100 years ago Vilnius Region with aid to Poland | happens.pl
100 years ago, on 6 1922, the Sejm passed the act on legal transactions. It was the last episode of the shaping of the eastern border of the Second Polish Republic and one of the contributions to the Polish-Lithuanian conflict until the end of the interwar period.
“As far as the will of the population is concerned, neither the city of Vilnius nor the suburbs want to hear of belonging to a tariff state (Lithuania)” – noted in 1920 Antoni Sujkowski, a Polish expert on the Paris conference. He emphasized that in the Vilnius district, out of 93,000 there were 84 thousand inhabitants. Poles, and in Vilnius for 206,000. inhabitants were 2,600 Lithuanians.
Behind the Lithuanian history of Vilnius was Vilnius – Vilnius was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. From the point of view of Warsaw, it was the key to the implementation of Piłsudski’s vision of a federation of Central European states. “Vilnius is the key to Lithuanian-Belarusian affairs, as is Warsaw to Polish affairs,” wrote Józef Piłsudski on April 7, 1919 in a letter to General Stanisław Szeptycki. After ousting the Bolsheviks from Vilnius, he issued an appeal “To the Inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.” “I want to give you the possibility of solutions and matters, just as religious nationalities, will wish for it themselves, without the indignation of rape or oppression on the part of Poland,” he declared. His words were received indignantly by Lithuanian leaders, which were fulfilled due to the current perception of Vilnius as the capital of their country, completely at odds with Poland.
During the Polish-Bolshevik dialogue in July 1920, Lithuanians broke their neutrality. they recorded the entire Soviet army go through their territory and actively engaged in against the Poles. “As soon as the Lithuanians sensed that the Red Army was immediately successful, their progress of neutrality was immediately up-to-date in relation to Poland,” recalled the commander of the Western Front, Mikhail Tukhachevsky.
current axis each Piłsudski: “Lithuania has emerged from its neutrality and took part on the side of the Soviets,” wrote the marshal in the book “Rok 1920”. Under the Lithuanian-Soviet treaty of July 12, 1920 captured by the Red Vilnius by the Army to Lithuanians. On August 26, Lithuanian troops entered the city.
After the Battle of Warsaw, the Polish Army, displacing the Bolsheviks, marched again towards Vilnius. In 1920, there was a Polish-Lithuanian walk in the Suwałki region. Commitment to hand over Vilnius to Lithuania, made during the Spa conference on July 10, 1920 by the Polish government in the fight against the Bolshevik procedure, Russia, that Piłsudski as the Commander-in-Chief is in control. The fact that Vilnius should be necessary for Poland – the entire course of inducing Lithuanians to the federal dissolution had failed – had to be ensured for Piłsudski and all Poles. It cannot act in accordance with the law, the Piłsudski unit will influence the actions of Vilnius by the rebellious “units” units of General Lucjan Żeligowski, born in Oszmiana in the Vilnius Region. Żeligowski accepted the introduction and headed 15,000. troop groups. Lithuanian-Belarusian division, composed of his influence from the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
On October 8, 1920, Żeligowski’s troops moved to Vilnius and captured it after minor skirmishes on October 9 1920. First at At 14.15 the 1st Company of the Minsk Regiment and the 1st Squadron of the 3rd Regiment of Mounted Rifles entered. The fights of Gen. Żeligowski’s army with the Lithuanians district district November 29, 1920.
On October 12, General Żeligowski proclaimed the creation of Central Lithuania and for this the Temporary Ruling Guild. Central Lithuania One million people, approx. 15 thousand km² and it has a population of half a half. According to official data, 68-70 percent. were Poles. The most numerous face (12-18%) was Lithuanians. In Vilnius alone, it accounts for a few percent of the population.
Great Britain and France sent you on October 12, 1920, we do not inform you that the Piłsudski State of Lithuania is to you. Piłsudski replied that he had promised the inhabitants of this land the freedom of self-determination. He believed that Lithuanians treated Central Lithuania more preferentially than with Poland. As Władysław Pobóg-Malinowski wrote, Piłsudski imagined that the Polish Vilnius Region would merge federally with Belarusian. Creation of Central Lithuania of the last chance for such a solution. It soon became apparent that the hopes were won by who ever could have taken the possible opportunity to achieve a sustainable one due to the way these ideas were rejected by Kaunas.
The League of Nations was involved in resolving the Polish-Lithuanian conflict. From April 1921, services were held in Belgium, during which it was proposed, inter alia, The accesses are made from the two cantons of Lithuania, Kaunas and Vilnius, connected with the alliance with Poland and the economic convention. Representatives of the Lithuanian government in Kaunas strongly rejected this representation. Despite this, a small group of deputies, including Marshal’s brother Jan Piłsudski, argued that “in the Polish state interest, it is necessary to grant the Vilnius land an autonomous system, the scope of which covers all areas of public life”. As the discouragement from proceeding grows, the idea of the autonomy of the Vilnius Region does not have to be implemented in cooperation with Lithuania. “The Vilnius Region is, from an ethnographic point of view, a real mosaic. The people have their strength. Autonomy is not a transition stage to a federation, argued Marian Jankowski from the Polish People’s Party. Ideas for those who argued that they opposed the right-wing court gels, that the national level of non-Polish Vilnius is very high, that there may not be people at the low level of technology.
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On January 8, 1922, elections to Vilnius will take place in Central Lithuania. 64 percent took part in the vote. entitled – almost Poles themselves. In the first house, on February 20, 1922, the Vilnius Seym was asked to join Central Lithuania to Poland. “The Vilnius Region is an integral part of the Republic of Poland without reservations and reservations,” the law proclaimed. For the motion to join the merger of 96 votes, 6 votes representing the PPS voted.
On April 6, 1922, the Legislative Sejm in Warsaw, a law on the value of power in the Vilnius Region by the government of the Republic of Poland. The act is also guaranteed to the residents of the “right to develop cultural, educational and religious life, Speak in the native language”. The Lithuanian government reacted by protesting at the hands of the British copy. Almost a year later, on March 15, 1923, the Conference of Ambassadors of the Main Allied and Associated Powers to plan the course of the Polish-Lithuanian border. (PAP)
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