Lithuania’s War with Poland

Lithuania and Poland were co-ruled for centuries under a monarchy and later as a formalised commonwealth. The centre of power had been Warsaw, and so Polish had become the tongue of the nobility throughout the country. By the 20th century, it wasn’t just the nobility speaking Polish, as Vilnius itself, the historic capital of Lithuania, had 65% of it’s population speaking Polish.

Many Poles were living in Lithuania and Lithuanians were living in Poland, blurring the lines between the two nation states. And when the Russian Empire crumbled during the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, both countries were ready to reclaim their independence, but under which borders?

View of Vilnius from the Hill of Three Crosses

In January 1919, with the Germans retreating home in defeat from World War I, Vilnius was handed over to the Poles.

Just days later, the Soviet’s, who believed their ideology was accepted by the people of the world (they just couldn’t organise it themselves), arrived with their “revolution from abroad” and took Vilnius.

In response, the Polish army began it’s eastward push and took Vilnius back from the Soviets in the spring, also coming into contact with the Lithuanian army.

By 1920, the Soviets were on the advance, and Lithuania secured their lands back from retreating Polish troops as delineated in the Soviet-Lithuanian Peace Treaty.

The Polish Army eventually won the Battle of Warsaw and forced the Soviets to retreat once again (still 1920), and invaded Lithuanian controlled territory.

Sorry! Last one. Supposedly there are around 7 swaps of Vilnius in these 1-2 years 😅

By Autumn, the Poles had cleverly staged a mutiny from amongst their own ranks, and the "Republic of Central Lithuania” was proclaimed as an independent state (effectively it was a Polish puppet state). Their further offensive to Kaunas was halted by the Lithuanian defence.

At this point, Lithuania ceased all diplomatic relations with Poland and moved it’s capital to Kaunas, considering Vilnius to be under occupation.

And in 1922, the puppet “Republic of Central Lithuania” state held elections and voted to join Poland, annexing the Vilnius region. This kept international pressure of Poland’s back and provided a ‘legal’ route to annexation.

Kaunas, Lithuania’s temporary capital from 1920-38.

For nearly twenty years the countries were hostile to one another without major military escalation, but by 1938, Poland had enough and issued an ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding a return to diplomatic relations an end to anti-Polish propaganda. There was no explicit demand of territorial recognition of Vilnius, but accepting the ultimatum would implicitly do so.

Lithuania begrudgingly agreed, with many seeing it as a national humiliation.

However, in 1939 both Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland (reminiscent of the 1795 carving of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth) and divided the country between the two powers.

And just like that, Vilnius was handed back to the Lithuanians.. but not for long.