Global True Lithuania Encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage worldwide

Poland

Poland has much Lithuanian heritage as Lithuanian and Polish destinies have been intertwined for centuries in more than one way.

Some villages and towns on the Polish side of the Polish-Lithuania border are inhabited mostly by Lithuanians. This unique indigenous Lithuanian community never assimilated, remaining the only such lively community outside Lithuania itself. Centered at Punsk(as) and Sejny (Seinai), this region has many Lithuanian museums and a higher density of Lithuanian monuments than any region of Lithuania of a comparable size. Punskas and Seinai Lithuanians cling to their heritage tightly and, while there is friction dating from the Polish-Lithuanian War of 1919-1920 which has resulted in these areas being conquered by Poland, Poland's Lithuanians enjoy more rights than the comparable communities in Belarus or Russia; they have Lithuanian medium-of-instruction schools and the ability to have Lithuanian placenames on the official signs, something unavailable to Lithuanians anywhere else in the world except for Lithuania itself.

A reconstructed prehistoric Baltic settlement near Punsk

Moreover, for centuries, the histories of Poland and Lithuania went hand-in-hand. The medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland began sharing the same ruler since 1385 and merged into a single Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, a joint country that existed until both Poland and Lithuania were conquered by the surrounding powers in the late 18th century. Even after that, however, Poles and Lithuanians participated in revolts against the ruling Russians together. The Polish-Lithuanian period is now somewhat controversial in Lithuania, as it meant the domination of "elite" Polish language and culture over "peasant" Lithuanian. The nations "divorced" completely after the Lithuanian national revival made the Lithuanian language prestigious again; they settled their boundaries only through war and conflict. That said, during the centuries the two nations were allied, many key decisions of Lithuania were made in the territory of Poland. Three cities are especially important:

*Cracow, which was the capital of Poland at the time Polish-Lithuanian cooperation began. Many joint Polish-Lithuanian rulers are buried there, including the first joint ruler ethnic Lithuanin Jogaila.
*Lublin, where the 1569 union that merged Poland and Lithuania was signed.
*Warsaw, which became the capital of the joint Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century, with the key political decisions that affected Lithuania taken in its palaces.

Royal Palace in Warsaw, from where the joint country was ruled

Furthermore, many heroes of the period are claimed by both Poles and Lithuanians (and sometimes also Belarusians) due to their complex family histories (e.g. "a Polish-speaker born in Lithuania in a family who spoke Lithuanian some generations before"). Many of these people have many streets named after them in both Polish and Lithuanian cities, although in Lithuania, their Lithuanian names tend to be used, whereas in Poland - their Polish names. Even the first joint king Jogaila has a different name in Polish (Jagiełło).

Lithuanian and Polish plaques for bishop Antanas Baranauskas in the Seinai Cathedral, using different names for him

Much of the Polish-Lithuanian cooperation was due to the existence of strong common enemies, first and foremost the German Teutonic Knights. They were defeated by Poland-Lithuania. Northern and Western Poland is full of sites related to these battles that form an important part of Polish and Lithuanian "national myths", from the battle site of the largest Polish-Lithuanian victory at Žalgiris (Grunwald) to the Malbork castle, the seemingly-impenetrable base of the Teutonic Order. Much of the northern and western Poland was ruled by German powers until World War 1 and World War 2. It was those areas where another "national story" of Lithuania took a tragic turn, as the Lithuanian famous pilots Darius and Girėnas crashed here after their successful flight across the Atlantic. Poland was also the location where Nazi German concentration camps operated, some of them, like Stutthof, having held more Lithuanians than people of most other ethnicities.

Main monument at the Grunewald battlefield with Lithuanian symbols

In the very south of Poland, mountainous Zakopane was a popular place to heal from tuberculosis, becoming a place where the famous Lithuanian writer Jonas Biliūnas was buried. Unlike many earlier "joint" heros, Biliūnas wrote in Lithuanian language and was associated with the Lithuanian national revival. Soon after that, however, the two countries parted their ways.

The sign at the former grave of Biliūnas in Zakopane