Belarus and the "Belarusian irredenta" in Lithuania

Nationalities Papers

Volumn 25, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 643-658

  Burant, Stephen R ^a  

^a U S DEPARTMENT OF STATE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ETHNIC POLITICS; NATIONAL IDENTITY; STATE BUILDING; TERRITORIAL DISPUTE;

BELARUS;

EID: 0031428904     PISSN: 00905992     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00905999708408532     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. Saulius Girnius, "Belarus Lays Territorial Claims on Lithuania," RFE/RL Daily Report, 25 February 1992, p. 4.
2. The state was called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Rus' until the mid-fifteenth century, when the name Samogitia was added.
3. Belarusians in Lithuania number about 63,000-1.7% of the population - according to the 1989 census. Grzegorz Blaszczyk, Litwa współczesna (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1992), pp. 63, 70.
4. Jan Zaprudnik, Belarus: At a Crossroads in History (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), pp. 107-108.
5. Quoted in Cezary Goliński, łNikt tarn na nas nie czeka,́ Gazeta Wyborcza, 12 July 1993.
6. Zianon Paz'niak, ́Belarus', Rasiia, SND,́ Narodnaia Hazeta, 14 January 1993.
7. John A. Hall, ́Nationalisms: Classified and Explained,́ DFF3 Baeda 1 us, Summer 1993, p. 4.
8. John Plamenatz, ́Two Types of Nationalism,́ in Eugene Kamenka, ed., Nationalism: The Nature and Evolution of an Idea (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1973), pp. 30-31. Exceptions include the Poles and possibly the Hungarians. See Roman Szporluk, "In Search of the Drama of History: Or, National Roads to Modernity," East European Politics and Societies Winter 1990, p. 143.
9. John Plamenatz, ́Two Types of Nationalism,́ in Eugene Kamenka, ed., Nationalism: The Nature and Evolution of an Idea (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1973), pp. 30-31. Exceptions include the Poles and possibly the Hungarians. See Roman Szporluk, "In Search of the Drama of History: Or, National Roads to Modernity," East European Politics and Societies Winter 1990, p. 143.
10. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991), p. xiv.
11. Ibid., pp. 198, 205.
12. Anthony D. Smith, "The Ethnic Sources of Nationalism," Survival, Spring 1993, p. 56.
13. Jan Zaprudnik, "Interpretation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Recent Works by Soviet Belorussian Historians," in Arvids Ziedonis, Jr. et al., eds, Baltic History (Columbus, OH: Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, Inc., 1974), p. 64. This issue was, of course, a bone of contention. Other Soviet Belarusian historians emphasized Belarus' historical ties to Russia.
14. Vitaǔt Charopka, "Praǔda 'neabverzhnykh' faktaǔ," Polymia, December 1990, p. 204. See also "100 voprosov i otvetov iz istorii Belarusi," Narodnaia Hazeta, 26 May 1993. Ivan Sǔverchanka, answering question number 35 - "What was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania" - writes, "The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a medieval Belarusian state that arose in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries as a result of the unification by Navahradak of neighboring principalities - Polatsak, Turaǔ-Pinsk, and Smolensk - on an economic and cultural foundation, as well as of lands settled by tribes of Lithuania, Latgalians, Jathwingians, and others."
15. "Kanstytutsyia (Asnoǔny Zakon) Respubliki Belarus," Zviazda, 22 August 1992.
16. Kathleen Mihalisko, "Belorussia Lays Claim to Lithuanian Territory," Report on the USSR, 13 April 1990, p. 21.
17. In line with the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union took control of the Vilnius region after its invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939. On 22 October 1939, the population of "West Belarus," including inhabitants of the Vilnius region, elected a national assembly of West Belarus. Six days later the assembly convened to request incorporation into the USSR. On 2 November, the USSR Supreme Soviet acceded to the assembly's request; the Act of Incorporation, published on 4 November, made East and West Belarus into a single state. The Belarusians were unaware that on 10 October 1939, the Soviet Union and Lithuania had reached an agreement by which Moscow was to give much of the Vilnius region to Lithuania in exchange for military basing rights there. Subsequently, Soviet Lithuania received additional territory in the Vilnius region.
