaining about anti-minority (primarily, anti-Polish) rhetoric in media, citing upcoming parliamentary elections as a motive, and asking for better treatment of
4329-549: The Lithuanian SSR was signed on 22 September). The document specified who was eligible for the resettlement (it primarily applied to all Poles and Jews who were citizens of the Second Polish Republic before 17 September 1939, and their families), what property they could take with them, and what aid they would receive from the corresponding governments. The resettlement was divided into two phases: first,
4440-484: The Lithuanian pronunciation; for example, the name Kleczkowski has to be spelled Klečkovski in official documents. Poles who registered for Lithuanian citizenship after dissolution of the Soviet Union were forced to accept official documents with Lithuanian versions of their names. On April 24, 2012 the European Parliament accepted for further consideration the petition (number 0358/2011) submitted by
4551-424: The Lithuanian state should work to restore their "true" identity. Although, many Poles in Lithuania do have Lithuanian ancestry, they considered themselves ethnically Polish. According to the historian Alfred E. Senn , the Polish minority was divided into three main groups: Vilnius' inhabitants supported Lithuanian independence, the residents of Vilnius' southeastern districts and Šalčininkai were pro-Soviet, while
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4662-639: The Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland . The second wave of expulsions resulted from the retaking of Poland from the Wehrmacht by the Red Army . The USSR took over territory for its western republics . The postwar population transfers were part of an official Soviet policy that affected more than one million Polish citizens, who were removed in stages from the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union . After
4773-519: The Polish intelligentsia . It is estimated that about 150,000 to 250,000 people were deported from Belarus. Similar numbers were registered as Poles but forced by the Belarusian officials to remain in Belarus or were outright denied registration as Poles. In response, Poland followed a similar process in regards to the Belarusian population of the territory of the Białystok Voivodeship , which
4884-523: The Polish borders. The loss of Vilnius was a painful blow to Lithuanian aspirations and identity. The irredentist demand for its recovery became one of the most important elements of socio-political life in interwar Lithuania and resulted in the emergence of hostility and resentment against the Poles. In interwar Lithuania, people declaring Polish ethnicity were officially described as Polonized Lithuanians who needed to be re- Lithuanized , Polish-owned land
4995-405: The Polish ethinic minority belongs to persons who have Lithuanian citizenship, are of Polish origin or consider themselves to belong to the Polish nationality, culture and traditions as well as viewing the Polish language as their native language. The situation of the Polish minority assumed international significance again in 1995 after the publication of a Council of Europe report prepared by
5106-474: The Polish government into actions that would cause a loss of support for the more moderate Ukrainian politicians ready to negotiate with the Polish state. OUN directed its violence not only against the Poles but also against Jews and other Ukrainians who wished for a peaceful resolution to the Polish–Ukrainian conflict. The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland during World War II was subsequently accompanied by
5217-585: The Polish language and teaching it to peasants, as well as possession of Polish books by the latter became illegal. Notwithstanding their varied ethnic roots, the members of szlachta generally opted for Polish self-identification in the course of the 19th century. In the 19th century Polish culture was spreading among the lower classes of Lithuania, mainly in Dzūkija and to a lesser degree in Aukštaitija . Linguists distinguish between official Polish language, used in
5328-400: The Polish spelling, most notably Justice Minister Ewelina Dobrowolska (formerly spelled "Evelina Dobrovolska"), but requests for name changes from the general population were low. From May 2022 when law came into action until the end of July 2023 only 337 people changed their names to include non-Lithuanian language symbols and only less than 5 of those declared to be of Polish descent. By
5439-561: The Soviet Union exercised power over both countries and a significant part of the Polish population, especially the best-educated, was forcefully transferred from the Lithuanian SSR to the Polish People's Republic . At the same time, a significant number of Poles relocated from nearby regions of Byelorussian SSR to Vilnius and Vilnius region . After Lithuania regained independence, Lithuania–Poland relations were tense in
5550-637: The Soviet Union in 1944. The speedy exodus of Poles from these regions was meant to erase their Polish past and to confirm the fact that the regions were indeed part of the Soviet Union. The document regarding the resettlement of Poles from the Ukrainian and Belorussian SSRs to Poland was signed 9 September 1944 in Lublin by Khrushchev and the head of the Polish Committee of National Liberation Edward Osóbka-Morawski (the corresponding document with
