Vacys Motuzas Prieš 1 sekundę Vilnius has always been the capital of Lithuania ...

enszi1 prieš 6 mėnesius Polish-Lithuanian War? More like kicking Žemaičiai out of Wilno in two days.

Kev prieš 7 mėnesius The Russian census from 1897 is not the best source as the number of Russians\Belorussians was inflated. The city and surrounding area was mostly Polonized with first Polish census putting the number of Poles at almost 60%, even III Reich's data confirms such ethnic makeup of the city. Pilsudski himself was born in the region. You also forgot to mention, that before the Soviets took over the city in was control of Polish self-defense later supported by Polish Army. It was not a Lithuanian city because of the same self determination rule Lithuanians invoke.

Gera Roda prieš 7 mėnesius (redaguota) First of all it was not (1:21) "the new Baltic state of Lithuania" that was restored in 1918. Lithuania was one of the biggest and oldest empires in Europe. So it is very old Baltic state. London, Moscow, or Praha also "had deep historical ties to older Polish states aswell" (4:24). What "Polish states", when You addmitted before, that Poland and Lithuania made a "joint state" of TWO, but not ONE nation. It was Polish-Lithuanian state for centuries, but not Polish only state. Before the shameles Polish occupation in 1920, Vilnius never ever was a Polish city and had deep historical ties to older Lithuania and joint Lithuanian-Polish state only. Thats all.

Janusz Duzinkiewicz prieš 3 savaites The information about the ethnicity of Vilnius and environ is incorrect. The countryside around Vilnius was almost solidly Polish - and today there us still a large Polish population there. The 1916 German census showed 50.2 % of the city was Polish, 89.8% of the country side were Polish. The Jewish population of Vilnius was 43.5% and the environs, 4.3% Theses figures make more sense than the graphic in the program which is one third left blank. Who were the people suppose to be?

Komentator.zYT prieš 7 mėnesius No one in Poland at the time (including Dmowski) denied that Vilnius was historical capital of Lithuania and that surrounding areas were lands of Lithuania. The problem was about understanding who was a Lithuanian and what was a Lithuania. For Polish perspective, all people somehow connected with legacy od former Grand Duchy of Lithuania could name themselves as Lithuanians. Such view was held by many people of szlachta origin born in historical lands of old Lithuania. They were proud of their Lithuanian heritage and they were dually connected with Lithuania and with Poland. Some of such people were mentioned in this video. Żeligowski and Piłsudski were born in Lithuania, and foreign minister prince Eustachy Sapieha was descendand of powerful Lithuanian noble family. Among his ancestors were Lithuanian Grand Hetmans like Paweł Sapieha. However, the elite of a newly created Lithuanian state were under the influence of Lithuanian National Movement, which was somehow in opposition to ties with Poland and polishness. Poland feared, that such Lithuanian state will be oppressive towards polish speaking people. Piłsudski, with Lithuanian origin as mentiond above, had plans about to make a federation with Lithuania, but under the condition that Lithuanian state gave autonomy to polish speaking Lithuanians. It was refused by Lithuanian politicians. Dmowski was more realistic, and he knew that such plan is almost impossible because the lack of willing of Lithuanians. So, finally for Poland there were two bad options on the table. One was to gave Vilnius to Lithuania with the risk of oppression to Polish people, and the second was annexation of the area. Some of Polish speaking Lithuanians were unhappy about such situation. They thought, that after annexation, Poland should change it's coat of arms, to add the Polish eagle also a Lithuanian Knight. To conclude, because of impossibility of agreement between two sides, it ended as it ended.

Robert Zali prieš 6 mėnesius Not accurate historical narrative. Firstly. In the whole history Vilnius never belonged to Poland. Secondly. In the Lithuanian-Poland Commonwealth Polish was made lingua franka because slavic population Belorussians, Ukrainians, Russians, Poles easily could understand each other in their languages and Polish was the most developed. Baltic Lithuanian language that is very much different from slavic languages was never used in the Middle ages in Grand Lithuania as common language where slavic population made in some times up to 90 proc. Thirdly. After annexation of the Commenwealth by Russian Emp, Austria and Prussia after following upheavals in 1830 Lithuanian language, even the name Lithuania were forbidden. For a book in Lithuanian the whole family would by tsar gendarmes arrested and deported to Siberia. Polish was never forbidden. No wonder many ethnic Lithuanians who since ever used slavic languages made Polish their own. Even polish leader Josef Pilsudsky and first their president Narutowicz both were ethnic Lithuanians and patriots of Commonwealth restoration. Lithuanian language could freely spoken only in East Prussia. The figuer of Russian tsar 1895 y. census you shoved were made after 70 years brutal persecution of all what was and some way remembered Lithuanian and in that Russian tsar census there wasn't even a question about nationality, just about religion and spoken languages. Polish historians and administrations tried every where to recognise all Catholic s as Poles and expose Lithuanians as German allies.

