The liberation of Vilnius (1990)

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Piotr Kapuscinski
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The liberation of Vilnius (1990)

#1

Post by Piotr Kapuscinski » 04 Jan 2014, 17:15

Here about the next, but short-lived, liberation of Vilnius in 1990:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Nat ... ial_Region

http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... rytorialny

And before that:

http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... _Radziecka

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The Polish National-Territorial Region (Polish: Polski Kraj Narodowo-Terytorialny) was an autonomous region in Lithuania, self-proclaimed by the local Poles on 6 September 1990. The region included areas surrounding Vilnius (Polish: Wilno), capital of Lithuania, where Poles formed the majority (60–90%),[1] This Eastern part of Lithuania had been part of Poland (from 1922) before being attached to Lithuania under the Mutual Assistance Treaty with the Soviet Union in 1939. The autonomy region with capital in Naujoji Vilnia (Polish: Nowa Wilejka) included 4,930 km² and population of 215,000 (66% of them were Poles and 34% in Naujoji Vilnia[2]). The Polish autonomist movement (the leaders of which included Jan Ciechanowicz) was related to the Yedinstvo movement and had tacit support from Moscow (thus, when following the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania the Soviets applied a blockade against Lithuania, the areas of Eastern Lithuania with significant minority population were mostly spared of the blockade, with the aim of gaining minorities' support for Moscow). In the region, the Polish Red-and-White flags were used as official flag and Rota was used as an anthem in the region.

The Lithuanian government declared the formation of the Polish autonomous district in Lithuania unconstitutional. After the August Coup of the Soviet hardliners had failed, the Lithuanian parliament suspended on 3 September 1991 the democratically elected local councils that had sought autonomy or secession from Lithuania.[3]
Despite all of post-1945 deportations, ethnic Poles were still the majority in the region in 1990. And they still are the majority in the countryside around Vilnius today (even though the city itself has been thoroughly ethnically cleansed from Poles).

PKN-T in 1990 - 1991 (excluding the city of Vilnius itself - as since the 1950s Poles were no longer majority there):

Image
There are words which carry the presage of defeat. Defence is such a word. What is the result of an even victorious defence? The next attempt of imposing it to that weaker, defender. The attacker, despite temporary setback, feels the master of situation.

Piotr Kapuscinski
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Posts: 3724
Joined: 12 Jul 2006, 20:17
Location: Poland
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Re: The liberation of Vilnius (1939)

#2

Post by Piotr Kapuscinski » 06 Jan 2014, 18:46

Ethnic groups of the city of Vilnius according to censuses in period 1897 - 2011:

Note the huge decline in number of Poles by 1959 compared to 1931 - and this decline does not show the whole story because between 1931 and 1939 Polish population in Vilnius continued to increase, but I don't have exact data for year 1939 for all ethnic groups within the city, so I did not include this year - instead I included the data from census of 1931 and 1959):

1. By percentage of total:
Vilnius %.png
2. By number of people:
Vilnius #.png
One additional note - it is commonly accepted by scholars outside of Russia that the 1897 census was falsified when it comes to the number of Poles (i.e. many Poles were counted as Russians or Belarussians by Russian census takers) - despite this fact, Poles were still the most numerous "nationally significant" group in Vilnius (Jews were "nationally neutral" - they did not have their own state, and they did not claim any territories as their own basing on the argument / criterion of being the ethnic majority group).

I posted the same data also in this thread (in post #416):

http://historum.com/european-history/53 ... tcount=416

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After WW2, large part of ethnic Polish population of former (pre-war) territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union (Ukrainian, Belarussian and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics) was deported to Poland. This is also the case with the city of Vilnius, from which majority of local Poles were deported until 1959 (as can be seen from the data posted above). Already in 1950 (census on 03.12.1950) within new borders of Poland lived 2,137,000 of Poles expelled from areas annexed by the Soviet Union.

Of them - 1,550,000 (72,6%) were deported to former German territories given to Poland; and 587,000 (27,4%) to old Polish territories:

Image

In addition to these 2,137,000, further more than 245,500 Poles from the Soviet Union (former Polish territories) were deported to Poland in period 1955 - 1959 (during the so called "Second Repatriation"). After the end of the Second Repatriation, number of Poles in the former Polish territories annexed by the Soviet Union was - according to official Soviet population census of 1959:

- in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic - 363,300 Poles
- in Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic - 538,881 Poles
- in Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic - 230,000 Poles

Altogether - officially - 1,132,181 Poles still in these three Soviet Republics in 1959 - after the end of the Second Repatriation.

But according to Polish historians, these numbers are still falsified and in fact even more Poles still lived in those areas in 1959. Anyway - no matter how many Poles left in the USSR by 1959, it is still evident, that huge number of Poles was deported from their homes between 1944 and 1959.

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Data from 1950 census as well population movements in Poland after WW2 here (in Polish):

http://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?i ... ublication

http://rcin.org.pl/Content/33932/WA51_5 ... -Geogr.pdf
There are words which carry the presage of defeat. Defence is such a word. What is the result of an even victorious defence? The next attempt of imposing it to that weaker, defender. The attacker, despite temporary setback, feels the master of situation.


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