5661-577: The Soviet Union in 1990 large part of the Polish minority, still remembering the 1950s attempts to ban Polish, was afraid that the independent Lithuanian government might want to reintroduce the Lithuanization policies. Furthermore, some Lithuanian nationalists, notably the Vilnija organization which was founded in 1988, considered eastern Lithuania's inhabitants as Polonized Lithuanians. Due to their view of ethnicity as primordial, they argued that
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#17328008141105772-657: The Soviet authorities blocked the departure of Poles who were interwar Lithuanian citizens and only 8.3% (less than 8,000) of those who registered for repatriation in Kaunas Region in 1945–1946 managed to leave for Poland. In the 1950s the remaining Polish minority was a target of several attempted campaigns of Lithuanization by the Communist Party of Lithuania , which tried to stop any teaching in Polish; those attempts, however, were stopped by Moscow . The Soviet census of 1959 showed 230,100 Poles concentrated in
5883-640: The Soviets forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens to distant parts of the Soviet Union: Siberia and Central Asia. Five years later, for the first time, the Supreme Soviet formally acknowledged that the Polish nationals expelled after the Soviet invasion were not Soviet citizens, but foreign subjects. Two decrees were signed on 22 June and 16 August 1944 to facilitate the release of Polish nationals from captivity. After
5994-401: The USSR, was a deliberate distortion, as deported peoples were leaving their homeland rather than returning to it. It is also sometimes referred to as the 'first repatriation' action, in contrast with the 'second repatriation' of 1955–1959. In a wider context, it is sometimes described as a culmination of a process of de- Polonization of these areas during and after the world war. The process
6105-559: The Ukrainian side in its conflict with Petrograd . Throughout the existence of UNR (1917–21), there was a separate ministry for Polish affairs, headed by Mieczysław Mickiewicz ; it was set up by the Ukrainian side in November 1917. In that entire period, some 1,300 Polish-language schools were operating in Galicia, with 1,800 teachers and 84,000 students. In the region of Podolia in 1917, there were 290 Polish schools. Beginning in 1920,
6216-564: 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 a Polish minority exceeding 15% of
6327-533: The Vilnius region (8.5% of the Lithuanian SSR's population). The Polish minority increased in size, but more slowly than other ethnic groups in Lithuania; the last Soviet census of 1989 showed 258,000 Poles (7.0% of the Lithuanian SSR's population). The Polish minority, subject in the past to massive, often voluntary Russification and Sovietization , and recently to voluntary processes of Lithuanization , shows many and increasing signs of assimilation with Lithuanians. When Lithuania declared its independence from
6438-416: The acquisition of Lithuanian land. Poor nobles from the Crown rented land from local magnates . The number of Poles grew also in the towns, among others in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Grodno. Vilnius became the most important center of the Polish intelligentsia in the Grand Duchy, with Poles predominating in the city in the middle of the 17th century. Already at the beginning of the 16th century Polish became
6549-447: The activity of the Polish Military Organisation , Sejny uprising and a foiled attempt at a Polish coup of the Lithuanian government. As a result of the Polish–Lithuanian War and Żeligowski's mutiny the border between independent Lithuania and Poland was drawn more or less according to the linguistic division of the region. Nevertheless, many Poles lived in the Lithuanian state and a significant Lithuanian minority found itself within
6660-513: The administrative districts where Poles form a majority or significant minority. This party has held seats in the Seimas (Parliament of Lithuania) for the past decade. In the 2020 Lithuanian parliamentary election it received just below 5% of the national vote. The party is more active in local politics and controls several municipal councils . It cooperates with other minorities, mainly the Lithuanian Russian Union . The Association of Poles in Lithuania ( Polish : Związek Polaków na Litwie )
6771-564: The border in Poland. Only in 2007, the first small branch of the Polish University of Białystok opened in Vilnius. In 1980 there were 16,400 school students instructed in Polish. Their number declined to 11,400 in 1990. In independent Lithuania between 1990 and 2001, the number of Polish mother tongue children attending schools with Polish as the language of instruction doubled to over 22,300, then gradually decreased to 18,392 in 2005. In September 2003, there were 75 Polish-language general education schools and 52 which provided education in Polish in
