Vilniaus politinio lietuviškumo klausimas 1919 m. sausį

• Authors: Edmundas Gimžauskas

Abstracts

EN

In the beginning of the 20th century actors of the Lithuanian national movement unequivocally saw Vilnius as the capital of the projected modern state. This attitude became most obvious at the end of World War I, when the time came to make particular decisions. Since Lithuanians ethnically made up a meagre minority of the city’s population, they needed support from groups of foreign-born citizens in order to implement their goal. At the end of 1918, agreements in this direction were reached with representatives of the Belarusians and Jews, however, the most influential and powerful group – the Poles – would not agree to any compromise that would favour Lithuanians; on the contrary, they strived to integrate into the reviving state of Poland. In the junction of 1918 and 1919, the political Lithuanity of Vilnius was first and foremost represented by the establishment of the highest governmental institutions, such as the Council of Lithuania and the Government. The attitude of the Poles resulted in the fact that on 2 January 1919 the Government under the leadership of M. Sleževičius decided to relocate to Kaunas where the chances of receiving the support of ethnic citizens and on its basis organize resistance against the advancing bolshevism were much higher. However, Vilnius was not entirely stripped of the representation of political Lithuanity as these functions were assigned to the General Representative of the Government and the city’s military commandant’s headquarters. These Lithuanian institutions managed to avoid armed clashes with the Poles who made attempts to establish their order in the city, though the latter did not pursue conflict either, being already involved in chaotic struggles at first with the Vilnius workers’ council and later with Red Army soldiers. As it became obvious that the Poles would not withstand the Bolsheviks, for Lithuanians it was politically important not to withdraw from Vilnius before the Poles. As the latter were retreating, soldiers of the Lithuanian commandant’s headquarters also left Vilnius on the 5th of January. General Representative M. Biržiška stayed in the city in the situation of the Bolsheviks’ rule and changed the tactics, initiating the assignment of the key functions of the representation of political Lithuanity to Lithuanian intellectuals of Vilnius. Initially the intellectuals to a certain extent cooperated with V. Kapsukas’ regime and even got involved into its structures, however, associated the nature of relations with the conformity of the Lithuanity, declared by the authorities, with reality. As with time the said Lithuanity raised more and more doubts to the intellectuals, the relations deteriorated. At the end of January there was obvious opposition of Lithuanian intellectuals to the authorities, enhanced by the attitude of independent Lithuania towards the Bolsheviks.

• Publisher: Lietuvos istorijos institutas
• Journal: Lietuvos istorijos metraštis
• Year: 2013
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 143-171

Dates

published

2013

Contributors

author

Edmundas Gimžauskas

• Lietuvos istorijos institutas

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

57630524