18. "Litva-Belorussiia: K voprosu o territoriiakh," Sel'skaia Zhizn' 23 August 1990.
19. Mihalisko, "Belorussia Lays Claim," p. 23.
20. Miçdzy Baltykiem a Morzem Czarnym. Z Igorem Czerniawskim, czlonkiem wladz Bialoruskiego Frontu Narodowego, rozmawia Andrzej Romanowski," Tvaodnik Powszechnv 3 February 1991. Romanowski doubtless took it for granted that most of the residents of the Vilnius region were ethnic Poles.
21. Vintsuk Viachorka, "Tysiacheletnee sosedstvo," Neman, June 1990, pp. 171, 174. Liavon Lutskevich, a Belarusian cultural activist in Lithuania, has seconded Viachorka's arguments, saying that because of prewar and postwar repressions of the Belarusian intelligentsia in Vilnius and the Vilnius region, the local Belarusian people "got lost for a while." See "Vil'nia," ibid., December 1992, p. 153.
22. Vintsuk Viachorka, "Tysiacheletnee sosedstvo," Neman, June 1990, pp. 171, 174. Liavon Lutskevich, a Belarusian cultural activist in Lithuania, has seconded Viachorka's arguments, saying that because of prewar and postwar repressions of the Belarusian intelligentsia in Vilnius and the Vilnius region, the local Belarusian people "got lost for a while." See "Vil'nia," ibid., December 1992, p. 153.
23. R. Haretski et al., "Historyia ne tserpits' perakosaü," Zviazda, 11 January 1992. I would like to thank Jan Zaprudnik for providing me with this source.
24. These talks may have finally produced an agreement. See "Slezevicius, Belarus Counterpart Hold Negotiations," Radio Vi lnius, 29 October 1993.
25. Such assertions have parallels in other times and places. Lithuanians in the immediate post-World War I period sought a large national state: acknowledging Lithuanian ethno-graphic territory did not coincide with the territory they claimed but arguing that people inhabiting this territory had once spoken Lithuanian and that their descendents, even if they did not consider themselves Lithuanians, would return to their roots, once united with their Lithuanian-speaking brethren. Regina Žepkaitė, Diplomatija imperializmo tarnyboje. Lietuvos ir Lenkijos santykiai 1919-1939m (Vilnius: Mokslas, 1980), pp. 18-19; and Wladyslaw Wielhorski, Polska a Litwa: Stosunki wzaiemne w biegu dziejc/w (London: The Polish Research Centre Ltd., 1947), pp. 254-255. Eric Hobsbawm also writes of so-called Wasserpolacken in Silesia and the Windische in Slovenia who refused to accept political unity with Poles and Slovenes respectively. E. J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Proramme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 59.
26. Such assertions have parallels in other times and places. Lithuanians in the immediate post-World War I period sought a large national state: acknowledging Lithuanian ethno-graphic territory did not coincide with the territory they claimed but arguing that people inhabiting this territory had once spoken Lithuanian and that their descendents, even if they did not consider themselves Lithuanians, would return to their roots, once united with their Lithuanian-speaking brethren. Regina Žepkaitė, Diplomatija imperializmo tarnyboje. Lietuvos ir Lenkijos santykiai 1919-1939m (Vilnius: Mokslas, 1980), pp. 18-19; and Wladyslaw Wielhorski, Polska a Litwa: Stosunki wzaiemne w biegu dziejc/w (London: The Polish Research Centre Ltd., 1947), pp. 254-255. Eric Hobsbawm also writes of so-called Wasserpolacken in Silesia and the Windische in Slovenia who refused to accept political unity with Poles and Slovenes respectively. E. J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Proramme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 59.
27. Such assertions have parallels in other times and places. Lithuanians in the immediate post-World War I period sought a large national state: acknowledging Lithuanian ethno-graphic territory did not coincide with the territory they claimed but arguing that people inhabiting this territory had once spoken Lithuanian and that their descendents, even if they did not consider themselves Lithuanians, would return to their roots, once united with their Lithuanian-speaking brethren. Regina Žepkaitė, Diplomatija imperializmo tarnyboje. Lietuvos ir Lenkijos santykiai 1919-1939m (Vilnius: Mokslas, 1980), pp. 18-19; and Wladyslaw Wielhorski, Polska a Litwa: Stosunki wzaiemne w biegu dziejc/w (London: The Polish Research Centre Ltd., 1947), pp. 254-255. Eric Hobsbawm also writes of so-called Wasserpolacken in Silesia and the Windische in Slovenia who refused to accept political unity with Poles and Slovenes respectively. E. J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Proramme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 59.