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#17328008141106882-489: The border regions to resettle the area with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, but Stalin had them deported to the far reaches of Siberia and Central Asia. In 1935 alone 1,500 families were deported to Siberia from Soviet Ukraine. In 1936, 5,000 Polish families were deported to Kazakhstan . The deportations were accompanied by the gradual elimination of Polish cultural institutions. Polish-language newspapers were closed, as were Polish-language classes throughout Ukraine. Soon after
6993-419: 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
7104-573: The country and establishment of the union between Poland and Lithuania in 1385. In the 15th and 16th century, the Polish population in Lithuania was not large numerically, but the Poles enjoyed a privileged social status – they were found in highly regarded places and their culture was considered prestigious. With time Polish people became part of the local landowning class. Lithuanian nobles welcomed fugitive Polish peasants and settled them on uncultivated land, but they usually assimilated with Belarusians and Lithuanians peasants within few generations. In
7215-420: The country's largest ethnic minority . During the Polish–Lithuanian union , there was an influx of Poles into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the gradual Polonization of its elite and upper classes. At the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, almost all of Lithuania's nobility, clergy, and townspeople spoke Polish and adopted Polish culture, while still maintaining a Lithuanian identity. In
7326-421: The curriculum of pre-war Poland . Overnight this allowance was discontinued, and all Polish schools were required to teach the Soviet Ukrainian curriculum, with classes to be held only in Ukrainian and Russian. All males were told to prepare for mobilization into labor brigades within the Red Army . These actions were introduced specifically to encourage Polish emigration from Ukraine to Poland. In January 1945,
7437-424: The districts of Kaunas, Kėdainiai, Kaišiadorys and Ukmergė, in each of which they constituted 20–30% of the population. In 1919, Poles owned 90% of estates larger than 100 ha. By 1928, 2,997 large estates with a total area of 555,207 ha were parceled out, and 52,935 new farms were created in their place and given to Lithuanian peasants. Many Poles in Lithuania were signed in as Lithuanians in their passports, and as
7548-444: The early 20th century its population was around 40% Polish, 30% Jewish and 20% Russian and Belarusian, with only about 2–3% self-declared Lithuanians. The government considered the rural Polish population important to the agricultural economy, and believed those people would be relatively amenable to assimilation policies ( Lithuanization ). But the government encouraged expulsion of Poles from Vilnius, and facilitated it. The result
7659-409: The eastern lands. Social and ethnic conflicts arose regarding the differences in religious practices between the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox adherents during the Union of Brest in 1595-96, when the Metropolitan of Kyiv-Halych broke relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church and accepted the authority of the Roman Catholic Pope and Vatican. The partitions of Poland , toward the end of
7770-415: The eligible citizens were registered as wishing to be resettled; second, their request was to be reviewed and approved by the corresponding governments. About 750,000 Poles and Jews from the western regions of Ukraine were deported, as well as about 200,000 each from western Belarus and from Lithuanian SSR each. The deportations continued until 1 August 1946. Toward the end of World War II , tensions between
7881-479: The end of August 2023 the number of people of Polish descent that changed their names to include non-Lithuanian symbols increased to 203 which was approximately 0.11% of all Poles in Lithuania. 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
7992-543: The ethnic minorities. The association also filed a complaint with the Lithuanian prosecutor, asking for investigation of the issue. The Law on Ethnic Minorities lapsed in 2010. As of 2023 Lithuania has not ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . 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
8103-530: The expulsions of Poles from the Kresy macroregion ), were the forced migrations of Poles toward the end and in the aftermath of World War II . These were the result of a Soviet Union policy that had been ratified by the main Allies of World War II . Similarly, the Soviet Union had enforced policies between 1939 and 1941 which targeted and expelled ethnic Poles residing in the Soviet zone of occupation following
8214-478: The first language of the Lithuanian magnates. In the following century it was adopted by the Lithuanian nobility in general. Even the nobility of Samogitia used the Polish language already in the 17th century. The Polish language also penetrated other social strata: the clergy, the townspeople, and even the peasants. During the Commonwealth's period, a Polish-dominated territory started to be slowly formed in
