Lithuanization

Lithuanization (sometimes also called the "Lithuanianization" [ [http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/12/1/27.pdf The Context of Mass Destruction: Agents and Prerequisites of the Holocaust in Lithuania] , MacQueen Holocaust Genocide Studies.1998; 12: 27-48 ] ) is a process of cultural assimilation - adoption, either forced or voluntary, of Lithuanian culture or language, experienced by non-Lithuanian people or groups of people.Fact|date=August 2007

Lithuanization could also be compared to other assimilationist policies carried out at times by other cultural groups in Europe, i.e. Germanization, Romanianization, Polonization or Russification. Some of its aspects could also be tied to the policies carried out by reconstituted countries which wanted to increase the role of their language in their societies (eg. Ukrainization and some notions within the Irish nationalism, such as Gaelicization).Fact|date=August 2007

History

In the early Middle Ages the consolidation of Baltic lands under the Lithuanian supremacy has led to gradual Lithuanization and subsequent assimilation of neighbouring Baltic tribes or their parts, including Selonians, Jotvingians, Nadruvians and Curonians.

On the contrary, the Lithuanian conquest and rule of the Ruthenian lands in the 13th-15th century was notFact|date=September 2007 accompanied by Lithuanization. To the contrary, a large part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania remained Ruthenian, since due to a religious, linguistic and cultural dissimilarity there was little assimilation between the ruling nobility of pagan Lithuanians and conquered Orthodox Eastern Slavs. Moreover, following the military and diplomatic expansion of the Grand Duchy into the Ruthenian and Russian lands local leaders retained a significant autonomy that limited the amalgamation of culturesFact|date=April 2008. Even when some localities received the appointed Gediminid leaders, the Lithuanian higher nobility in the Ruthenian lands largely embraced the Slavic customs and Orthodox Christianity and became indistinguishable from a larger Ruthenian nobility resulting in the two cultures merge to the extent that much of the upper class of the Grand Duchy called themselves Lithuanians, yet spoke the Ruthenian languageen icon cite book | author =Jerzy Lukowski | coauthors =Hubert Zawadzki | title =A Concise History of Poland | year = 2001| editor = | pages =33-45 | publisher =Cambridge University Press | location =Cambridge | id =ISBN 0521559170 | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521559170&id=NpMxTvBuWHYC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=Jagiello&sig=9zJU1yJ5mEYrBdGZ94MwlOVXR_8] en icon cite book | author =Serhii Plokhy | title =The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus | year =2006 | editor = | pages =109-111 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Cambridge University Press | location =Cambridge | id =ISBN 0521864038| url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521864038&id=pCdUmCWxwJ8C&pg=RA7-PA109&lpg=RA7-PA109&ots=DzzoUDov5B&dq=Lithuanization&sig=S9E4n7ybZbXFy6OulmIE11U8Je0 ] "The son of Gediminas, the Grand Prince Olgerd [(Algirdas)] expanded the Ruthenian lands he inherited from his father: he attached the Polish lands to his state expelling the Tatars out. The Ruthenian lands under his sovereignty were divided between princes. However, Olgerd, the person of a strong character, controlled them. In Kiev, he installed his son, Vladimir, who started the new line of Kiev princes that reigned there for over a century and called commonly the Olelkoviches, from Olelko, Aleksandr Vladimirovich, the grand-son of Olgerd. Olgerd himself, married twice the Ruthenian princesses, allowed his sons to baptize into Ruthenian religion and, as the Ruthenian Chronicles speak, had himself baptized and died as a monk. As such, the princes that replaced the St. Vladimir's [Rurikid] line in Ruthenia, became as Ruthenian by religion and by the ethnicity they adopted, as the princes of the line that preceded them. The Lithuanian state was called Lithuania, but of course it was purely Ruthenian and would have remained Ruthenian if only the successor of Olgerd in the Great Princehood, the Jagiello wouldn't have married in 1386 to the Polish queen Jadwiga"
Ru icon Nikolay Kostomarov, "Russian History in Biographies of its main figures", section " [http://www.kulichki.com/inkwell/text/special/history/kostom/kostom22.htm Knyaz Kostantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky] " (Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski)] In the effect of the processes, Lithuanian higher nobility became largely Ruthenian,"Within the [Lithuanian] Grand Duchy, the Ruthenian lands initially retained considerable autonomy. The pagan Lithuanians themselves were increasingly converting to Orthodoxy and assimilating into Ruthenian culture. The grand duchy's administrative practices and legal system drew heavily on Slavic customs, and Ruthenian became the official state language. Direct Polish rule in Ukraine since the 1340s and for two centuries thereafter was limited to Galicia. There, changes in such areas as administration, law, and land tenure proceeded more rapidly than in Ukrainian territories under Lithuania. However, Lithuania itself was soon drawn into the orbit of Poland."
from "Ukraine". (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica.] while the lesser nobility in the ethnic Lithuania and Samogitia continued to use native spoken Lithuanian language. The adapted Old Church Slavonic, and later its derivative Ruthenian language, acquired a status of a main chancery language in the local matters and relations with other Orthodox principalities as "lingua franca", and Latin was used in relations with the Western Europe. [lt icon Zigmas Zinkevičius [http://viduramziu.lietuvos.net/socium/zinkevicius1995.htm The Problem of a Slavonic Language as a Chancerry Language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania] ] This notion however had been gradually reversed by the Polonization of Lithuania occurring since 15th century and then the Russification of the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 19th century and early 20th century.Kevin O'Connor, "The History of the Baltic States", Greenwood Press, ISBN 0313323550, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0313323550&id=b3b5nU4bnw4C&pg=RA1-PA58&lpg=RA1-PA58&ots=6G43QFPPGJ&dq=Russification+Poland-Lithuania&sig=Q1PZa4NiCDV_L6RESzPBop1_8AE Google Print, p.58] ]

