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 p270  Chapter XXVII
Wars of Independence

(The numbers link directly to the sections.)

The establishment of the first active Lithuanian administration of independent Lithuania in November, 1918, did not bring to an end the existence of all obstacles opposed to the freedom of the state. The Lithuanians had not found it possible to take any active part in the armed hostilities of the World War, except as the conscripted members of the German and Russian armies. But from December 30, 1918, to November 29, 1920, they were involved in actual wars of self-defense against three invading foes; namely, the new Soviet Government of Russia, the restored Republic of Poland, and the so‑called Bermondt forces, consisting of German soldiers and adventurers, who sought to make themselves supreme on the shores of the Baltic.

That period of almost two years indeed created critical days for the Lithuanian nation. The official troops of the German Emperor were not quick to evacuate Lithuanian territories. Meanwhile, at Vilnius, Soviet propaganda instigated attempts on the part of some individuals of extreme socialistic leanings to form a Bolshevik government, similar to that of Russia. Furthermore, local Polish inhabitants, although constituting but an insignificant minority, awaited orders from the Regency Council of Poland to occupy Lithuania and restore the historical Polish-Lithuanian union. At the same time, the Provisional Lithuanian Government or Taryba, held in suppression by the German authorities of occupation until very late in October, 1918, had been prevented from organizing an army and obtaining funds necessary for its work. The devastated and ravaged condition of the farms had resulted in a serious food  p271 shortage, especially in the towns. And since Germany alone had recognized the independent Lithuanian state, it alone was the only immediate and possible source of assistance.

In such circumstances, the Taryba proceeded to form a border militia, a police force, and various organs of local government. On November 23, 1918, it had issued an appeal for volunteers for the army, under the direction of Lithuanian officers returning from the Russian interior. Voldemaras, the Prime Minister, had departed for Paris to espouse the Lithuanian cause at the Peace Conference, which finally opened on January 19, 1919. But in December, 1918, Bolshevik troops already invaded the eastern border­lands of the inadequately armed Lithuanian Republic.

1. The Bolshevik Invasion

The peace of Brest-Litovsk (March 3, 1918), which had been exacted by the superiority of German arms from the Soviet government, had proclaimed the liberation of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Ukraine from Russian rule. It provided the Bolsheviks with a much needed opportunity to establish their power over the remaining territories of the former Tsarist Empire. Consequently, the task of redistribution of lands was undertaken and the reenforcement of the Red army by compulsory conscription was begun in June, 1918. However, by the autumn of that year, the Soviets had succeeded in gaining control only over the central portions of the former European Russian state.

The terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty were annulled by the Armistice on November 11, 1918, and soon afterwards by the Soviet Government as well. Thereafter, struggling to suppress the movement for Ukrainian independence in the south and the so‑called White and anti-Soviet forces of Kolchak in Siberia, of Denikin in the Northern Caucasus, and of Yudenich, operating from Estonia, the Bolsheviks also made an attempt to reincorporate the Baltic regions with Russia.

On December 26, 1918, a Soviet government was already forming at Riga. And on December 30‑31, Bolshevik troops invaded  p272 Lithuanian territory and occupied the town of Svencionys. Since the Provisional Lithuanian Government had insufficient forces at its command, it retired from Vilnius to Kaunas before the Soviet advance on January 2, 1919, the day after the Germans had completed their evacuation of the Lithuanian capital. And three days later, the Bolsheviks seized Vilnius. During the next month, they succeeded in occupying the northern and eastern areas of Lithuania, establishing themselves along a line which stretched from Kursenai through Siauliai, Panevezys, Ukmerge and Vilnius, and endeavored to press deeper into Lithuania and take the city of Kaunas.

Beginning with the month of February, however, the Lithuanian troops, recruited from volunteers (and from draftees after March 5th), at times hindered and at times assisted by the German army still encamped in the country, steadily beat back the Bolshevik invaders. The progress of the war may be recorded in the following manner:

Finally, on July 12, 1920, relations with Soviet Russia were regulated by the treaty of Moscow. The Lithuanian-Russian boundaries were agreed upon, and Russia recognized the Vilnius and Gardinas areas as integral parts of the Lithuanian Republic. Russia agreed to pay war indemnities in the form of three million roubles of gold and grant Lithuania the right to draw materials from •some 247,000 acres of Russian forest. Previously, on June 30, terms had been arranged for the return of Lithuanian exiles living in Russia.

