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"Central Lithuania" redirects here. This is an article about a former state. For the geographical and historical region, see Vilnius Region.

Vidurio Lietuvos Respublika(lt) Republika Litwy Środkowej(pl) Republic of Central Lithuania ← 1920 – 1922 → Flag Territory of so called Republic of Central Lithuania (green) Capital Vilnius Government Republic President Lucjan Żeligowski History  - Established October 12, 1920  - Disestablished March 24, 1922

The Republic of Central Lithuania or Middle Lithuania (Lithuanian: Vidurio Lietuvos Respublika, Polish: Republika Litwy Środkowej, Belarusian: Рэспубліка Сярэдняе Літвы / Respublika Siaredniaje Litvy), or simply Central Lithuania (Lithuanian: Vidurio Lietuva or Vidurinė Lietuva, Polish: Litwa Środkowa, Belarusian: Сярэдняя Літва / Siaredniaja Litva), was a puppet state^[1] created in 1920 after the staged rebellion of soldiers of the 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division of the Polish Army, by secret order of Józef Piłsudski. Centered around the historical capital of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, the state was short-lived and did not gain international recognition. For eighteen months the entity served as a buffer state between Poland, upon which it depended, and Lithuania, which claimed the area.^[2] Finally, on March 24, 1922, following the general elections held there, it was annexed to Poland. The elections were not recognized by the Republic of Lithuania neither by the Council of League of Nations^[3].

Contents 1 History 1.1 Ethnic and national background 1.2 Changes in language and nationality 1.3 Conflicts 1.3.1 Different point of view 1.3.2 Course of events 1.4 Republic of Central Lithuania 1.5 Mediation 1.6 Resolution 1.7 Aftermath 2 See also 3 Notes and references 4 External links

Main article: Ethnic composition of Central Lithuania

Following the decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in late 18th century, the state had been divided among its neighbours in what is known as the partitions of Poland. Most of the lands that formerly constituted the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were annexed by the Russian Empire. While initially the lands around the city of Vilna (Vilnius) had a certain local autonomy, with local nobility holding the same offices as prior to the partitions, after several secessionist revolts against the Russian Empire, the Imperial government started to pursue a policy of both political and cultural assimilation of the newly-acquired lands (Russification). Following the failed November Uprising all traces of former Polish-Lithuanian statehood (like the Third Statute of Lithuania and Congress Poland) started to be replaced with their Russian counterparts, from the currency and units of measurement, to offices of local administration. The failed January Uprising of 1864 further aggravated the situation, as the Russian authorities decided to pursue the policies of forcibly imposed Russification. The discrimination of local inhabitants included a ban on usage of Polish language^{[citation needed]} and Lithuanian (see Lithuanian press ban). This has however not stopped the Polonization effort undertaken by the Polish patriotic leadership of the Vilna educational district even within the Russian Empire.^{[4] [5]}

Despite that, the pre-19th century cultural and ethnic pattern of the area was largely preserved. In the process of the pre-nineteenth century voluntary^{[citation needed]} Polonization, much of the local nobility, boyars and gentry of Ruthenian and Lithuanian origin adopted Polish language and culture. This was also true to the representatives of the then-nascent class of bourgeoisie and the Catholic and Uniate clergy. At the same time, the lower strata of the society (notably the peasants) formed a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural mixture of Poles, Lithuanians, Jews and Ruthenians, as well as a small yet notable population of immigrants from all parts of Europe, from Italy to Scotland and from the Low Countries to Germany.

The national composition of the latter area is difficult to measure as both Russian, Polish and Soviet censuses are not often reliable.^{[citation needed]}

In the middle of the 19th century, Lithuanian speakers constituted more than a half of all the population in the entire Vilna Governorate, including Vilna. In Lithuanian areas of the region (that is without southeast margins of Vilna Governorate and Vilna with its surroundings as a linguistic enclave) according to M. Lebedkin there were 71% of Lithuanians here, to A. Koreva - 67%, to D. Erkert - 66%^{[citation needed]}. 18% of Poles were found by official statistics in all the Vilna Governorate (including Vilna) then.^{[citation needed]}

Later, the more reliable data^{[citation needed]}, seems to be the Russian Empire Census of 1897, and to some extent, the Nazi 1942 census. According to the first census of the Russian Empire, 1897, the population of the Vilna Governorate was distributed as follows. Keep in mind that the significant territory of the province had a Belarusian speaking majority and as of today is included in Belarus (mostly into the Hrodna Voblast, but also in the Minsk Voblast, and Vitsebsk Voblast).^{[citation needed]}

• Russians — 4.9%
• Ukrainians — 0.1%
• Belarusians — 56.1% (including Roman Catholics)
• Poles — 8.2%
• Lithuanians — 17.6%
• Germans — 0.2%
• Jews — 12.7%
• Tatars — 0.1%
• Others — 0.1%