A notable example of Lithuanization was the 19th century replacement of Jews (many of them Lithuanian Jews, but also Polish Jews), until then the largest ethnic group among the burghers in the major towns of Lithuania, with ethnic Lithuanians migrating there from the countryside. As such, the process of Lithuanization was mostly demographic and not institutionalized.en icon cite journal | author =Conference on Jewish Relations (corporate author) | year =1939 | month = | title = | journal =Jewish Social Studies | volume =VIII | issue = | pages =272–274 | id = | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=0IeRBCBExQ2BMtiLQt&id=2Jp3-QhefYsC&q=Lithuanization&dq=Lithuanization&pgis=1] It was not until Lithuania became an independent state in the effect of the World War I that the government of Lithuania turned it into a more institutionalized process.en icon cite book | author =Ezra Mendelsohn | coauthors = | title =The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars | year =1983 | editor = | pages =225-230 |publisher =Indiana University Press | location =Bloomington, Indiana | id =ISBN 0253204186 | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0253204186&id=5_OXOwvjqjwC&pg=PA225&lpg=PA225&ots=Iff0SJ4hkg&dq=Lithuanization&sig=2qOYP_NqBAlSxprlkTEc9eaU1zU#PPA225,M1 ] en icon cite book | author =István Deák | title =Essays on Hitler's Europe | year =2001 | editor = | pages =119-122 | chapter =Holocaust in Other Lands - A Ghetto in Lithuania | chapterurl =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0803217161&id=XlljaRHUA04C&pg=RA1-PA120&lpg=RA1-PA120&ots=fdgG0Au6Mb&dq=Lithuanization&sig=2nGWK-te5iOHnUdxWnMyesR1emI#PRA1-PA120,M1 | publisher =University of Nebraska Press | location =Lincoln, Nebraska | id =ISBN 0803217161]