Михайло Вербицький prieš 2 mėnesius As a Ukrainian, I am glad you did this video. During that time, Poland was busy trying to create an empire, thus they fought Ukraine in 1919. Yes, they depleted most of our forces before abandoning us to the Soviets. The same they tried to the Lithuanians, perhaps also waiting for the Soviets so they could pretend to be the saviors. That's why today whenever there are arguments between Poles and Lithuanians, we always root for Lithuanians. They understand well the loss of independence or sacred capital, something the Poles could not understand or taste.

REgamesplayer prieš 6 mėnesius (redaguota) @Andrew Plum You can't say that, because they were polonized Lithuanians. Vilnius was developed and governed by Lithuanians. It is only during late commonwealth years demographics of Vilnius had shifted and it became demographically Polish city. XVI century polonization still wasn't a massive problem, it is only since XVII century Lithuania started to suffer from loss of its own identity. Then Russian came and reduced national consciousness even further in XVIII century. Demographic claims in itself are not sufficient to claim piece of land. De Jure and de facto it was Lithuanian city, this is why Poles were afraid of international justice.

M P prieš 6 mėnesius @Jan Herbu Rodo "People of Wilno fought to be incorporated into Poland (self defense) as they historically felt much closer to multi ethnic Rzeczpospolita, than to some small, nationalistic Republic, that had nothing to do with the Grand Duchy" With statements like that, one is hardly in any position to accuse anyone of looking at an issue from a contemporary perspective. In short - more inhabitants boycotted the elections started in the region by Poland than voted in them, the 'person speaks Polish therefore identifies with Poland and what's happening there at the time' is an absurd equation. 'We are inheritors of all the history of Rzeczpospolita and they have nothing in common with the GDL as well' was a propaganda meme beloved by the Polish national democrat party at the time. A chunk of the signatories of Lithuania's act of independence and the powerful political personas of the time came from either families that participated in uprisings against the Tzars, noble families, or were relatives of the ones doing the same in Poland. There were many different plans for the restoration of Lithuania, the Polish-Soviet war had a lot to do with how borders and policies turned out. What country DOES have more to do with the Grand Duchy?

A prieš 6 mėnesius I don't understand why you chose to use outdated data from Russian census from late 1800's, while you had German statistics from 1916 more adequate to the discussed period. Vilnius of 1918 was inhabited in over 50% by Polish speaking population, I think that we should trust that source, since it is corresponding with later data from Polish (1931) and German (1941) listing. Other than that it was an interesting episode, yet for half of hour, you overlooked many aspects and events.

Jonas Galtas prieš 6 mėnesius (redaguota) This is a great summary! The Poles and Lithuanians are two brotherly nations that have undergone a hard period in the 20th century. For example Gabriel Narutowicz was the first president of Poland while his brother Stanislaw Narutowicz was a Signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania. Michał Pius Römer was offered to head the government of Litwa Srodkowa but chose to live in Lithuania. He is quoted of saying something like this about Pilsudski "you rose like an eagle but fell like a black crow"

maria valaitis prieš 4 mėnesius (redaguota) Hello Jesse, I am an art student in the UK and am currently doing some research to create a short film on my great grandparents emigration journey. During the first world war they emigrated from Lithuania to Scotland with their children and I was wondering whether you would shed a bit of light as to some of the reasons why, ie: would one of the reasons be because of the bolsheviks? Thankyou.

Fankas2000 prieš 6 mėnesius (redaguota) What you should have mentioned is that a lot of the people responsible for the war from the Polish side weren't actually Polish. Both Pilsudski and Zeligowski were polonized Lithuanians and they both grew up in Vilnius. Because of their mixed culture, a Lithuania without Poland was simply unacceptable to them. Had Poland been "ruled" by someone who wasn't of mixed heritage they probably won't have cared about Vilnius and this war wouldn't have happened.