According to Russian census the inhabitants of the city of Vilnius were distributed by native language as follows.^{[citation needed]}

• Russian language — 20.9% (many of them were Russian-speaking Jews, as may be inferred from the "Religion" tables)
• Ukrainian language — 0.3%
• Belarusian language — 4.3%
• Polish language — 30.1%
• Lithuanian language — 2.1%
• German language — 1.4%
• Yiddish — 40.0%
• Tatar language — 0.5%
• Others — 0.4%

Lithuanian authorities argued that the majority of Polish speaking inhabitants living there were Polish speaking Lithuanians.^{[citation needed]} While Poland attempted to rebuild a multi-national Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with a number of ethnically non-Polish territories, Lithuania strove to create a state in its ethnic lands.

The data from different times shows the changes in languages. The Lithuanian speaking area was constantly on the decline, while Belarusian speaking area pro rata was on the increase. In the parishes to the southeast from Vilnius Belarusian positions as a language of junior generation started to strengthen at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century.^[6] The 20th century marks a sudden increase of Polish speaking people and pro rata decrease of Belarusian speakers. Lithuanian speaking islands remained in Dzyatlava, Lasduny, Gervyaty etc. [1], [2]

Since the first contact in the 9th century the Slavic (Ruthenian, later Belarusian) speaking areas have always bordered the vicinity of eastern Lithuania. During the rule of the Russian tsars, the use of the Lithuanian language was as follows:

• The Lingua franca remained Polish as it had been in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Though by the middle of 17th century most of the Lithuanian nobility had started to speak Polish political elite of Grand Duchy of Lithuania continued to be self-dependent. No career could have been made without Polish by then. With passing time and changing circumstances Lithuanian, Ruthenian and [Polish nobility merged politically and started to consider themselves to be citizens of one common state. For example an important person on the topic Józef Piłsudski‘s father and mother by paternal line belonged to respectively Samogitian descent Giniotai (sg. Giniotas; Polish Ginet) and Bilevičiai (sg. Bilevičius; Polish Billewicz < *Bilius) families [3]. The surname Piłsudski was made from a place-name.
• Lithuanian was considered as an inferior, pagan language by the Polish clergy and Russian officials. This idea was constantly reinforced and conveyed to the common people.
• Catholicism (with the Polish clergy dominating) naturally was a symbol of resistance. By the end of 19th century polonisation started to be harshened by the local Church. Since Polish was considered the language of Catholicism by the clergy a good number of Lithuanian speakers of this area declared themselves as Poles during the censuses. By doing so, they felt they were emphasising that they were Catholics.^{[citation needed]}
• Belarusians were able to understand both the Tsar's officials and the Polish speaking priests. These languages are akin to each other. Thus, many peasants adopted Belarusian and spoke in two or three languages. Their children did not need to speak Lithuanian any longer.

A considerable number of Lithuanians began to speak Belarusian containing many substratical relics of Lithuanian and mixed with Lithuanianisms, Polonicisms and became tuteishi ("the locals"). They did not assign themselves to any nation. These people said they were speaking po prostu ("the common language, the language of the simple people").^{[citation needed]}

People who spoke po prostu were considered to be Poles by various governments. The polonization, exercised by clergy, spreading from estates and schools and later implemented by the Polish government was uncompromising. About 100-200 thousands colonists from Poland were brought in to form a mass of officers. Many Lithuanian schools were closed. In 1938, the Polish administration left only two Lithuanian primary schools and one gymnasium (the Gymnasium of Vytautas Didysis) in the entire area.^[7]

The soviets at the beginning stopped the polonization. But they soon restored it. The Poles were protected by the local governments of the area. Lithuanians had been replaced in public functions by Poles and Russians.^{[citation needed]} This coincided to soviet politics of denationalization and gave them expectancies to play a card of national tensions.

During this long period of foreign rule, many people of the region became indoctrinated with negative attitudes towards the Lithuanian language and to be ashamed of their descent and in spite of speaking po prostu, to consider themselves to be Poles.^{[citation needed]}

Main article: Polish-Lithuanian War

The conflict was determinded as both Lithuania and Poland claimed Vilnius and considered it to be their land. There were two positions on creation of the modern state in Poland after the First World War. One party led by Roman Dmowski saw modern Poland as an ethnic state, another led by Józef Piłsudski – as rebuilt Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Anyhow, both parties were determined to take the Poles of Vilnius into the new state. As Piłsudski’s party won, he attempted to rebuild the GDL in the following structure:

• Lithuania of Kaunas with Lithuanian language
• Lithuania of Vilnius or Central Lithuania with Polish language
• Lithuania of Minsk with Belarusian language

The plan didn’t succeed. A puppet state Central Lithuania was created and with some other territories of former Grand Duchy of Lithuania incorporated into Poland. This action cut off solid Lithuanian speaking lands lying southwest and northeast from Slavicized Vilnius vicinage and linguistic islands surrounding the Vilnius vicinage and stretching southeastward from Lithuania. Lithuanian culture in the territory was swept and the revival of language disrupted.

