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| '''Lithuanization''' (sometimes also called the ''Lithuanianization'') is a process of adoption, either forced or voluntary, of ]n culture or ], experienced by non-Lithuanian people or groups of people |
'''Lithuanization''' (sometimes also called the ''Lithuanianization'') is a process of adoption, either forced or voluntary, of ]n culture or ], experienced by non-Lithuanian people or groups of people. | ||
| Lithuanization could also be compared to other assimilationist policies carried out at times by other cultural groups in Europe, i.e. ], ], ] or ]. Some of its aspects could also be tied to the policies carried out by reconstituted countries which wanted to increase the role of their language in their societies (eg. ] and some notions within the ], such as ]). | Lithuanization could also be compared to other assimilationist policies carried out at times by other cultural groups in Europe, i.e. ], ], ] or ]. Some of its aspects could also be tied to the policies carried out by reconstituted countries which wanted to increase the role of their language in their societies (eg. ] and some notions within the ], such as ]). | ||
| == History == | == History == | ||
| The Lithuanian conquest and rule of the Ruthenian lands in the 13th-15th century was not accompanied by the Lithuanization. To the contrary, the Lithuania itseld became largely Ruthenized<ref name=EB1>"Within the Grand Duchy, the Ruthenian lands initially retained considerable autonomy. The pagan Lithuanians themselves were increasingly converting to Orthodoxy and assimilating into Ruthenian culture. The grand duchy's administrative practices and legal system drew heavily on Slavic customs, and Ruthenian became the official state language. Direct Polish rule in Ukraine since the 1340s and for two centuries thereafter was limited to Galicia. There, changes in such areas as administration, law, and land tenure proceeded more rapidly than in Ukrainian territories under Lithuania. However, Lithuania itself was soon drawn into the orbit of Poland."<br>from ''Ukraine''. (2006). In ].</ref> In the effect of the process, a large number of - mostly ] - nobles became tied to the vast state ruled by a Lithuanian minority and the two cultures merged to the extent that most of the citizens of the Grand Duchy called themselves Lithuanians, yet spoke ] rather than ].<ref name="Łukowski">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =Jerzy Lukowski | coauthors =Hubert Zawadzki | title =A Concise History of Poland | year = 2001| editor = | pages =33-45 | publisher =] Press | location =Cambridge | id =ISBN 0521559170 | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521559170&id=NpMxTvBuWHYC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=Jagiello&sig=9zJU1yJ5mEYrBdGZ94MwlOVXR_8}}</ref><ref name="Plokhy">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =Serhii Plokhy | title =The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus | year =2006 | editor = | pages =109-111 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =] | location =Cambridge | id =ISBN 0521864038| url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521864038&id=pCdUmCWxwJ8C&pg=RA7-PA109&lpg=RA7-PA109&ots=DzzoUDov5B&dq=Lithuanization&sig=S9E4n7ybZbXFy6OulmIE11U8Je0 }}</ref><ref name=KostRuth>"The son of Gediminas, the Grand Prince Olgerd expanded the Ruthenian lands he inherited from his father: he attached the Polish lands to his state expelling the Tatars out. The Ruthenian lands under his sovereignty were divided between princes. However, Algirdas, the person of a strong character, controlled them. In Kiev, he installed his son, Vladimir, which started the new line of Kiev princes that reigned there for over a century and called commonly the Olelkoviches, from Olelko, Aleksandr Vladimirovich, the grand-son of Algirdas. Algirdas himself, married twice with Ruthenian princesses, allowed his sons to baptise into Ruthenian religion and, as the Ruthenian Chronicles speak, had himself baptised and died as a monk. As such, the princes that replaced the St. Vladimir's line in Ruthenia, became as Ruthenian by religion and by the ethnicity they adopted, as the princes of the line that preceded them. The Lithuanian state was called Lithuania, but of course it was purely Ruthenian and would have remained Ruthenian if only the successor of Algirdas in the Great Princehood, the Jagiello wouldn't have married in 1386 to the Polish queen Jadwiga"<br>{{Ru icon}} ], ''Russian History in Biographies of its main figures'', section '''' (])</ref> This notion however had been gradually reversed by the ] of Lithuania occurring since 15th century<ref name=EB1/> and then the ] of the lands of the former ] in the 19th century and early 20th century.{{fact}} | |||