It was also around that time that the newly-established Lithuanian state started aiming at cultural and linguistic assimilation of other large groups of non-Lithuanian citizens, mainly the Poles and Germans.en icon cite book | author =various authors | coauthors = | title =An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires | year =1994 | editor =James Stuart Olson | pages =258 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Greenwood Press | location =Westport, CT | id =ISBN 0313274975 | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0313274975&id=CquTz6ps5YgC&pg=PA258&lpg=PA258&ots=DuCK3hf-3i&dq=Lithuanization&sig=ClWj177OLDI2w5qNIwIQitiXLcM#PPA258,M1 | format = | accessdate = ] At first Lithuanian government was democratic and protected cultural traditions of different ethnic groups. Already in 1917, the resolution adopted by Vilnius Conference promised the national minorities freedom for their cultural needs.cite journal| url=http://www.lituanus.org/1984_4/84_4_01.htm |accessdate=2007-02-11 |journal=Lituanus |title=Lithuania's Struggle for Survival 1795-1917 |first=Juozas |last=Laučka |volume=30 |issue=4 |year=1984 |id=ISSN 0024-5089] After World War I ended, the Council of Lithuania, the legislative branch of the government, was expanded to include Jewish and Belarusian representatives. [lt icon cite book |last= Skirius |first=Juozas |title=Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės |url=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/ |accessdate=2007-01-28 |year=2002 |publisher=Elektroninės leidybos namai |location=Vilnius |isbn=9986-9216-9-4 |chapter=Vokietija ir Lietuvos nepriklausomybė |chapterurl=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/?id=1015] The first governments of Lithuania included Ministries for Jewish and Belarusian affairs; [lt icon cite book| title=111 Lietuvos valstybės 1918-1940 politikos veikėjų | last=Banavičius |first=Algirdas |year=1991 |publisher=Knyga |location=Vilnius |pages=11-20 |isbn=5-89942-585-7] however after Vilnius region was detached from Lithuania in a staged rebellion commanded by Lucjan Żeligowski (see Republic of Central Lithuania) largest communities of Belarusians, Jews, and Poles appeared to be outside Lithuania. Therefore the special ministries were closed. In 1920 the Jewish community was granted national and cultural autonomy with the right to legislate binding ordinances; however partly due to internal fights between Hebrew and Yiddish groups, the project was terminated in 1924.cite book| first=Vytas Stanley |last=Vardys |coauthors=Judith B. Sedaitis |title=Lithuania: The Rebel Nation |publisher=WestviewPress |year=1997 |series=Westview Series on the Post-Soviet Republics |isbn=0-8133-1839-4 |pages=39]

As Lithuania firmly established its independence and nationalistic attitudes strengthened, the state sought to increase the use of Lithuanian language in the public life.cite book |last=Eidintas |first=Alfonsas |coauthors=Vytautas Žalys, Alfred Erich Senn |editor=Ed. Edvardas Tuskenis |title=Lithuania in European Politics: The Years of the First Republic, 1918-1940 |edition=Paperback |year=1999 |month=September |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=0-312-22458-3 |pages=133-137] Dubious|date=March 2008 Among the measures taken by the Lithuanian government was a forced Lithuanization of non-Lithuanian names.en icon cite book | author =Valdis O. Lumans | coauthors = | title =Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe | year =1993 | pages =90-93 | chapter =Lithuania and the Memelland | chapterurl =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0807820660&id=TIZSO31iSO4C&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&ots=MqbjQ6dpib&dq=Lithuanization&sig=AIXboU4Rr0F0VqMGbd4j-K_SGos#PPA90,M1 | publisher =University of North Carolina Press | location =Chapel Hill | id =ISBN 080782066] However, minority schools played moreFact|date=December 2007 important role. The largest minority school network was operated by Jewish community. In 1919 there were 49, in 1923 – 107, in 1928 – 144 Jewish grammar schools.lt icon cite book |last= Šetkus |first=Benediktas |title=Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės |url=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/ |accessdate=2007-02-11 |year=2002 |publisher=Elektroninės leidybos namai |location=Vilnius |isbn=9986-9216-9-4 |chapter=Tautinės mažumos Lietuvoje |chapterurl=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/?id=1026] In 1931, in part due to consolidations, the number of schools decreased to 115 and remained stable until 1940.