In the aftermath of the First World War and the decline of the Ober-Ost, the former area of Grand Duchy of Lithuania was divided between Republic of Poland, Belarusian National Republic and the Republic of Lithuania^{[citation needed]}. Following the start of the Polish-Soviet War, in 1919 the territory was occupied by the Red Army which defeated and pushed local self-defence units (Lithuanian and Belarusian Self-Defence), but shortly afterwards the Bolsheviks were pushed back by the Polish Army. 1920, saw Vilnius surroundings occupied by the Red Army for the second time, although Russia officially recognized the sovereignty of Lithuanian Soviet Republic over the city^{[citation needed]}. However, when the Red Army was defeated in the Battle of Warsaw, the Soviets made the decision to hand the city back over to Lithuania^{[citation needed]}. Despite these decisions, Lithuania seized the southern Suvalkai region (Polish: Suwałki region) as well. The rationale for this was that several parts of the region had clear Lithuanian ethnic majorities^{[citation needed]}. When the Polish army reached the Lithuanian lines (August 26, 1920), a war erupted.

This made the compromise even harder to achieve, since the newly-established state of Lithuania declined to negotiate on the status of the Vilnius area, claiming it as its capital and denying any Polish influence over it, whatsoever^{[citation needed]}. A cease-fire agreement was signed on October 7, 1920, but it did not solve the issue. On October 7, 1920, the Lithuanian and Polish delegations concluded a truce in Suwałki (Lithuanian: Suvalkai). It was agreed upon that the Suwałki Agreement would take effect on 12:00 October 10, 1920. The treaty determined a demarcation line, in which Vilnius was given to the Lithuania.^[8]

However a day before Suwałki treaty came into force, on October 8, General Lucjan Żeligowski with his 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division and the help of local inhabitants launched a surprise attack on the weak Lithuanian forces in the area, and most of them retreated.^[2] Poland disclaimed all knowledge of the action, maintaining that the General had acted on his own initiative, but it was clear that Warsaw gave its blessing to his actions.^[2] Later, August 1923 speaking in public at Wilno theater Piłsudski did admit, that he did gave his direct orders to Żeligowski.^[9] The entire area had been seized in less than two days, without fighting.^[10] Instead of immeiately annexing the areas to Poland, he set up a new buffer state under the name of the Republic of Central Lithuania.

Battles were renewed on October 18. Meanwhile twenty Polish airplanes and the 13th Cavalry Regiment, under the command of Colonel Butkiewitcz, were transferred from Poland to support the new "state". Between October 20 and 21, there were further battles near the village of Pikeliškiai. On November 7, Żeligowski's army began to advance to Giedraičiai, Širvintos, and Kėdainiai. Żeligowski ignored the recommendations of the military control commission of the League of Nations to withdraw to the lines established between October 20 and 21, and start negotiations.^[11]

On November 17, Soviet Russia offered military help, but the Lithuanians declined it.^[11] At that the time, the Polish cavalry had broken through Lithuanian defense lines, and on November 18 reached Kavarskas, and continued their advance towards Kaunas.^[11]

Lithuanian forces counter-attacked Giedraičiai. the battle occurred between November 19 and 21, near Giedraičiai, and Širvintos and Polish forces were pushed back.^[11] Both sides were exhausted; ceasefire was signed on November 21 and truce on November 29.^[12]

A new country was created under the name of the Republic of Central Lithuania. After the staged mutiny, Lucjan Żeligowski, proclaimed an uprising of local people^{[citation needed]}. On October 12, 1920, he announced the creation of a provisional government. Soon the courts and the police were formed by his decree of January 7, 1921, and the civil rights of Central Lithuania were granted to all people living in the area on January 1, 1919, or for five years prior to August 1, 1914.

The symbols of the state were a red flag with Polish White Eagle and Lithuanian Vytis and a coat of arms being a mixture of Polish, Lithuanian and Vilnian symbols, similar to the Coat of Arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Extensive diplomatic negotiations continued behind the scenes. Lithuania proposed creating a confederation of Baltic Western Lithuania (with Lithuanian as an official language) and Central Lithuania (with Polish as an official language)^{[citation needed]}. Poland added the condition that the new state must be also federated with Poland, pursuing the Józef Piłsudski's goal of creating the Międzymorze Federation^{[citation needed]}. Lithuanians chose to reject this condition. With nationalistic sentiments rising all over Europe, many Lithuanians were afraid that such a federation, resembling the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from centuries ago, would be a threat to Lithuanian culture, as during the Commonwealth times the many of the of Lithuanian nobility Polonized themselves under the influence of the Polish culture.