8325-473: The government. The overall number of settlers in the east was negligible as compared to the region's long-term residents. For instance in the Volhynian Voivodeship (1,437,569 inhabitants in 1921), the number of settlers did not exceed 15,000 people (3,128 refugees from Bolshevist Russia , roughly 7,000 members of local administration, and 2,600 military settlers ). Approximately 4 percent of
8436-586: The history of Poles in interwar Lithuania was an anti-Polish demonstration organized by the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union on May 23, 1930 in Kaunas, which turned into a riot. A large portion of the Vilnius area was part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period , particularly the area of the Republic of Central Lithuania , which had a significant Polish speaking population. During
8547-557: The latter had switched to speaking Ruthenian and Polish at the beginning of the 16th century. 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 Protestant schools and printing houses in the Grand Duchy, and the life of local protestant congregations. There were also numerous Poles among
8658-604: The native tongue of the Lithuanian nobility in the 18th century. According to Polish professor Jan Otrębski 's article published in 1931, the Polish dialect in the Vilnius Region and in the northeastern areas in general are very interesting variant of Polishness as this dialect developed in a foreign territory which was mostly inhabited by the Lithuanians who were Belarusized (mostly) or Polonized , and to prove this Otrębski provided examples of Lithuanianisms in
8769-635: The newly arrived settlers lived on land granted to them. The majority either rented their land to local farmers, or moved to the cities. Tensions between the Ukrainian minority in Poland and the Polish government escalated. On 12 July 1930, activists of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), helped by the UVO , began the so-called sabotage action , during which Polish estates were burned, and roads, rail lines and telephone connections were destroyed. The OUN used terrorism and sabotage in order to force
8880-439: The number of deported Polish citizens at 1,500,000 and some Polish estimates reach 1,600,000 to 1,800,000 persons, historians consider these evaluations as exaggerated. Alexander Guryanov calculated that 309,000 up to 312,000 Poles were deported from February 1940 to June 1941. According to N.S. Lebedeva the deportations involved about 250,000 persons. The most conservative Polish counts based on Soviet documents and published by
8991-490: The number of people wanting to leave gradually increased, and they signed papers for the People's Republic of Poland State Repatriation Office representatives. The Lithuanian communist party was dominated by a nationalist faction which supported the removal of the Polish intelligentsia, particularly from the highly contested Vilnius region . The city of Vilnius was considered a historical capital of Lithuania; however, in
9102-685: The option of resettlement in Siberia or Poland, and most chose Poland. The Polish government-in-exile in London directed their organizations (see Polish Secret State ) in Lwów and other major centers in Eastern Poland to sit fast and not evacuate, promising that during peaceful discussions they would be able to keep Lwów within Poland. In response, Khrushchev introduced a different approach to dealing with this Polish problem . Until this time, Polish children could be educated in Polish, according to
9213-600: 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
9324-572: The region, the Soviet secret police (NKVD) accompanying the Red Army murdered Polish prisoners of war . From 1939 to 1941 the Soviets also forcibly deported specific social groups deemed "untrustworthy" to forced labor facilities in Kazakhstan and Siberia. Many children, elderly and sick died during these journeys, in cargo trains, which lasted weeks. Whereas the Polish government-in-exile put
9435-422: The rural population, who usually had no official identity documents, were denied the "right" of repatriation on the basis that they did not have documents stating they were Polish citizens. In what was described as a "fight for the people", Polish officials attempted to get as many people repatriated as possible, whereas the Belarusian officials tried to retain them, particularly the peasants, while deporting most of
9546-558: The second least-educated minority group in Lithuania. The branch of the University of Białystok in Vilnius educates mostly members of the Polish minority. A report by the Council of Europe , issued in 2007, stated that on the whole, minorities were integrated quite well into the everyday life of Lithuania. The report expressed a concern with Lithuanian nationality law , which contains a right of return clause. The citizenship law
9657-544: The secret Molotov–Ribbentrop pact in 1939 between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Germany invaded Western Poland. Two weeks later, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland . As a result, Poland was divided between the Germans and the Soviets (see Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union ). With the annexation of the Kresy in 1939, modern-day Western Ukraine was annexed to Soviet Ukraine , and Western Belarus to Soviet Belorussia , respectively. Spreading terror throughout
