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| '''Central Lithuania''' was a semi-independent state, created in ] by allegedly rebelious soldiers of the ]-] division of the Polish army. | |||
| ==Background== | |||
| In the aftermath of WWI, the historical ] was divided onto 3 parts. | |||
| *The historical ], or 'Lithuania proper' was the westernmost part, with a mostly ] and ]-speaking population, with significant ], ] and ] ]. | |||
| *The easternmost part, consisting mostly of present-day ], was mostly populated by ] ]s with minorities of ] and ] inhabitating mostly the larger towns. | |||
| *Central Lithuania, with its capital at ] populated by Polish-speaking majority and Lithuanian and Belarusian speaking minorities. | |||
| The national composition of the latter area is difficult to measure as many Lithuanian historians claim that both Russian, Polish and Soviet censuses are not reliable. The only source acceptable for both Poland and Lithuania seems to be the German 1916 census and, to some extent, the ] ] census. According to the first census of the ], ], the inhabitants of the city of ] were distributed by nationality (determined basing on the declared native language) as follows. | |||
| *] — 20.9% | |||
| *] — 0.3% | |||
| *]s — 4.3% | |||
| *] — 30.1% | |||
| *] — 2.1% | |||
| *] — 1.4% | |||
| *] — 40.0% | |||
| *] — 0.5% | |||
| *Others — 0.4% | |||
| The population of the Wilno province was distributed as follows. (Keep in mind that the significant territory of thw province was purely Belarussian and as of today is included into the ], ].) | |||
| *] — 4.9% | |||
| *] — 0.1% | |||
| *]s — 56.1% | |||
| *] — 8.2% | |||
| *] — 17.6% | |||
| *] — 0.2% | |||
| *] — 12.7% | |||
| *] — 0.1% | |||
| *Others — 0.1% | |||
| On the other hand the Lithuanian authorities argued that the majority of Poles living there were polonized ]s and that ] had the same right to create a multi-national country as ]. | |||
| ==Culture== | |||
| ==Conflict== | |||
| Following the start of the ], in ] the territory was occupied by the ] which defeated and pushed back Polish self-defence units, but shortly afterwards the ] were pushed back by the Polish Army. ] saw Central Lithuania occupied by the Red Army for the second time, although ] officially recognized the sovereignity of Lithuanian Soviet Republic over the city. ] was probably waiting for the capture of ], to occupy the remainder of Lithuania. However, when the Red Army was defeated in the ], the Soviets made the decision to hand over the city back to Lithuania. Despite the agreements, Lithuania seized the southern ] region as well. When the Polish army reached Lithuanian lines (], ]), a local war was started that lasted for several days until the Lithuanians were pushed back. | |||
| This made the compromise even harder to achieve and the newly-established state of Lithuania declined any negotiations on the status of the ] area, claimed it as its' capital city and denied any polish influence over it whatsoever. A cease-fire agreemen was signed on ] ], but it did not solve the issue. Polish commander ] ordered his subordinate, general ], to defect with his '1st Lithuanian-Byelorussian Division' and capture the city, without declaring war on Lithuania. | |||
| General Zeligowski entered the city on ] ], almost unopposed. | |||
| ==Central Lithuania== | |||
| A new country was created under the name of the Republic of Central Lithuania. General ] took command of all the military forces of the newly-established state and on ], ] he announced the creation of a provisional government. Soon the courts and the police were formed and by his decree of ], ], and the civil rights of Central Lithuania were granted to all people living in the area on ] ], or for five years prior to ], ]. | |||
| The symbols of the state were a red flag with Polish White Eagle and Lithuanian Vytis and with a ] being a mixture of Polish, Lithuanian and ] symbols. | |||
| There were extensive diplomatic negotiatiations 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). Poland added a condition, that the new state must be also federated with Poland. There was no approval from the Lithuanian side for this. | |||
| The general elections had been decreed on ] ], and the voting law was to be issued prior to ] ]. However, due to the ] mediation and the boycott of the voting, the elections were postponed. | |||
| ==Mediation== | |||
| Meanwhile in ] peace talks were held under the auspice of the ]. The initial agreement had been signed by both sides on ] ], and the talks started on ] ]. The ] to accept the Polish proposal of a ] on the future of Central Lithuania. As a compromise, the so called 'Hymans' plan' was proposed(named after the ] envoy to the conference. It consisted of 15 points, among them were: | |||
| *Both sides guarantee each other's independence. | |||
| *Central Lithuania is incorporated into the Federation of Lithuania, composed of two ] - the Lithuanian-inhabitated ] and Polish-inhabitated Wilno area. Both cantons will have separate governments, parliaments, ] and a common federative capital in Vilnius/Wilno. | |||
| *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, but it had certain disadvantages. The talks came to a halt when Poland demanded that a delegation from Central Lithuania (boycotted by Lithuania) be invited to ]. On the other hand Lithuanians demanded that the troops in Central Lithuania be relocated to the line of the ], ] cease-fire agreement. Both claims were a step too far. | |||
| A new plan was presented to the governments of Lithuania and Poland in ] ]. It was basically a modification of 'Hymans' plan', with the difference that the area of ] was to be incorporated into Lithuania while Central Lithuania was to be granted a certain level of internal authonomy instead of a ] status. However, both Poland and Lithuania openly criticized it and finally this turn of talks came to a halt as well. | |||
| ==Resolution== | |||
| After the talks in ] failed, the tensions in the area grew. The most important issue was the huge army Central Lithuania fielded (27.000). General ] decided to pass the power to the civil authorities and confirmed the date of the elections (] ]. | |||
| There was a significant propaganda campaign over the issue of the elections as both Poles and Lithuanians tried to win the support of other ethnic groups present in the area. Eventually, Lithuania decided to boycott the elections and only the Socialist Party of Lithuania and Byelorussia took part in it. | |||
| Most of the parties that took part in the voting were supporting the idea of incorporation of the area into Poland - with different grades of authonomy. | |||
| 63,9% of the entire population took part in the voting, but among different ethnic groups the attendance was lower (41% of Byelorussians, 15,3% Jews and 8,2% of Lithuanians). The 2 biggest political groups in the newly-elected parliament were the Polish Voting Commitee (43 seats) and the Popular Councils (34 seats). All the other groups gained 29 seats altogether. | |||
| The parliament gathered on ] ] and on ] after a fierce discussion incorporation into ] had been passed. The Polish ] passed the law proposed by the Central Lithuanian parliament on ] ] and two days later Central Lithuania ceased to exist. | |||
| Lithuania declined to accept the Polish authority over the Vilnius area and it wasn't until the ] ultimatum, when the Lithuanian authorities resolved diplomatical relations with Poland and ''de facto'' accepted the borders of its' neighbour. After the ] (1939) Lithuania was given the ]. | |||
| ==Links== | |||
| * see ] | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||