28. Lutskevich, "Vil'nia," p. 136
29. Ibid., p. 141; Tatiana Szebet, "Białorusini o Wilnie," Obserwator Codzienny, 1 April 1992.
30. Ibid., p. 141; Tatiana Szebet, "Białorusini o Wilnie," Obserwator Codzienny, 1 April 1992.
31. Haretski et al., "Historyia ne tserpits' perakosaǔ."
32. The historian Uladzimir Kananovich also writes of the need to restore historical justice with regard to the Vilnius question. See "'Dlia miane belaruskasts' pachalasia z Vil'ni ...'," Literatura i Mastatstva, 24 April 1992.
33. Zaprudnik, Belarus: At a Crossroads in History, p. 221.
34. Quoted in Alicja Basţa, Zamȩt pod Ostra̧ Bramç (Warsaw: Alma Press, 1991), pp. 124-125. Numerous Lithuanians believe the Poles of the Vilnius region are denationalized Lithuanians - tutejsi, people who have a regional, rather than a national, identity. See Stephen R. Burant, "Polish-Lithuanian Relations: Past, Present, and Future," Problems of Communism, May-June 1991, p. 79.
35. Quoted in Alicja Basţa, Zamȩt pod Ostra̧ Bramç (Warsaw: Alma Press, 1991), pp. 124-125. Numerous Lithuanians believe the Poles of the Vilnius region are denationalized Lithuanians - tutejsi, people who have a regional, rather than a national, identity. See Stephen R. Burant, "Polish-Lithuanian Relations: Past, Present, and Future," Problems of Communism, May-June 1991, p. 79.
36. Andrejus Stepanovas, "Kas tic 'tuteišiai'?" Atgimimas, 1 January 1989; see also, Stasys Abramauskas et al., "Kreipimasis i̧ Lietuvos Prezidenta p. Algirda Brazauska̧, i Baltarusijos Aukščiausiosios Tarybos Pirmininka p. Stanislava Šuškevičiu̧, i̧ visus baltarusius ir lietuvius," ibid., 2 June 1993; and Stanislaw Marek Kolek, "Ziemia spraw niedokończonych," Odra, April 1992, pp. 16-17.
37. Andrejus Stepanovas, "Kas tic 'tuteišiai'?" Atgimimas, 1 January 1989; see also, Stasys Abramauskas et al., "Kreipimasis i̧ Lietuvos Prezidenta p. Algirda Brazauska̧, i Baltarusijos Aukščiausiosios Tarybos Pirmininka p. Stanislava Šuškevičiu̧, i̧ visus baltarusius ir lietuvius," ibid., 2 June 1993; and Stanislaw Marek Kolek, "Ziemia spraw niedokończonych," Odra, April 1992, pp. 16-17.
38. Andrejus Stepanovas, "Kas tic 'tuteišiai'?" Atgimimas, 1 January 1989; see also, Stasys Abramauskas et al., "Kreipimasis i̧ Lietuvos Prezidenta p. Algirda Brazauska̧, i Baltarusijos Aukščiausiosios Tarybos Pirmininka p. Stanislava Šuškevičiu̧, i̧ visus baltarusius ir lietuvius," ibid., 2 June 1993; and Stanislaw Marek Kolek, "Ziemia spraw niedokończonych," Odra, April 1992, pp. 16-17.
39. Arūnas Daugėla, "Ar S. Šuškevičius paneigs gandus?" Respublika, 26 March 1992.
40. "'Długie trwanie' Europy Środkowej. z prof. Jerzym Kloczowskim rozmawia Andrzej Romanowski," Tygodnik Powszechny, 1 April 1993.