9768-536: The sphere of use of the state language pointed out in the law". In 2022, the Seimas passed a law allowing members of ethnic minorities to use the full Latin alphabet, including q, w and x, letters which are not considered part of the Lithuanian alphabet, but not characters with diacritics (such as ł and ä), in their legal name if they declare their status as an ethnic minority and prove that their ancestors used that name. In response, several ethnically Polish Lithuanian politicians changed their legal names to be closer to
9879-471: The territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that were annexed by the Russian Empire . During the 19th century, Poles were the largest Christian population in Vilnius. They also predominated in the municipal government of the city in the earlier half of the 19th century. The Polish-language university was re-established in Vilnius in 1803 and closed in 1832. After the 1863 uprising , public use of
9990-406: The third group scattered throughout the country did not have a clear position. According to surveys from the spring of 1990, 47% of Poles in Lithuania supported the pro-Soviet Communist party (in contrast to 8% support among ethnic Lithuanians), while 35% supported Lithuanian independence. In November 1988, Yedinstvo (literally "Unity"), a pro-Soviet movement that opposed Lithuanian independence,
10101-476: The threat of fines. The refusal of Lithuanian authorities to install or allow bilingual road signs (against the legislative base of Lithuania) in areas densely populated by Lithuanian Poles is at times described by the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania and some Polish media as linguistic discrimination. The official spelling of the all non-Lithuanian (hence Polish) name in a person's passport
10212-402: The total population (according to the 2021 census) are listed in the table below: Top 10 cities by number of Poles: The adoption of Polish cultural features by the nobles, townspeople, and clergy in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, combined with an influx of migrants from Poland, created a Lithuanian variant of the Polish language. The local variety of Polish called Polszczyzna Litewska became
10323-496: The usual electoral threshold. The restoration of property lost during the communist period was also a burning issue, which was implemented very slowly in the lands inhabited by Poles. Poles protested against the expansion of Vilnius' borders. Tensions arose 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
10434-538: The war, following Soviet demands laid out during the Tehran Conference of 1943, Kresy was formally incorporated into the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian republics of the Soviet Union . This was agreed at the Potsdam Conference of Allies in 1945, to which the Polish government-in-exile was not invited. The ethnic displacement of Poles (and also of ethnic Germans ) was agreed between
10545-547: The war. Such a situation caused tension in Polish–Lithuanian relations. Direct rule was lifted and local elections were organised in December 1992. The ZPL also strengthened its attitude, demanding that the Polish minority be granted a number of rights, such as the establishment of a Polish university, increasing the rights of the Polish language, increasing subsidies from the central budget, and others. ZPL took part in
10656-532: The wars with Russia , Trakai was continually attacked and razed. It has been rebuilt and many celebrations are held there annually once again. The city is often portrayed on Lithuanian stamps because of its beauty and illustrious history. It has become an important district in Lithuania once again. The biggest city in the district is Lentvaris , not Trakai , its capital. Other settlements include Paluknys , Trakų Vokė , Dusmenys , and Rūdiškės . It borders
10767-551: The wave of deportations, the Soviet NKVD orchestrated the Polish Operation . The Polish population in the USSR had officially dropped by 165,000 in that period according to the official Soviet census of 1937–38; Polish population in the Ukrainian SSR decreased by about 30%. Amidst several border conflicts, Poland re-emerged as a sovereign state in 1918 following Partitions of Poland . The Polish-Ukrainian alliance
10878-430: The west and the Second Polish Republic . The Soviet census of 1926 recorded ethnic Poles as being of Russian or Ukrainian ethnicity, reducing their apparent numbers in Ukraine. In the autumn of 1935, Stalin ordered a new wave of mass deportations of Poles from the western republics of the Soviet Union. This was also the time of his purges of different classes of people, many of whom were killed. Poles were expelled from
10989-427: The westernmost republics of the Soviet Union, less than 50% of those who registered for population transfer. Another major ethnic Polish transfer took place after Stalin's death, in 1955–1959. The process is variously known as expulsion , deportation , depatriation , or repatriation , depending on the context and the source. The term repatriation , used officially in both the Polish People's Republic and
