Wilno/Vilnius

[jflevin at MAIL.UCR.EDU]

At 08:45 AM 6/13/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> >                 Vilnia (Vilnius) was truly a Belarusian capital.
>
>............................................
>
> >       It is well-known that Vilnia historically has  been a Belarusian
> >capital, but Joseph Stalin gave it  to Lithuanians.
>
>
>This is news to me. When exactly was it a Belarusian capital? When did
>Stalin give it to Lithuanians? I am well aware of the fact that it used to
>be a Polish city (with a vibrant Jewish cultural community indeed) which
>later became ethnically Lithuanian.

In 1919, at the Versailles negotiations, the status of Vilna/Wilno/Vilnius
was under discussion.  The largest ethnic community in the city--the
Jews--sent a delegation to express its support for LITHUANIAN sovereignty
over the city.  The treaty of Versailles awarded Vilnius to Lithuania.
(Partly as a reward for Jewish support, Lithuania in the 20's had the most
self-governing Jewish community, with official parliamentary
representation, in Europe.)  In the meantime, a Polish army conquered that
little corner, including the city, and occupied it, in violation of the
treaty of Versailles.  For this reason, Lithuania did not exchange
diplomatic recognition with Poland until the big boys--Germany and the
USSR--forced them to in 1937.  There was a deadly skirmish at the border
initiating this now forgotten international incident.  In 1940 Stalin
restored Vilnius to its legal (if the Treaty of Versailles can be said to
have any legal status) owner--Lithuania.  It was a devil's deal--in return
bourgeois Lithuania was forced to accept USSR military bases.  Funny thing,
in all this history the geographic entity "Belarus" never came up...

I am very familiar with Vilnius, both Soviet and free.  I've met and talked
to many Lithuanians, Jews, Russians, Poles who reside in the city.  I think
in all that time ONE taxi driver (taxis were my daily means of
transportation and I always struck up conversations with the drivers)
identified himself as a Belarusian.  Of course, the peasants at the
farmers' markets from the surrounding areas were obviously Slavic, and no
doubt would be identified as Belarusian by professional Slavicists, but
they considered themselves Polish if Catholic, and "Russian" if
Orthodox.  They called their language "prosta mova".
Jules Levin

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