41. Alena Tsikhanovich, "Kali Belarus' byla Litvoiu," Zviazda, 10 July 1992. Although Lithuanian historians may agree with their Belarusian colleagues on this issue, Lithuanian politicians do not. Landsbergis has criticized the Belarusian U.N. ambassador for calling the Grand Duchy of Lithuania a Belarusian state: saying such statements create the impression that "political conflicts are ripening in this part of Europe." See Justas Ramonis, "V. Landsbergis apie kaimynus ir lyderius," Respublika, 31 July 1993.
42. Alena Tsikhanovich, "Kali Belarus' byla Litvoiu," Zviazda, 10 July 1992. Although Lithuanian historians may agree with their Belarusian colleagues on this issue, Lithuanian politicians do not. Landsbergis has criticized the Belarusian U.N. ambassador for calling the Grand Duchy of Lithuania a Belarusian state: saying such statements create the impression that "political conflicts are ripening in this part of Europe." See Justas Ramonis, "V. Landsbergis apie kaimynus ir lyderius," Respublika, 31 July 1993.
43. Again, there is a parallel in the early-twentieth-century history of this region. The Poles and Lithuanians each sought sovereignty over Vilnius in the aftermath of World War I. Jozef Pilsudski attempted to resolve the conflict through a union of Poland and Lithuania, with Vilnius as the latter's capital. The Lithuanians would have none of it.
44. Paz'niak, "Belarus', Rasiia, SND." Belarusian national activists raised the idea of reconstituting the Grand Duchy under German auspices with Lithuanian, Polish, and Jewish representatives during World War I, and on 12 March 1919, the Lithuanian and Belarusian soviet republics united in the short-lived "Litbel."
45. Vytautas Landsbergis, "Baltarusija kryžkelėje," Lietuvos Aidas, 14 April 1993; Miroslaw Czech, "Polska i Ukraina - dzialanie i rozmowy," Kultura, April 1993, p. 94.
46. Vytautas Landsbergis, "Baltarusija kryžkelėje," Lietuvos Aidas, 14 April 1993; Miroslaw Czech, "Polska i Ukraina - dzialanie i rozmowy," Kultura, April 1993, p. 94.
47. Lithuanians in the early twentieth century premised their claims to Vilnius on similar grounds. Such arguments are no less dubious than those of the Belarusians. See Žepkaité, Diplomatija imperializmo tarnyboje, p. 18.
48. Abramauskas et al., "Kreipimasis." They rest their arguments on the mid-ninteenth century research of N. Lebedkin and confirm them by Polish investigations of the period.
49. Zofia Kurzowa, "Sytuacja jçzykowa ludności w Litewskiej i Bialoruskiej SRR," Przegla̧d Polonijny, No. 3, 1985, p. 9.
50. Piotr Wandycz, The Lands of Partitioned Poland 1795-1918 (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1974), pp. 243-244.
51. Karl W. Deutsch, Nationalism and Social Communication (Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T Press, 1966), p. 39.
52. Roman Szporluk, "West Ukraine and West Belorussia: Historical Tradition, Social Communication, and Linguistic Assimilation," Soviet Studies, January 1979, p. 79.
53. Marceli Kosman, Orzel i pogoń (Warsaw: Ksia̧żka i Wiedza, 1992), p. 297.
54. Błaszczyk, Litwa współczesna, p. 323.
55. Ibid.; Kurzowa, "Sytuacja jçzykowa," p. 12.
56. Błaszczyk, Litwa współczesna, p. 328.
57. Basta, Zamçt pod Ostra̧ Brama̧, p. 93.
58. Ibid., p. 139.
59. Błaszczyk, Litwa wspòłczesna, pp. 224, 335.
60. Ibid., p. 226.
61. Kurzowa, "Sytuacja jçzykowa," p. 14.
62. Cited in Juozas Lakis, "Przegla̧d socjologiczny pod ka̧tem mniejszosci narodowych na Litwie," Znad Wilii, 29 March-11 April 1992.