11100-468: Was Vilnius and the nearby region . In its aftermath, the majority of the Polish population living in the Lithuanian lands found themselves within the Polish borders. However, interwar Lithuania still retained a large Polish minority. During World War II , the Polish population was persecuted by the USSR and Nazi Germany . Post-World War II , the borders were changed, territorial disputes were suppressed as
11211-425: Was a rapid depolonization and Lithuanization of the city (80% of the local Polish population left Vilnius ). Furthermore, the Lithuanian ideology of " Ethnographic Lithuania " declared that many people who identified as Polish were in fact "polonized Lithuanians". The rural population was denied the right to leave Lithuania, due to their lack of official pre-war documentation showing Polish citizenship. Contrary to
11322-417: Was confiscated, Polish religious services, schools, publications and voting rights were restricted. According to the Lithuanian census of 1923 (not including Vilnius and Klaipėda regions), there were 65,600 Poles in Lithuania (3.2% of the total population). Although according to Polish Election Committee in fact the number of Poles was 202,026, so about 10% of total population. The Poles were concentrated in
11433-539: Was done was such that the Polish leader Bolesław Bierut was forced to intercede and approach Stalin to slow down the deportation, as the post-war Polish government was overwhelmed by the sudden great number of refugees needing aid. The Soviet "population exchanges" of 1944-1946 ostensibly concerned [in the legal sense, nominal] citizens of prewar Poland, but in fact Poles and Jews were sent west, whereas Ukrainians had to stay in Soviet Ukraine . The real criterion
11544-520: Was established. Its first leader was Jan Sienkiewicz . ZPL supported the 1991 Lithuanian independence referendum . On 29 January 1991, Lithuanian government granted minorities right of schooling in their native language and use of it in official institutions. A new Citizenship Law was enacted in December 1991, that granted citizenship to every person that lived in eastern Lithuania before 1940, if they did not have citizenship of another country, thus excluding some persons that emigrated to Lithuania after
11655-492: Was filed with the European Parliament in 2011. Polish Election Action in Lithuania claimed that the education legislation is discriminatory. In 2011, former Polish President Lech Wałęsa criticized the government of Lithuania over its alleged discrimination against the Polish minority. Until 2022 Lithuania continued to enforce the Lithuanized spelling of surnames of Poles in Lithuania, with some exceptions, in spite of
11766-544: Was formed. Under local Polish leadership and with Soviet support, the regional authorities in Vilnius and Šalčininkai region declared an autonomous region, the Polish National Territorial Region . The same Polish politicians later voiced support for the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 in Moscow. Yedinstvo, which had never had the approval of the Polish government, collapsed after the failure of
11877-581: Was one of ethnicity, not citizenship. The [exclusively] ethnic criterion was applied to everyone in Volhynia, Ukrainians forced to stay despite their prewar Polish citizenship, Poles and Jews forced to leave despite their ancient traditions in the region. Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and Polish survivors of the ethnic cleansing were generally willing to depart. The history of Volhynia, as an ancient multi-confessional society, had come to an end. The Poles in southern Kresy (now Western Ukraine) were given
11988-455: Was partially retained by Poland after World War II. It sought to retain some of the Belarusian people. The resettlement of ethnic Poles from Lithuania saw numerous delays. Local Polish clergy were active in agitating against leaving, and the underground press called those who had registered for repatriation traitors . Many ethnic Poles hoped that a post-war Peace Conference would assign the Vilnius region to Poland. After these hopes vanished,
12099-465: Was planned and carried out by the communist regimes of the USSR and of post-war Poland . Many of the deported Poles were settled in historical eastern Germany ; after 1945, these were referred to as the " Recovered Territories " of the Polish People's Republic. The history of ethnic Polish settlement in what is now Ukraine and Belarus dates to 1030–31. More Poles migrated to this area after
12210-404: Was under discussion during 2007; it was deemed unconstitutional on 13 November 2006. A proposed constitutional amendment would allow the Polish minority in Lithuania to apply for Polish passports. Lithuanian constitutional law stipulated 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
12321-642: Was unsuccessful, and the Polish-Soviet war continued until the Treaty of Riga was signed in 1921. The Soviet Union did not officially exist before 31 December 1922. The disputed territories were split in Riga between the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Union representing Ukrainian SSR (part of the Soviet Union after 1923). In the following few years in Kresy , the lands assigned to sovereign Poland, some 8,265 Polish farmers were resettled with help from
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