Tegyla prieš 4 mėnesius It's true that the majority of the population were not Lithuanian in Vilnius, but it was similar case for Latvia, when the ruling class were germans and there was significant population of them in cities, Latvian nationalistic movement and Lithuanian nationalistic movement sought to regain it's ethic lands (ethic lands defined by over 50 percent of certain nation living in that area). The Lithuanian lands that Poland occupied in Polish-Bolshvik war by ethnic criteria were Lithuanian. I believe the main disagreement was that Poland did not want to recognize and take seriously Lithuanian national movement, and sought to incorporate Lithuania in Poland in a federation union. In peace conference aside the plebiscite there were two proposals to settle the conflict with Lithuania and Poland, but they did undermine Lithuanian independent administration of it's country in return of getting Vilnius and Lithuanian lands to Lithuania. Those proposals were denied by Poland and by Lithuania. In fact the resistance against those proposals was so fierce in Lithuania that a politician who was willing to consider it had an assasination attempt. One of the consequences of the conflict between Poland and Lithuania is that it prevented the alliance of Baltic states, as Latvia and Estonia sought to remain neutral in the Lithuanian Polish conflict and Lithuania did not want any alliance with Poland as it suspected imperialistic intentions. I would like to think that Polish and Lithuanian conflict is in the past, but up to this day it seems that Poland still has claims to southern lands of Lithuania and that worsens relations between Poland and Lithuania to this day. The usual stance is that Poland considers Lithuanians brothers, but has claims to Lithuanian lands, and Lithuanians feel deterred from closer relations because of that.

wargspruss prieš 2 savaites Since 1863 Russian empire forbid the Lithuanian language, Polish church supported this cover prohibiting Lithuanian prayers and burials in Lithuania. Before invasion 1920, Polish researchers ethnographers found only 1%-6%-11% bilingual “polish” speakers in Vilnius area, but Polish chauvinists later will create different numbers.

Marcy Nouta prieš 7 mėnesius Pilsudski himself was one of those hybrid identity nobles (would sometimes call himself an "old Litwin"). Also, the reason Poland took "so little" land from the Soviets is that Polish political factions (which were negotiating the treaty of Riga) didn't want too many minorities in their country. The Soviets actually offered Poland more land.

Marcy Nouta prieš 7 mėnesius (redaguota) @Opinion Pole Unless you're talking about even earlier time when the masses were not nationally aware, but that's not when the conflict between "Litwins" and "Lietvuses" happened. You just had "Polish-Lithuanains", like Mickiewicz , and local nationally-unaware peasants speaking various languages.

Opinion Pole prieš 7 mėnesius @MrElmas02 Lithuanian magnates, nobility spoke Polish at home by then. In fact Lithuanians bragged that when they would come to Sejm (a Lithuanian word adopted by Polish) they'd speak Polish better than Poles themselves. Lithuanias spoke the literary language while Poles had their dialects. How do you think Polish language because the leading language in Kiev and Minsk (till WW1)? There was no great transfer of population. The language and new identity was brought by Lithuanian nobility. You see... Poles and Lithuanians for some reason don't like talking about it.

Opinion Pole prieš 7 mėnesius @MrElmas02 It's more complicated than that. Rzeczpospolita was our common state. At the end of the 19th century the fight in Lithuania was over who is the "real" Lithuanian. Is the real Lithuanian someone speaking old Lithuanian language or is Lithuanian a descendant of Lithuanian nobility or Lithuanian city dwellers who for generations spoke Polish at home. Don't forget, when Latin was the official language in Poland, for 19 years Polish was the official language of Lithuania. Poland was ruled by Polish speaking Lithuanian families for centuries. Polish language was brought to Belarus and Ukraine by Lithuanian nobles. Those Lithuanian magnates cared about their lands in the east and in the west Polish speaking lands were becoming German speaking lands unopposed. So those Polish speaking Lithuanians have been told by Lithuanian speaking Lithuanians that they are not Lithuanian at all. They are discriminated against because of their language. You can get penalized for using Polish in official settings. I guess Lithuanians like to discriminate other Lithuanians for centuries now.

