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Republic of Central Lithuania
The Republic of Central Lithuania or Middle Lithuania (, , ), or simply Central Lithuania (, , ), was a short-lived political entity which did not gain international recognition. It was created in 1920 following the staged rebellion of soldiers of the 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division of the Polish Army, supported by the Polish air force, cavalry and artillery.[1] Centered around the historical capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilna (, ), for eighteen months the entity served as a buffer state between Poland, upon which it depended, and Lithuania, which claimed the area.[2] After a variety of delays, a disputed election took place on January 8 1922, and the territory was annexed to Poland. The Polish-Lithuanian borders in the interwar period, while recognized by the Conference of Ambassadors of the Entente[3][4] and the League of Nations,[5] were not recognized by the Republic of Lithuania.[6] In 1931 an international court in the Hague issued the determination that the Polish seizure and ongoing control of the city was a violation of international law.[5]
Legal statusMost historians agree that the state relied on Polish support. Some historians refer to the Republic of Central Lithuania as a state without qualification,[7] while others characterize it with terms such as puppet state,[8][9] puppet Republic,[10] so-called state,[11] artificial creation,[12] or as a sham state.[13] HistoryEthnic and national backgroundFollowing the partitions of Poland, most of the lands that formerly constituted the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were annexed by the Russian Empire. The Imperial government increasingly pursued a policy of Russification of the newly-acquired lands, which escalated after the failed January Uprising of 1864. The discrimination against local inhabitants included restrictions and outright bans on the usage of the Polish, Lithuanian (see Lithuanian press ban), Belorussian, and Ukrainian (see Valuyev circular) languages.[14][15] These measures, however, had limited effects on the Polonization effort undertaken by the Polish patriotic leadership of the Vilnius educational district.[16][17] A similar effort was pursued during the 19th century Lithuanian National Revival, which sought to distance itself from both Polish and Russian influences.[18] 
Stamp of Central Lithuania (1920) displaying the state coat-of-arms and a Lithuanian stamp overprinted with the arms of Central Lithuania and a new name: "Central Lithuania Postage" 
Pi?sudski's bi-lingual Appeal to the citizens of former Grand Duchy of Lithuania of April 1919 The ethnic composition of the area has long been disputed, since censuses from that time and place are often considered unreliable. According to the first census of the Russian Empire in 1897, the population of the Vilna Governorate was distributed as follows:[19][20]
The 1916 German census of the Vilnius Region, however, reported strikingly different numbers.[21]
Both censuses had encountered difficulties in the attempt to categorize their subjects. Ethnographers in the 1890s were often confronted with those who described themselves as both Lithuanians and Poles.[22] According to a German census analyst, "Objectively determining conditions of nationality comes up against the greatest difficulties."[23] Aftermath of WWIPoliciesIn the aftermath of the First World War, both Poland and Lithuania regained independence. The conflict between them soon arose as both Lithuania and Poland claimed Vilnius (known in Polish as Wilno) region. Demographically, Vilnius was divided near evenly between Poles and Jews, with ethnic Lithuanians constituting a small fraction of the total population (about 17-18% of the population, according to Russian 1897[19][20] and German 1916 censuses[21]) The Lithuanians nonetheless believed that their historical claim to the city (former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) had precedence and refused to recognize any Polish claims to the city and the surrounding area.[24] While Poland under Józef Pilsudski attempted to rebuild a multi-national Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with a number of ethnically non-Polish territories (see Mi?dzymorze federation), Lithuania similarly strove to create a state in the historical lands of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a state including ethnically non-Lithuanian territories. Lithuanian authorities, however, argued that the majority of inhabitants living there, even if they did not speak Lithuanian and considered themselves Poles, were Polonized (or Russified) Lithuanians.[25] Further complicating the situation, there were two Polish factions with quite different views on creation of the modern state in Poland. One party, led by Roman Dmowski, saw modern Poland as an ethnic state, another, led by Józef Pi?sudski, wished to rebuilt the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.[26] Both parties were determined to take the Poles of Vilnius into the new state. Pi?sudski attempted to rebuild the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in a canton structure, as part of the Mi?dzymorze federation:[26]
