https://doi.org/10.31261/WSN.2010.10.05
The occupation politics of German authorities during World War I led to a revival of national movements in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the final period of war, the aspirations of the elites from particular ethnic groups aiming at building their own state organisms became the source of the conflict. The object of rivalry was Vilnius and the Vilnius Region. The Lithuanians aimed at building a nation based on the domination of Lithuanian culture and language with the capital in Vilnius. They were against a federation with Poland. They received support from part of the Jewish politicians in exchange for promises of national-cultural autonomy, although the Jews from Vilnius preferred the conception of an ethnic, not national, state. The Polish community was divided. A minority advocated for a return to the tradition of a multinational Lithuanian state where different languages would be justified, and a restoration of the relationship between Poland and Lithuania would protect Polish culture and create a potential force against the Russian threat. However, in the Polish camp, the dominant idea was the incorporation of the Vilnius Region and Vilnius into Poland. The Belarusian elites found themselves in the most difficult situation, aspiring to build a nation encompassing parts of both the Vilnius Region and Minsk. The undeveloped national awareness among Belarusian masses and the lack of a broader intelligentsia class forced Belarusian activists to seek external support from Russia, Poland, and Lithuania. However, each neighboring country had territorial interests that conflicted with Belarusian aspirations. The advocates of Piłsudski, editing Nasz Kraj in 1919 in Vilnius, saw a multinational Lithuania federated with Poland as the only chance to reconcile the contradictory programs. Nevertheless, they failed to persuade Lithuanians, Belarusians, or even the majority of the Polish society in Vilnius to support this conception.
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Vol. 2 No. 7 (2010)
Published: 2020-03-03
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