| Another notable example of Lithuanization was the 19th century replacement of Jews (many of them ], but also ]), until then the largest ethnic group among the burghers in the major towns of Lithuania, with ethnic ] migrating there from the countryside. As such, the process of Lithuanization was mostly ] and not institutionalized.<ref name="CoJR">{{en icon}} {{cite journal | author =Conference on Jewish Relations (corporate author) | year =1939 | month = | title = | journal =Jewish Social Studies | volume =VIII | issue = | pages =272-274 | id = | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=0IeRBCBExQ2BMtiLQt&id=2Jp3-QhefYsC&q=Lithuanization&dq=Lithuanization&pgis=1}}</ref> It was not until ] became an independent state in the effect of the ] that the government of Lithuania turned it into a more institutionalized process.<ref name="Mendelsohn">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =] | coauthors = | title =The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars | year =1983 | editor = | pages =225-230 |publisher =] | location =Bloomington, Indiana | id =ISBN 0253204186 | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0253204186&id=5_OXOwvjqjwC&pg=PA225&lpg=PA225&ots=Iff0SJ4hkg&dq=Lithuanization&sig=2qOYP_NqBAlSxprlkTEc9eaU1zU#PPA225,M1 }}</ref><ref name="Deak">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =István Deák | title =Essays on Hitler's Europe | year =2001 | editor = | pages =119-122 | chapter =Holocaust in Other Lands - A Ghetto in Lithuania | chapterurl =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0803217161&id=XlljaRHUA04C&pg=RA1-PA120&lpg=RA1-PA120&ots=fdgG0Au6Mb&dq=Lithuanization&sig=2nGWK-te5iOHnUdxWnMyesR1emI#PRA1-PA120,M1 | publisher =] | location =Lincoln, Nebraska | id =ISBN 0803217161}}</ref> | Another notable example of Lithuanization was the 19th century replacement of Jews (many of them ], but also ]), until then the largest ethnic group among the burghers in the major towns of Lithuania, with ethnic ] migrating there from the countryside. As such, the process of Lithuanization was mostly ] and not institutionalized.<ref name="CoJR">{{en icon}} {{cite journal | author =Conference on Jewish Relations (corporate author) | year =1939 | month = | title = | journal =Jewish Social Studies | volume =VIII | issue = | pages =272-274 | id = | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=0IeRBCBExQ2BMtiLQt&id=2Jp3-QhefYsC&q=Lithuanization&dq=Lithuanization&pgis=1}}</ref> It was not until ] became an independent state in the effect of the ] that the government of Lithuania turned it into a more institutionalized process.<ref name="Mendelsohn">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =] | coauthors = | title =The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars | year =1983 | editor = | pages =225-230 |publisher =] | location =Bloomington, Indiana | id =ISBN 0253204186 | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0253204186&id=5_OXOwvjqjwC&pg=PA225&lpg=PA225&ots=Iff0SJ4hkg&dq=Lithuanization&sig=2qOYP_NqBAlSxprlkTEc9eaU1zU#PPA225,M1 }}</ref><ref name="Deak">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =István Deák | title =Essays on Hitler's Europe | year =2001 | editor = | pages =119-122 | chapter =Holocaust in Other Lands - A Ghetto in Lithuania | chapterurl =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0803217161&id=XlljaRHUA04C&pg=RA1-PA120&lpg=RA1-PA120&ots=fdgG0Au6Mb&dq=Lithuanization&sig=2nGWK-te5iOHnUdxWnMyesR1emI#PRA1-PA120,M1 | publisher =] | location =Lincoln, Nebraska | id =ISBN 0803217161}}</ref> | ||
Revision as of 06:35, 22 February 2007
Lithuanization (sometimes also called the Lithuanianization) is a process of adoption, either forced or voluntary, of Lithuanian culture or language, experienced by non-Lithuanian people or groups of people.