63. Marek J. Karp et al., "Z Litwy," Res Publica, February 1989, p. 93.
64. Cited in Janina Paradowska, "Smutki znad Wilii," Polityka, 31 July 1993.
65. On the importance of the census in this regard, see Anderson, Imagined Communities, pp. 164-170.
66. Karp, ibid., p. 92
67. Burant, "Polish-Lithuanian Relations," pp. 79-81. In Belarus, where Moscow was less concerned about the "dangers" of indigenous nationalism, the Polish population was subject to far more severe pressure than in Lithuania. See "Mowic o swoich sprawach. Z Eugeniuszem Skrobockim, redaktorem naczelnym 'Glosu nad Niemna,' rozmawia Stanislaw Podgorzelski," Rzeczpospolita, 22 March 1991. The number of people in Belarus who called themselves Poles fell by more than 150,000 between 1959 and 1970. Anna Sielanko, "Polacy na 'Białorusi," ibid., 7 March 1991.
68. Burant, "Polish-Lithuanian Relations," pp. 79-81. In Belarus, where Moscow was less concerned about the "dangers" of indigenous nationalism, the Polish population was subject to far more severe pressure than in Lithuania. See "Mowic o swoich sprawach. Z Eugeniuszem Skrobockim, redaktorem naczelnym 'Glosu nad Niemna,' rozmawia Stanislaw Podgorzelski," Rzeczpospolita, 22 March 1991. The number of people in Belarus who called themselves Poles fell by more than 150,000 between 1959 and 1970. Anna Sielanko, "Polacy na 'Białorusi," ibid., 7 March 1991.
69. Burant, "Polish-Lithuanian Relations," pp. 79-81. In Belarus, where Moscow was less concerned about the "dangers" of indigenous nationalism, the Polish population was subject to far more severe pressure than in Lithuania. See "Mowic o swoich sprawach. Z Eugeniuszem Skrobockim, redaktorem naczelnym 'Glosu nad Niemna,' rozmawia Stanislaw Podgorzelski," Rzeczpospolita, 22 March 1991. The number of people in Belarus who called themselves Poles fell by more than 150,000 between 1959 and 1970. Anna Sielanko, "Polacy na 'Białorusi," ibid., 7 March 1991.
70. John A. Armstrong has written that "groups tend to define themselves not by reference to their own characteristics but by exclusion, that is, by comparison to "strangers'," Nations Before Nationalism (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1982), pp. 4-5. On the numerous conflicts between the Polish population and the Lithuanian government, see Stephen R. Burant, "International Relations in a Regional Context: Poland and Its Eastern Neighbors - Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine," Europe-Asia Studies, May-June 1993, pp. 401-404.
71. John A. Armstrong has written that "groups tend to define themselves not by reference to their own characteristics but by exclusion, that is, by comparison to "strangers'," Nations Before Nationalism (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1982), pp. 4-5. On the numerous conflicts between the Polish population and the Lithuanian government, see Stephen R. Burant, "International Relations in a Regional Context: Poland and Its Eastern Neighbors - Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine," Europe-Asia Studies, May-June 1993, pp. 401-404.
72. Jacek Borkowicz, "Renesans polskiego s;a015owa," Gazeta Wvborcza, 4 July 1990.
73. Błaszczyk, Litwa współczesna, p. 224.
74. Rafal Jesswein and Jacek Kapica, "Polskie radio w Wilnie," Rzeczpospolita, 20 July 1992.
75. Sergei Dubavets, "Belorusskaia gazeta iz Vil'niusa," Sovetskaia Belorussiia, 16 May 1992.
76. "Novyia straty Vilenskikh Belarusaǔ," Zviazda, 23 April 1993.
77. "Ieškome to, kas mus vienija. Julijos Mockevičiūtės pokalbis su Vaclavu Baranovskiu," Tiesa, 8 November 1991.
78. There are plans to create a Belarusian-language school in Vilnius. Sponsored by the department of Belarusian language, literature, and culture of the Vilnius Pedagogical Institute, it will offer instruction in grades 1-12. G. Petkovich, "Vozrozhdaetsia Belorusskaia gimnaziia v Vil'niuse," Ekho Litvy, 31 March 1993.
79. Błaszczyk, Litwa współczesna, pp. 336-339.
80. "Mozhno li upustit' sluchai poradovat'sia drug drugu?" Ekho Litvy, 6 January 1993.
81. See, for example, Cezary Goliński, "Kościuszko polskim imperialista̧ byl," Gazeta Wyborcza, 13 October 1993.