Grand Duchy of Lithuania (before 1795) was the first Bishop of Vilnius. He is depicted in the fresco "Baptism of Lithuania" by
Włodzimierz Tetmajer The first Polish people in Lithuania were mainly
enslaved war captives from the
Polish–Lithuanian wars. Poles started to migrate to the Grand Duchy in more noticeable numbers after
Christianization of the country and establishment of the union between Poland and Lithuania in 1385. In the 15th-16th centuries, there were not many Poles in Lithuania, but they enjoyed a privileged social status – they were found in highly regarded places and their culture was considered prestigious. With time Polish people became part of the local landowning class. Lithuanian nobles welcomed
fugitive Polish peasants and settled them on uncultivated land, but they usually assimilated with Belarusians and Lithuanians peasants within few generations. Polish quickly supplanted
Ruthenian as the language of Lithuanian elite after the latter had switched to speaking Ruthenian and Polish at the beginning of the 16th century. This population movement created a fertile ground for socio-cultural Polonization of ethnically Lithuanian territories. While Poles and foreigners were generally prohibited from holding public offices in the Grand Duchy, Polish people gradually gained this right through the acquisition of Lithuanian land. Poor nobles from the
Crown rented land from local
magnates. The number of Poles grew also in the towns, among others in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Grodno. Vilnius became the most important center of the Polish intelligentsia in the Grand Duchy, with Poles predominating in the city in the mid-17th century. Already in the 16th century Polish became the first language of the Lithuanian magnates. In the following centuries it was adopted by the Lithuanian nobility in general. The Polish-language university was re-established in Vilnius in 1803 and closed in 1832. After the
1863 uprising, public use of the Polish language and teaching it to peasants, as well as possession of Polish books by the latter became illegal. Notwithstanding their varied ethnic roots, the members of szlachta generally opted for Polish self-identification in the course of the 19th century. In the 19th century, Polish culture spread among the lower classes of Lithuania, mainly in
Dzūkija and to a lesser degree in
Aukštaitija. Linguists distinguish between official Polish language, used in the Church and cultural activities, and colloquial language, closer to the speech of the common people. Inhabitants of a significant part of the
Vilnius region used a variant of the Belarusian language, which was influenced mainly by Polish, referred to as "simple speech" (). It was a kind of "mixed language" serving as an interdialect of the cultural borderland. This language became a gateway to the progressive Slavization of the
Lithuanian population. This led to the formation of a compact Polish language area between the Lithuanian and Belarusian language areas, with Vilnius as the center. The position of Vilnius as an important Polish cultural center influenced the development of national identities among
Roman Catholic peasants in the region. The
Lithuanian National Revival began in the 19th century as a self-defence reaction to the Polonization and by the 1880s started slowing down the process of Polonization of the ethnically Lithuanian population, but also cemented a sense of national identity among a significant portion of the Polish-speaking Lithuanian population. The feeling of a two-tier Lithuanian-Polish national identity, present throughout the period, had to give way to a clear national declaration.
Interwar period and Second World War (1918–1944) of Polish minority in Lithuania (in brown) in 1923,
interpolation, based on the election results in Lithuania Lithuanian state, between 1923–1924|leftFrom 1918 to 1921 there were several conflicts, such as the activity of the
Polish Military Organisation,
Sejny uprising and a foiled attempt at a
Polish coup of the Lithuanian government. The
Polish–Lithuanian War and
Żeligowski's mutiny led to such
borders between Lithuania and Poland which resulted in many Poles living in the Lithuanian state and numerous Lithuanians outside of it. The loss of Vilnius was a painful blow to Lithuanian aspirations and identity, as most of the Vilnius region was part of the
Second Polish Republic during the
interwar period. The
irredentist demand for its recovery became one of the most important elements of socio-political life in
interwar Lithuania and resulted in the emergence of hostility and resentment against the Poles. In interwar Lithuania, people declaring Polish ethnicity were officially described as Polonized Lithuanians who needed to be re-
Lithuanized, Polish-owned land was confiscated, Polish religious services, schools, publications and voting rights were restricted. According to the
1923 Lithuanian census (without Vilnius and Klaipėda regions), there were 65,600 Poles in Lithuania (3.2% of the total population). However, according to Polish Election Committee the number of Poles was actually 202,026, so about 10% of total population. The Poles were concentrated in the districts of Kaunas, Kėdainiai, Kaišiadorys and Ukmergė, in each of which they constituted 20–30% of the population. In 1919, Poles owned 90% of estates larger than 100 ha. By 1928, 2,997 large estates with a total area of 555,207 ha were parceled out, and 52,935 new farms were created in their place and given to Lithuanian peasants. Many Poles in Lithuania were signed in as Lithuanians in their passports, and as a result, they also were forced to attend Lithuanian schools. Polish education was organized by the
Pochodnia. After the establishment of
Valdemaras regime in 1926, 58 Polish schools were closed, many Poles were incarcerated, and Polish newspapers were placed under strict censorship. Poles also had difficult access to higher education. Over time, the Polish language was also removed from the Church and seminaries. The most tragic episode in the history of Poles in interwar Lithuania was an anti-Polish demonstration organized by the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union on May 23, 1930 in Kaunas, which turned into a riot.
Soviet period (1944–1990) During the
World War II expulsions and shortly after the war, the
Soviet Union,
forcibly exchanged population between Poland and Lithuania. During 1945–1948, the Soviet Union allowed 197,000 Poles to leave to Poland; in 1956–1959, another 46,600 were able to leave. Ethnic Poles made up 80-91% of Vilnius population in 1944. All Poles in the city were required to register for resettlement. In most cases, the Soviet authorities blocked the departure of Poles who were interwar Lithuanian citizens and only 8.3% (less than 8,000) of those who registered for repatriation in
Kaunas Region in 1945–1946 managed to leave for Poland. In the 1950s the remaining Polish minority was a target of several attempted campaigns of Lithuanization by the
Communist Party of Lithuania, which tried to stop any teaching in Polish; those attempts, however, were stopped by
Moscow. The Soviet census of 1959 showed 230,100 Poles concentrated in the Vilnius region (8.5% of the Lithuanian SSR's population). The Polish minority increased in size, but more slowly than other ethnic groups in Lithuania; the last Soviet census of 1989 showed 258,000 Poles (7.0% of the Lithuanian SSR's population).
Russification and
Sovietization, and recently to voluntary processes of
Lithuanization, shows many and increasing signs of
assimilation with Lithuanians. ==In independent Lithuania==