Lithuanization could also be compared to other assimilationist policies carried out at times by other cultural groups in Europe, i.e. Germanization, Rumanization, Polonization or Russification. Some of its aspects could also be tied to the policies carried out by reconstituted countries which wanted to increase the role of their language in their societies (eg. Ukrainization and some notions within the Irish nationalism, such as Gaelicization).
History
The Lithuanian conquest and rule of the Ruthenian lands in the 13th-15th century was not accompanied by the Lithuanization. To the contrary, the Lithuania itseld became largely Ruthenized In the effect of the process, a large number of - mostly Ruthenian - nobles became tied to the vast state ruled by a Lithuanian minority and the two cultures merged to the extent that most of the citizens of the Grand Duchy called themselves Lithuanians, yet spoke Ruthenian language rather than Lithuanian. This notion however had been gradually reversed by the Polonization of Lithuania occurring since 15th century and then the Russification of the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 19th century and early 20th century.
Another notable example of Lithuanization was the 19th century replacement of Jews (many of them Lithuanian Jews, but also Polish Jews), until then the largest ethnic group among the burghers in the major towns of Lithuania, with ethnic Lithuanians migrating there from the countryside. As such, the process of Lithuanization was mostly demographic and not institutionalized. It was not until Lithuania became an independent state in the effect of the World War I that the government of Lithuania turned it into a more institutionalized process.
It was also around that time that the newly-established Lithuanian state started aiming at cultural and linguistic assimilation of other large groups of non-Lithuanian citizens, mainly the Poles and Germans. At first Lithuanian government was democratic and protected cultural traditions of different ethnic groups. Already in 1917, the resolution adopted by Vilnius Conference promised the national minorities freedom for their cultural needs. After World War I ended, the Council of Lithuania, the legislative branch of the government, was expanded to include Jewish and Belarusian representatives. The first governments of Lithuania included Ministries for Jewish and Belarusian affairs; however after Vilnius region was detached from Lithuania in a staged rebellion commanded by Lucjan Żeligowski (see Republic of Central Lithuania) largest communities of Belarusians, Jews, and Poles appeared to be outside Lithuania. Therefore the special ministries were closed. In 1920 the Jewish community was granted national and cultural autonomy with the right to legislate binding ordinances; however partly due to internal fights between Hebrew and Yiddish groups, the project was terminated in 1924.
| Census of 1923 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Nationality | People | % |
| Lithuanians | 1,701,900 | 83.9 |
| Jews | 153,700 | 7.6 |
| Poles | 65,600 | 3.2 |
| Russians | 50,500 | 2.5 |
| Latvians | 14,900 | 0.7 |
| Belarusians | 4,400 | 0.2 |
| Others | 30,800 | 1.9 |
As Lithuania firmly established its independence and nationalistic attitudes strengthened, the state sought to increase the use of Lithuanian language in the public life. Among the measures taken by the Lithuanian government was a forced Lithuanization of non-Lithuanian names. However, minority schools played more important role. The largest minority school network was operated by Jewish community. In 1919 there were 49, in 1923 – 107, in 1928 – 144 Jewish grammar schools. In 1931, in part due to consolidations, the number of schools decreased to 115 and remained stable until 1940.
At the beginning of 1920 Lithuania had 20 Polish language schools for Polish minority in Lithuania. The number increased to 30 in 1923, but then fell down to 24 in 1926. The major reason for the decrease was policy of Lithuanian Christian Democrats to transfer students whose parents had "Lithuania" as their nationality in the passport to Lithuanian schools. After the party lost control, the number of schools jumped to 91. Due to aggressive student recruiting actions by "Pochodnia," Polish cultural and educational society, the question of Polish schools was reviewed by Seimas. Soon after the coup d'état in 1926, it was decided to check that no Lithuanians would attend Polish schools. Since then the number of schools gradually decreased to 9 in 1940. In 1936 a new law was passed that allowed a student to attend Polish school only if both parents were Poles. The situation prompted to open unsanctioned schools that numbered more than 40 in 1935 and were largely sponsored by "Pochodnia." Similar situation was with German schools in the Klaipėda region.