General elections were decreed to take place on January 9, 1921, and the regulations governing this election were to be issued prior to November 28, 1920. However, due to the League of Nations mediation, and the Lithuanian boycott of the voting, the elections were postponed.^{[citation needed]}

Meanwhile in Brussels peace talks were held under the auspice of the League of Nations. The initial agreement had been signed by both sides on November 29, 1920, and the talks started on March 3, 1921. The League of Nations considered the Polish proposal of a plebiscite on the future of Central Lithuania. As a compromise, the so called "Hymans' plan" was proposed (named after the Belgian envoy to the conference). It consisted of 15 points, among them were^{[citation needed]}:

• Both sides guarantee each other's independence.
• Central Lithuania is incorporated into the Federation of Lithuania, composed of two cantons - the Lithuanian-inhabitated Samogitia and multiethnic (Belarusian, Tatars, Polish, Jewish and Lithuanian) Wilno area. Both cantons will have separate governments, parliaments, official languages and a common federative capital in Vilnius/Wilno.^[13]
• Lithuanian and Polish governments will create interstate commissions on both foreign affairs, trade and industry measures and local policies.
• Poland and Lithuania will sign a defensive alliance treaty.
• Poland will gain usage of ports in Lithuania.

The plan was more or less acceptable for both sides. The talks came to a halt when Poland demanded that a delegation from Central Lithuania (boycotted by Lithuania) be invited to Brussels^{[citation needed]}. On the other hand Lithuanians demanded that the troops in Central Lithuania be relocated to the line of the October 7, 1920 cease-fire agreement^{[citation needed]}. Both claims were a step too far.

A new plan was presented to the governments of Lithuania and Poland in September 1921. It was basically a modification of "Hymans' plan", with the difference that the Memel Territory (the area between the Memel/Neman River and the town of Memel/Klaipėda) was to be incorporated into Lithuania while Central Lithuania was to be granted a certain level of internal autonomy instead of a cantonal status^{[citation needed]}. However, both Poland and Lithuania openly criticized it and finally this turn of talks came to a halt as well^{[citation needed]}.

After the talks in Brussels failed, the tensions in the area grew. The most important issue was the huge army Central Lithuania fielded (27,000)^{[citation needed]}. General Lucjan Żeligowski decided to pass the power to the civil authorities and confirmed the date of the elections (January 8, 1922)^{[citation needed]}. There was a significant electional propaganda campaign over the issue of the elections as both Poles tried to win the support of other ethnic groups present in the area, there are also accusations of various strong-arm policies on the part of Polish government (like closing of Lithuanian newspapers^[11] or frauds like not asking for a valid document of a voter^[14]).

The elections where boycotted by Lithuanians, most of the Jews and some Belarusians; a certain percentage had doubts over whether they should vote. Poles were the only major ethnic group out of which the majority of people voted.^[7]

The elections were not recognized by Lithuania. Polish factions, which gained control over the parliament (Sejm) of the Republic, on February 20 passed the request of incorporation into Poland had been passed^{[citation needed]}, accepted by Polish Sejm on March 22, 1922. All of Republic's territory was incorporated into the newly-formed Wilno Voivodeship.

Lithuania declined to accept the Polish authority over the area of Wilno. Instead, it continued to treat the so-called Vilnius Region as part of its own territory and the city itself as its constitutional capital, with Kaunas being only a temporary seat of government.

It was not until the Polish ultimatum of 1938, when the Lithuanian authorities acquiesced to resume diplomatic relations with Poland, and de facto accepted the borders of its neighbour^{[citation needed]}. After the Soviet-Nazi pact and the Polish Defensive War of 1939, Lithuania was given Vilnius, and its surroundings up to 30 km, on October 10, 1939. A part of the region was given to the Belarusian SSR.^{[citation needed]} Lithuanian success was however short-lived: soon afterwards, Lithuania was forced to become the Lithuanian SSR^{[citation needed]}.

• History of Vilnius
• Vilnius Voivodeship
• History of Poland
• History of Lithuania
• Former countries in Europe after 1815

• Lithuanian-Belarusian language boundary in the 4th decade of the 19th century
• Lithuanian-Belarusian language boundary in the beginning of the 20th century
• List of the XIXth century Suwałki region family names
• State symbols of Central Lithuania
• Depatriation and resettlement of Ethnic Poles
• From "Russian" to "Polish": Vilna-Wilno 1900-1925
• Grand Duchy of Lithuania Project: 17th & 18th century poll-tax/censuses of the GDL
• (German) Kampf um Wilna - historische Rechte und demographische Argumente
• Mixed ethnic groups around Wilno / Vilnius during inter-war period, after Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland: Volume II, 1795 to the Present; Columbia University Press: 1982