At the beginning of 1920 Lithuania had 20 Polish language schools for Polish minority in Lithuania. The number increased to 30 in 1923, but then fell down to 24 in 1926. The major reason for the decrease was policy of Lithuanian Christian Democrats to transfer students whose parents had "Lithuania" as their nationality in the passport to Lithuanian schools. After the party lost control, the number of schools jumped to 91. Soon after the coup d'état in 1926, to power came nationalists led by Antanas Smetona it was decided to forbade Lithuanians attend Polish schools. Children from mixed families should also attend Lithuanian schools. Many Poles in Lithuania in passports were signed as Lithuanians, therefore they also were forced to attend Lithuanian schools, since then the number of schools gradually decreased to 9 in 1940. In 1936 a new law was passed that allowed a student to attend Polish school only if both parents were Poles. The situation prompted to open unsanctioned schools that numbered more than 40 in 1935 and were largely sponsored by "Pochodnia." Similar situation was with German schools in the Klaipėda region.The Lithuanian attitudes towards ethnic Poles were in large part an effect of the notion to treat them as native Lithuanians, who got Polonized over the course of the last centuries and should have been brought to their true identity.en icon cite book | author =Dovile Budryte | coauthors = | title =Taming Nationalism?: Political Community Building in the Post-Soviet Baltic States | year =2005 | pages =147-148 | publisher =Ashgate Publishing | location =Aldershot | id =ISBN 0754637573 | url =http://books.google.com/books?id=UJMzpeUHkQcC&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&sig=s8BnP6xV4TGxoLbhZxJ1_9F8FFU#PPA148,M1 | format = | accessdate = ] pl icon cite book | author =Jerzy Żenkiewicz | coauthors = | title =Ziemiaństwo polskie w Republice Litewskiej w okresie międzywojennym (Polish Landowners in the Republic of Lithuania Between the Wars) | year =2001 | publisher =Toruń | location = | id =ISBN 83-9113661-2 ] pl icon cite book | author =Zenon Krajewski | coauthors = | title =Polacy w Republice Litewskiej 1918-1940 (Poles in the Lithuanian Republic) | year =1998 | editor = | pages =100 | publisher =Ośrodek Studiów Polonijnych i Społecznych PZKS | location =Lublin | id =ISBN 8390632136] pl icon cite book | author =Krzysztof Buchowski | coauthors = | title =Polacy w niepodległym państwie litewskim 1918-1940 (Poles in the Independent Lithuanian State) | year =1999 | editor = | pages =320 | publisher =History Institute of the University of Białystok | location =Białystok | id =ISBN 8387881066 ] Another major factor was tense relationship between Lithuania and Poland over the Vilnius region and cultural or educational restrictions on Lithuanians there; for example, in 1927, chairman of "Rytas," Lithuanian minority in Poland counterpart to "Pochodnia," and 15 teachers were temporary arrested and 47 schools closed. [lt icon cite book |last=Kulikauskienė |first=Lina |title=Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės |url=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/ |accessdate=2007-02-11 |year=2002 |publisher=Elektroninės leidybos namai |location=Vilnius |isbn=9986-9216-9-4 |chapter=Švietimo, mokslo draugijos ir komisijos |chapterurl=http://mkp.emokykla.lt/gimtoji/?id=10214]