The Lithuanian attitudes towards ethnic Poles were in large part an effect of the notion to treat them as native Lithuanians, who got Polonized over the course of the last centuries and should have been brought to their true identity. Another major factor was tense relationship between Lithuania and Poland over the Vilnius region and cultural or educational restrictions on Lithuanians there; for example, in 1927, chairman of "Rytas," Lithuanian minority in Poland counterpart to "Pochodnia," and 15 teachers were temporary arrested and 47 schools closed.
Modern Lithuania
In modern Lithuania, indepdendent since the fall of the Soviet Union, Lithuanization is not an official state policy, but is is advocated by some fringe extremist groups like Vilnija, whose activities cause an occasional tension in Polish-Lithuanian relations.
Notes and references
- ^ "Within the Grand Duchy, the Ruthenian lands initially retained considerable autonomy. The pagan Lithuanians themselves were increasingly converting to Orthodoxy and assimilating into Ruthenian culture. The grand duchy's administrative practices and legal system drew heavily on Slavic customs, and Ruthenian became the official state language. Direct Polish rule in Ukraine since the 1340s and for two centuries thereafter was limited to Galicia. There, changes in such areas as administration, law, and land tenure proceeded more rapidly than in Ukrainian territories under Lithuania. However, Lithuania itself was soon drawn into the orbit of Poland."
from Ukraine. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. - Template:En icon Jerzy Lukowski (2001). A Concise History of Poland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 33–45. ISBN 0521559170.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Template:En icon Serhii Plokhy (2006). The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 109–111. ISBN 0521864038.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|chapterurl=(help) - "The son of Gediminas, the Grand Prince Olgerd expanded the Ruthenian lands he inherited from his father: he attached the Polish lands to his state expelling the Tatars out. The Ruthenian lands under his sovereignty were divided between princes. However, Algirdas, the person of a strong character, controlled them. In Kiev, he installed his son, Vladimir, which started the new line of Kiev princes that reigned there for over a century and called commonly the Olelkoviches, from Olelko, Aleksandr Vladimirovich, the grand-son of Algirdas. Algirdas himself, married twice with Ruthenian princesses, allowed his sons to baptise into Ruthenian religion and, as the Ruthenian Chronicles speak, had himself baptised and died as a monk. As such, the princes that replaced the St. Vladimir's line in Ruthenia, became as Ruthenian by religion and by the ethnicity they adopted, as the princes of the line that preceded them. The Lithuanian state was called Lithuania, but of course it was purely Ruthenian and would have remained Ruthenian if only the successor of Algirdas in the Great Princehood, the Jagiello wouldn't have married in 1386 to the Polish queen Jadwiga"
Template:Ru icon Nikolay Kostomarov, Russian History in Biographies of its main figures, section Knyaz Kostantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky (Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski) - Template:En icon Conference on Jewish Relations (corporate author) (1939). Jewish Social Studies. VIII: 272–274 http://books.google.com/books?vid=0IeRBCBExQ2BMtiLQt&id=2Jp3-QhefYsC&q=Lithuanization&dq=Lithuanization&pgis=1.
{{cite journal}}:|author=has generic name (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|month=(help); Missing or empty|title=(help) - Template:En icon Ezra Mendelsohn (1983). The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 225–230. ISBN 0253204186.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Template:En icon István Deák (2001). "Holocaust in Other Lands - A Ghetto in Lithuania". Essays on Hitler's Europe. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 119–122. ISBN 0803217161.