M P prieš 6 mėnesius @msx Nice bait, empty troll account :) Attempting to equate the entirety of modern Lithuania to just Samogitia is beyond absurd. Specially since it includes almost the entire voivodeship of Trakai of the former grand duchy(a voivodeship which was always overwhelmingly Lithuanian) and Vilnius. The historical flag is there as what it is - the historical flag. Very much still in use today. It is there to be a symbol of history and to say "we were part of that". Ruthenian language was chosen for the chancellery of GDL by the grand dukes as simply - a practical decision, given the geopolitical situation of the time. This does not mean Lithuanians abandoned their language and started speaking Ruthenian. Also, everyone still very much knew which language was Lithuanian, even deep into the years of the commonwealth. See: panegyric to Sigismund III Vasa(1589). Hensel's 'Linguistic map of Europe'(1741). The surviving "Lithuanian language primer for kids" 18th century books published in Vilnius. The languages used in the 1791 May 3rd constitution. The Lithuanian works listed and sponsored by Rotundus, etc.

Viktoras Dailidenas prieš 5 mėnesius ​ @Tom Jagiella Wow .. your familys names so baltic, old and so known in Lithuania.. :o "--actually the family names are Lapinskas, Loda, Noreika, Skirmontas, Noviskis, Montvilius, and, of course, Jagelevicius / Jagiełłowicz. " , I describe you a little basic translation ,, Lapinskas - (fox male), Loda (maybe polish, slavic), Noreika - norėti (want more), Skirmontas - (assigned to someone), Noviskis - Novickis (like new, slavic), Montvilius - (my hope) Jegelavičius - from Jogaila :) (Powerful).. - your roots baltic seem to come from the Lithuanian nobility who of course spoke Polish demanded etiquette

giella prieš 6 mėnesius @Paulius Petrulis , actually the family names are Lapinskas, Loda, Noreika, Skirmontas, Noviskis, Montvilius, and, of course, Jagelevicius / Jagiełłowicz. As I heard the story, Great Uncle Benedict left the family home near Vandziogala to join Piłsudski’s Legions. The Lithuanian authorities arrested him when he traveled home, and he later died in their custody. As my father explained, Benedict saw no issue - he lived in the Commonwealth and fought for the Commonwealth. The Lithuanian authorities saw it differently ... A very complex time!

Tom Jagiella prieš 7 mėnesius Thank you for addressing this bit of history. My family is Lithuanian; but my father’s side spoke Polish, and fought on the side of the Poles. My mother’s side fought for the Lithuanians.

Alexander Malinowski prieš 6 dienas @Steve Guild Poland-Lithuania Commowealth were part of the Western Civilisation on the Eastern fringe. Being together part of EU is basically the same. It is even better, because in the Commonwealth moving to Lithuania was not alwayseasy and locals were prefered. The missing part here is Belarus.

claudermiller prieš 7 mėnesius Could you explain what the problem with YouTube is? What is being censored? I'm considering joining something like curiosity stream for more content. I'm not fond of YouTube basically coming directly out and telling me they will be slowing down and interrupting the videos I watch unless I pay a monthly fee. Sounds too much like "nice restaurant you got here. Sure would be a shame if somethin' happened to it" to me.

Opinion Pole prieš 7 mėnesius (redaguota) Awesome video. My mother's family lived in Vilnius at the time. People of Vilnius spoke Polish and considered themselves Lithuanian. They were loyal to the idea of Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. When Taryba proclaimed independence of Lithuania, they promised a Lithuanian speaking state separate from Poland. Polish speaking Lithuanians of Vilnius wouldn't have it. Piłsudski himself always considered himself LITHUANIAN. The division drew lines in families too. First president of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz had a brother (Stanislavas Narutavičius) who supported the Lithuanian Republic's side and is said to have authored the Lithuanian declaration of independence. Polish speaking Lithuanians either supported the Republic of Lithuania or the Polish commonwealth. The conflict is said to have saved the Lithuanian language. As an act of defiance, Polish speaking Lithuanians learned and started speaking the language of their ancestors. Polish was a prevalent language in Lithuania at the time. When Zeligowski's division was approaching Vilnius, some soldiers deserted not wanting to fight their brothers. Orders were shouted in Polish on both sides. Not every Lithuanian spoke Lithuanian but every Lithuanian spoke Polish. Dying soldiers on both sides were praying in Polish which was heartbreaking to everybody. I'm proud that Lithuanians were able to survive as a nation and were able to preserve their once endangered languag