Polish autonomy in the Vilnius Region (Polish: Autonomia Wileńszczyzny; Lithuanian: Vilniaus krašto autonomija) was an idea about a politically autonomous territorial unit for Poles in Lithuania, which began to be discussed in autumn 1988, when Lithuania was regaining its independence from the Soviet Union.[1] As a result of perestroika, under the influence of their own national revival, and also fearing an attempt at Lithuanianization in independent Lithuania, Poles in Lithuania attempted to protect their own cultural identity by establishing autonomy. According to the Polish sociologist Adam Bobryk [pl], this project never gained full support from the Lithuanian authorities, nor was implemented unilaterally by the Poles.[2] The project was subject to several years of discussion and design work in 1988–1991, various groups of the Polish minority differed about its ultimate shape, basically agreeing only that autonomy should cover areas where Poles are the majority, and the Polish language should be given equal status.[2]
On 6 and 15 September 1989, the Šalčininkai and Vilnius municipalities, respectively, declared themselves to be self-governing national territorial districts within the Lithuanian SSR, where Russian, Polish and Lithuanian languages had equal status.[1] Following the re-establishment of Lithuanian independence on 11 March 1990, the Šalčininkai municipality adopted a declaration on 15 May 1990 which stated that the restoration of Lithuanian independence was invalid and that the Lithuanian SSR continues to be a part of the USSR.[1] The closest to its creation was in October 1990, with adopting by the congress of Polish delegates in Eišiškės the declaration of the creation of the Polish National-Territorial Region [pl] and sending it to the Lithuanian Parliament for approval.[3] Such request was refused, by the Lithuanian authorities partially accepted Polish demands with the amendment of the Minorities Act on 29 January 1991, in the fields of language and education, also promised a new administrative division that would take national divisions into account.[4] The latter postulate was never realized. Works on autonomy were continued at the congress in Mostiškės on 22 May 1991, where the deputies agreed on the basic principles of the autonomy system.[5] The attempt to create a Polish autonomy collapsed together with the failed 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, because its main supporters, the hard-line Soviet Communists, were defeated.[1] After Lithuania actually regained its independence on 4 September 1991, it suppressed the movement and dissolved the district councils of Vilnius and Šalčininkai.[6]
^ abcdAntanavičius 2019.
^ abBobryk 2019, p. 102.
^Jundo-Kaliszewska 2019, p. 215-217.
^Bobryk 2019, p. 100.
^Sirutavičius 2018, p. 164.
^Bobryk 2019, p. 99-100.
and 18 Related for: Polish autonomy in the Vilnius Region information
PolishautonomyintheVilniusRegion (Polish: Autonomia Wileńszczyzny; Lithuanian: Vilniaus krašto autonomija) was an idea about a politically autonomous...
thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with contemporary sources comparing it to Babylon. Before World War II and the Holocaust, Vilnius was one of the most...
I and the rebirth of both states, there was thePolish–Lithuanian War, whose main focus was Vilnius and the nearby region. In its aftermath, the majority...
Union, and was known one of the promoters of the territorial autonomy of theVilniusregionin 1991. Brodawski graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Agriculture...
a Polish autonomy intheVilniusregionin 1990–91. After some Polish activists supported the attempted communist coup in Moscow the Lithuanian authorities...
supporters of theautonomy movement of the Poles of theVilniusregion, that had been part of Poland before being attached to Lithuania in 1939. From May...
The city of Vilnius, now the capital of Lithuania, and its surrounding region has been under various states. TheVilniusRegion has been part of the Grand...
after a Polish insurrection in 1831, at which point Russia ended most of the kingdom's autonomy and exacted multiple punitive measures on thePolish populace...
The Great Seimas of Vilnius (Lithuanian: Didysis Vilniaus Seimas, also known as the Great Assembly of Vilnius, the Grand Diet of Vilnius, or the Great...
Second World War inVilnius. Four YIVO directors emigrated to New York.[citation needed] ThePolish administration intheVilniusRegion carried out policy...
control of the cities of Vilnius (Polish: Wilno), Suwałki (Lithuanian: Suvalkai) and Augustów (Lithuanian: Augustavas). Inthe aftermath of the war the Republic...
and security of the ghettos. IntheVilniusregion, the Lithuanians used their influential role inthe administration to close Polish schools and cultural...
the occupation of Lithuania's capital Vilniusin 1920. Lithuanian Catholic priests (derogatorily called Litwomans inPolish) promoted Lithuanian in equal...
thePolish–Lithuanian War, whose main focus was Vilnius and the nearby region. In its aftermath, the majority of thePolish population living inthe Lithuanian...
the Lithuanian and Belarusian language areas, with Vilnius as the center. After some time, especially intheVilniusregion, ignorance of thePolish language...
promised to return theVilniusRegion, but Lithuania held to its policy of strict neutrality. When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the Wehrmacht took...
he was holding talks with pro-Polish estate owners from theVilniusRegion. On 3 August, Wasilewski arrived at Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania...
Global Information