While the constitution of the Republic of Lithuania guaranteed equal rights to all confesions, Orthodoxes were discriminated - Lithuanian state decided confiscate Orthodox churches that were converted from Catholic churchesm, but into Catholic churches were converted 17 Orthodox churches that never belonged to Catholics prior, even former Eastern Catholic Churches were confiscated from Orthodoxes, like in Kruonis Orthodox church which became Orthodox prior 1775. 13 Orthodox churches were demolished. All these changes were followed with anger against Orthodoxes in press and meetings. Attempts to establish religious union were made. [lt icon cite journal | author =Regina Laukaitytė | year =2001 | title =Lietuvos stačiatikių bažnyčia 1918-1940 m.: kova dėl cerkvių (Orthodoxy in Lithuania between 1918 and 1940: The struggle for Orthodox churches) | journal =Lituanistica | volume =2 | pages = 15–53| id = | url =http://www.images.katalogas.lt/maleidykla/lit2/Lit-15.pdf | accessdate =2007-12-17 ] Another target group for discrimination became Poles. Anti-polish attitudes appeared since Lithuanian National Revival. While in many spheres movement was possitive, but became aggressive, intolerate against Poles and chauvinistic against everything was Polish lt icon cite journal | author =Eugeniusz Römer | year =2001 | title ="Apie lietuvių ir lenkų santykius" translated from "Zdziejów Romeriow na Litwie. Pasmo czynnośći ciągem lat idące..." | journal =Lietuvos Bajoras | volume =5 | pages =18–20 | url =http://forum.istorija.net/photos/show-album.asp?albumid=91&photoid=614 | quote = Tas lietuviškas pasipriešinimas ir agresyvumas bei tolerancijos stoka lenkų kultūros ir bendrapiliečių, kalbančių lenkiškai sukėlė pasiprieinimą. Reikia pridurti, kad pradžioje, kai lietuvių visuomenė dar nebuvo taip taip susisluoksniavusi, šio judėjimo nušvietimas spaudoje įgaudavo šovinistinës neapykantos viskam kas lenkiška pobūdį.| accessdate =2007-12-17] . Such attitudes even became a mania . Nationalistic Lithuanian catholic priests, so-called Litwomans, were pushing Lithuanian language everywhere, instead of Polish which in many places was used for centuries in church service . Anti-polish propaganda was sponsored by the Lithuanian state. During interbellum lots of caricatures, proclamations were published scoring Poles and showing them as criminals or vagabonds.

Modern Lithuania

In modern Lithuania, independent since the fall of the Soviet Union, Lithuanization is not an official state policy, but is is advocated by some fringe extremist groups like Vilnija, whose activities cause an occasional tension in Polish-Lithuanian relations.en icon cite book | author =Dovile Budryte | coauthors = | title =Taming Nationalism?: Political Community Building in the Post-Soviet Baltic States | year =2005 | editor = | pages =147-148 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Ashgate Publishing | location =Aldershot | id =ISBN 0754637573 | url =http://books.google.com/books?id=UJMzpeUHkQcC&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&sig=s8BnP6xV4TGxoLbhZxJ1_9F8FFU#PPA148,M1 | format = | accessdate = ] pl icon cite journal | author =Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs | year =2006 | month =10 | title ="Antypolski tekst K. Garsvy" (Anti-polish text by K. Garsva)". Commentary on K.Garsva article "Kiedy na Wileńszczyźnie będzie wprowadzone zarządzanie bezpośrednie? (When Vilnius region will have direct self-government?)" in Lietuvos Aidas, 11 -12.10 | journal =Media zagraniczne o Polsce (Foreign Media on Poland) | volume =XV | issue =200/37062 | pages = | id = | url =http://www.mfa.gov.pl/index.php?page=9370&lang_id=pl&bulletin_id=8&portlet=biuletyn%2Fpokaz | format = | accessdate =2006-01-20 ] pl icon cite web | author=Paweł Cieplak | title=Polsko-litewskie stosunki (Polish-Lithuanian affairs) | publisher= | year= | work=Lithuanian Portal | url=http://www.ambasada.lt/Default.asp?DL=P&TopicID=294 | accessdate=2007-01-13 ] Leonardas Vilkas, [http://www.darski.info/?darski=kraje&go=estonia_elali LITEWSKA, ŁOTEWSKA I ESTOŃSKA DROGA DO NIEPODLEGŁOŚCI I DEMOKRACJI: PRÓBA PORÓWNANIA] (Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian Way to Independence: An Attempt to Compare] , on homepage of Jerzy Targalski, professor of University of Warsaw]

Notes and references

ee also

*Ethnographic Lithuania