Krajowcy

The Krajowcy (the "Regionalists" or "Locals", _lt. krajovcai) was a group of mainly Polish-speaking intellectuals from the Vilnius Region who, in the beginning of the 20th century, opposed dividing the old Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth along ethnic and linguistic lines. They were mostly descendants of the nobles of Grand Duchy of Lithuania (szlachta) but identified themselves with the Polish culture and maintained a sense of loyalty to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and to some extent to the Commonwealth. However, they did not support the Polish federalists who dreamed of resurrecting the Commonwealth and thought of the Grand Duchy as an integral part of Poland. Krajowcy consisted of two wings: the moderate wing, consisting mostly of landowners, and the democratic wing, consisting of Vilnius intelligents.

Krajowcy wanted to neutralize ethnic nationalisms by proposing creation of civil society in the former territory of the Grand Duchy which would include Lithuanians, Poles, Jews, Belarusians, Ukrainians, and other nations. The national identity was not important as long as the person would identify with and feel loyalty to the former Duchy. The state would be formed based not on ethnicity, but on citizenship.

The democratic Krajowcy, led by Michał Römer (1880–1946), Tadeusz Wróblewski (1858–1925) and Ludwik Abramowicz (1879–1939), sought to establish a state together with Belarusians whose national movement just started. They did not want to cut the cultural ties with Poland as they were a natural part of Lithuanian history and heritage. Democratic Krajowcy ideas were based on principles of humanism, democracy, and equality among nations. However, the democratic Krajowcy were scattered and few in numbers and therefore could not organize a greater movement. They also came late as the Lithuanian National Revival had already happened and the differences between Polish and Lithuanian cultural aspirations were evident.

After the outbreak of the World War I and especially when formation of Polish and Lithuanian national states started, members of Krajowcy could no longer hold onto their double self-identification and had to declare their loyalty to one country – either Poland or Lithuania. Most of them declared loyalty to Poland and started supporting federalist ideas. Some (like Michał Römer for instance) chose to support reborn Lithuania.

Bishop Antanas Baranauskas (1835–1902), held views similar to the early Krajowcy (although he was not one of them). Even though he wrote about "our dear nation" in the Lithuanian language, he was against disintegration of the former Grand Duchy into ethnic entities: he was against both Lithuanian and Polish nationalism, and hoped that the Lithuanian and Polish languages and cultures could co-exist and expand together.

References

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* Staliūnas, Darius (July 2005). " [http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no7_ses/chapter14.pdf From Ethnocentric to Civic History: Changes in Contemporary Lithuanian Historical Studies] ". "Occasional Papers No.7: Emerging Meso-Areas in the Former Socialist Countries: Histories Revived or Improvised?" 21st Century COE Program Slavic Eurasian Studies, Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University. Accessed 8 October 2006.
* Kulakauskas, Antanas (2003). " [http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/index.php?id=916 Lietuvių ir lenkų santykiai XX a. pradžioje] ". "Gimtoji istorija: Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės." (CD)Vilnius: Elektroninės leidybos namai. ISBN 9986-9216-9-4
* cite book | last = Miknys | first = Rimantas | title="Wilno i Wileńszczyzna w koncepcjach Michała Römera i krajowców" | year = 1999