Eventually, Pi?sudski's plan failed; it was opposed both by the Lithuanian government and by the Dmowski's faction in Poland. Stanis?aw Grabski, representative of Dmowski's fraction, was in charge of the Treaty of Riga negotiations with the Soviet Union, in which they rejected the Soviet offer of territories needed for the Minsk canton (Dmowski preferred Poland that would be smaller, but with higher percentage of ethnic Poles).[26] The inclusion of territories predominant with non Poles would have weakened support for Dmowski.[26] Polish-Lithuanian WarAt the end of World War I, the area of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania was divided between the Republic of Poland, the Belarusian National Republic, and the Republic of Lithuania. Following the start of the Polish-Soviet War, during the next two years, the control of Vilnius and its environs changed frequently. In 1919 the territory was briefly occupied by the Red Army, which defeated the local self-defense units, but shortly afterwards the Russians were pushed back by the Polish Army. 1920 saw the Vilnius region occupied by the Red Army for the second time. 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. The Polish-Lithuanian War erupted when Lithuania and Poland clashed over the Suvalkai Region on August 26, 1920. The League of Nations intervened and arranged negotiations in Suwa?ki. The League negotiated a cease-fire, signed on October 7, 1920, placing the city of Vilnius in Lithuania.[27] The Suwa?ki Agreement was to have taken effect at 12:00 on October 10, 1920. However, on October 8, General Lucjan ?eligowski and the 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division, along with local Polish inhabitants launched a surprise attack on the weak Lithuanian forces in the area, and most of them retreated.[2] Poland disclaimed all responsibility for the action, maintaining that ?eligowski had acted entirely on his own initiative.[2] This version of the event was redefined in August 1923 when Pilsudski, speaking in public at a Vilnius theater, stated that the attack was undertaken by his direct order.[28] Rather than annexing the area to Poland, ?eligowski proclaimed a new state, the Republic of Central Lithuania. The seat of Lithuanian government moved to Lithuania's second-largest city, Kaunas. Armed conflicts between Kaunas and Central Lithuania continued for a few weeks, but neither side could gain a significant advantage. Due to the mediation efforts of the League of Nations, a new ceasefire was signed on November 21 and a truce on November 27.[29] Republic of Central LithuaniaOn October 12 1920, ?eligowski 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 who lived 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. Its coat of arms was a mixture of Polish, Lithuanian and Vilnian symbols and resembled 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). Poland added the condition that the new state must be also federated with Poland, pursuing Józef Pi?sudski's goal of creating the Mi?dzymorze Federation. Lithuanians rejected 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 in Central Lithuania 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. Mediation
Selected demarcation lines during the struggle for central Lithuania Peace talks were held under the auspice of the League of Nations. The initial agreement was 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 Paul Hymans). The paln consisted of 15 points, among them were[30]:
The talks came to a halt when Poland demanded that a delegation from Central Lithuania (boycotted by Lithuania) be invited to Brussels.[30] On the other hand Lithuanians demanded that the troops in Central Lithuania be relocated behind the line drawn by the October 7, 1920 cease-fire agreement, while Hymans' proposal left Vilnius in Polish hands, which was unacceptable to Lithuania.[30] 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 Klaip?da Region (the area in East Prussia north of the Neman River) was to be incorporated into Lithuania in exchange for granting certain level of internal autonomy to the Central Lithuania. However, both Poland and Lithuania openly criticized this revised plan and finally this turn of talks came to a halt as well. Resolution
Ribbon of the Cross of Military Merit of Central Lithuania 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. The request was accepted by Polish Sejm on March 22, 1922. All of Republic's territory was eventually incorporated into the newly-formed Wilno Voivodeship. Lithuania declined to accept the Polish authority over the area. 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. AftermathIn a counterfactual analysis, several historians have asserted that if Poland had not prevailed in the Polish-Soviet War, Lithuania would have been invaded by the Soviets, and would never have experienced two decades of independence.[34] Under this scenario, despite the Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty of 1920, Lithuania was very close to being invaded by the Soviets in summer 1920 and being forcibly incorporated into that state, and only the Polish victory derailed this plan.[34] After the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the Polish Defensive War of 1939, Lithuania was given Vilna, and its surroundings up to 30 km, on October 10, 1939. A part of the region was given to the Belarusian SSR. Soon afterwards, Lithuania was forced to become the Lithuanian SSR, although since the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1990, the city's status as Lithuania's capital has been internationally recognized. See alsoNotes and referencesExternal links
be:???????? ????? be-x-old:???????? ????? cs:St?ední Litva da:Central-Litauen de:Mittellitauen (Staat) et:Kesk-Leedu eo:Centra Litovio 1920-1940 it:Lituania Centrale he:???? ??????? lt:Vidurin? Lietuva no:Midt-Litauen pl:Litwa ?rodkowa pt:República da Lituânia Central ru:????????? ????? uk:????????? ????? Source: Wikipedia | The above article is available under the GNU FDL. | Edit this article
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