{{cite book}}: External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help) - Template:En icon various authors (1994). James Stuart Olson (ed.). An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 258. ISBN 0313274975.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|chapterurl=and|coauthors=(help) - Laučka, Juozas (1984). "Lithuania's Struggle for Survival 1795-1917". Lituanus. 30 (4). ISSN 0024-5089. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
- Template:Lt icon Skirius, Juozas (2002). "Vokietija ir Lietuvos nepriklausomybė". Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės. Vilnius: Elektroninės leidybos namai. ISBN 9986-9216-9-4. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
{{cite book}}: External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help) - Template:Lt icon Banavičius, Algirdas (1991). 111 Lietuvos valstybės 1918-1940 politikos veikėjų. Vilnius: Knyga. pp. 11–20. ISBN 5-89942-585-7.
- ^ Template:Lt icon Šetkus, Benediktas (2002). "Tautinės mažumos Lietuvoje". Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės. Vilnius: Elektroninės leidybos namai. ISBN 9986-9216-9-4. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
{{cite book}}: External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help) - Vardys, Vytas Stanley (1997). Lithuania: The Rebel Nation. Westview Series on the Post-Soviet Republics. WestviewPress. p. 39. ISBN 0-8133-1839-4.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Does not include Vilnius and Klaipėda regions. Census of 1923 is the only census carried out in Lithuania during the interwar period. Template:Lt icon Vaitiekūnas, Stasys (2006). Lietuvos gyventojai: Per du tūkstantmečius. Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas. p. 189. ISBN 5-420-01585-4.
- ^ Eidintas, Alfonsas (1999). Ed. Edvardas Tuskenis (ed.). Lithuania in European Politics: The Years of the First Republic, 1918-1940 (Paperback ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 133–137. ISBN 0-312-22458-3.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Template:En icon Valdis O. Lumans (1993). "Lithuania and the Memelland". Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 90–93. ISBN 080782066.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help); External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help) - ^ Template:En icon Dovile Budryte (2005). Taming Nationalism?: Political Community Building in the Post-Soviet Baltic States. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 147–148. ISBN 0754637573.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) Cite error: The named reference "Budryte" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - Template:Pl icon Jerzy Żenkiewicz (2001). Ziemiaństwo polskie w Republice Litewskiej w okresie międzywojennym (Polish Landowners in the Republic of Lithuania Between the Wars). Toruń. ISBN 83-9113661-2.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Template:Pl icon Zenon Krajewski (1998). Polacy w Republice Litewskiej 1918-1940 (Poles in the Lithuanian Republic). Lublin: Ośrodek Studiów Polonijnych i Społecznych PZKS. p. 100. ISBN 8390632136.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Template:Pl icon Krzysztof Buchowski (1999). Polacy w niepodległym państwie litewskim 1918-1940 (Poles in the Independent Lithuanian State). Białystok: History Institute of the University of Białystok. p. 320. ISBN 8387881066.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Template:Lt icon Kulikauskienė, Lina (2002). "Švietimo, mokslo draugijos ir komisijos". Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės. Vilnius: Elektroninės leidybos namai. ISBN 9986-9216-9-4. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
{{cite book}}: External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help) - Template:Pl icon Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006). ""Antypolski tekst K. Garsvy" (Anti-polish text by K. Garsva)". Commentary on K.Garsva article "Kiedy na Wileńszczyźnie będzie wprowadzone zarządzanie bezpośrednie? (When Vilnius region will have direct self-government?)" in [[Lietuvos Aidas]], 11 -12.10". Media zagraniczne o Polsce (Foreign Media on Poland). XV (200/37062). Retrieved 2006-01-20.
{{cite journal}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Template:Pl icon Paweł Cieplak. "Polsko-litewskie stosunki (Polish-Lithuanian affairs)". Lithuanian Portal. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
- Leonardas Vilkas, LITEWSKA, ŁOTEWSKA I ESTOŃSKA DROGA DO NIEPODLEGŁOŚCI I DEMOKRACJI: PRÓBA PORÓWNANIA (Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian Way to Independence: An Attempt to Compare], on homepage of Jerzy Targalski, professor of University of Warsaw