Unfortunately one stamp is missing but this is a registered postal stationery with added stamps sent on 21 June 1920 from Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to France. Prior to the formation of Central Lithuania, the Poles occupied Vilnius from 19 April 1919 to 13 July 1920, this card has been used during this period.
It is addressed to a certain Madame A. Hock in Gueugnon in the department of Saône-et-Loire in France but later redirected to Uriage (Uriage-les-Bains) in the department of Isère, which is known to be a spa town. The sender's name Helene Kwasser also doesn't seem Russian (rather German sounding) but their correspondence is clearly in Russian. Hôtel du Gare does not seem to exist in present Uriage anymore.
Poles were total majority in Vilnius then, so speaking about polish occupation of Vilnius is as wise as speaking about lithuanian occupation of Kaunas
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. I personally think the problem was not as simple as that. When Jogaila became king of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło there were still a clear distinction between Lithuanians and Poles. But gradually, they stopped speaking Lithuanian language and spoke only Polish. Alexander Jagiełło is said to be the last king who was able to speak Lithuanian (and the last king to be buried in Vilnius). By the time of Zygmunt II August, the royal family was completely Polish along with other prominent Lithuanian aristocrat such as the Radvila/Radziwiłł family (by the way, I was always wondering why Radziwiłł and not Radziwiłło? Lithuanian names such as Jogaila becomes Jagiełło, or Švitrigaila to Świdrygiełło. It should be Radziwiłło as well...). There is no record of any mass immigration of Poles to Lithuania, there was even once a law in Rzeczpospolita prohibiting Polish aristocrats to buy land in Lithuania and Lithuanian aristocrats to buy land in Poland. It was only during the Imperial Russian time that ordinary people were finally completely free to move from one place to another. I think most of the Poles in present Lithuania used to be originally Lithuanians including Piłsudski family whose family tree can be traced back in Lithuanian even before the union done by Władysław II Jagiełło. Even his name Piłsudski is Lithuanian, Piłs- meaning "castle" like in Vilnius' old town main street Pilies street (Zamkowa street in Polish and was called that way for long time). "Litwo, Ojczyzno moja!" (Lithuania, my father land!) tells us all in one sentence.
ReplyDeleteAbout calling the event of 1919 as "occupation", it is because it was physically a military occupation as well as the act taken by General Lucjan Żeligowski in 1920. When a military takes a land by force and keeps it for whatever the reason without legal consent of the previously owning state, I think it is an occupation. Kaunas was not taken by force by the Lithuanians so I do not call it an occupation but Klaipėda region can be said that it was under Lithuanian occupation until the international community and Germany gave the final consent.