2. The Bermondt Troops

While the main Lithuanian forces were concentrated against the Bolsheviks at Zarasai in the northeast, a new foe appeared in the northwestern areas, which had been liberated from the Reds but a little more than four months before. This enemy was composed of mixed German and Russian troops, chiefly under the supposed direction of one known as Colonel Avalov Bermondt, who claimed to be the supporter of the old monarchist regime of the Tsars and an ardent opponent of Bolshevism. As a matter of fact, under the German Oberkommando, they were entrenched especially in the Latvian area of Courland, between Libau and Riga. On July 26, 1919, a portion of their army invaded Lithuania and occupied the town of Kursenai, under the pretext of assisting the Lithuanians  p274 against the Bolsheviks. Approximately two months later, early in November, they took possession of Siauliai and gradually expanding southward, proceeded to re­quisition supplies and set up their own administration. And by November 20th, while their cohorts in Latvia were being hard pressed by the Letts, Ests and British warships, they had succeeded in establishing themselves along a line stretching from Jurbarkas through Vidukle, Siluva, Siauliai, Radviliskis, Lygumai, Pasvintys, Kriukai and Suostai, thus endeavoring to gain control of the whole of western Lithuania and secure the main railroad to Tilsit in East Prussia.

It was only after the Lithuanian military forces had expelled the Bolsheviks from Zarasai late in August, 1919, and had been transferred to this new front in the west, that Lithuania was able to offer more than partisan resistance to these excellently armed bands of adventurers. Fighting took place almost daily after October 12th. Meanwhile, since the last transport of German troops had left Lithuania on October 15th, German authorities in Berlin had disavowed all responsibility for any remaining German soldiers, and denied all collusion with these individuals. Finally, on November 22nd, at Radviliskis, the Lithuanians under General Liatukas inflicted a serious and decisive defeat on the southern German group and seized large stores of supplies and munitions. Five days later, they reoccupied Joniskis. Routed in Lithuania, and sometime before in Latvia, the marauding forces of Avalov Bermondt and von der Goltz beat a headlong retreat into German territory. And by the end of December, Lithuania found herself free of the second invasion which had endangered her independence. The last stages of this struggle were witnessed by an Inter-Allied Military Control Committee under the French General, A. Niessel.

3. The Polish Invasion

Undoubtedly the most perplexing, if not the most serious threat to Lithuanian independence was created by the Polish state, which, but a short time previously, had recovered its own freedom and with whom the former and historic Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been associated for over two centuries. The entire difficulty was  p275 caused by the Polish desire not only to reunite Poland and Lithuania in the federated pre-partition Republic, but also to reestablish Poland within its historical, and not ethnographic boundaries.

While at war with the Bolsheviks in an effort to gain a settlement of the eastern frontiers favorable to Poland, the Poles assumed an aggressive attitude towards the Lithuanian Republic. On March 3, 1919, Polish troops entered Lithuanian territory and occupied Gardinas. On April 19, that same year, they expelled the Russian forces holding the city and province of Vilnius and took possession of the Lithuanian capital. Two days later, Joseph Pilsudski's proclamation to the people of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was issued. It revealed the motive for the Polish action; namely, that the invasion was not a defensive measure against the Bolsheviks, but rather a step towards the renewal of the historical Polish-Lithuanian Union of the late Middle Ages. George Osmolowski was appointed by Pilsudski as the head of the administrative authorities in the Vilnius area.

Since the chief Lithuanian forces were concentrated in the northeast against the Bolsheviks, Lithuania could do little more than protest against the continuance of the Polish occupation of her capital. Negotiations under the auspices of the Supreme Command of the Allied and Associated Powers took place. On June 18th and July 27th, respectively, demarcation lines between Lithuania and Poland were drawn by a special French Commission and by Marshal Foch. In the first instance, Augustavas, Gardinas and Vilnius were left for the time being under Polish control. In the second case, even the Suvalkai area was committed to temporary Polish jurisdiction and the line was laid deeper in Lithuanian territory. Nevertheless, the Polish forces crossed both demarcation lines and sought to press further into Lithuania, particularly in the Suvalkai, Varena, Ukmerge and Utena sectors. Repeated clashes between Lithuanians and Poles continued along the entire existing border­line during the remainder of the year.

Meanwhile, a secret branch of the "Polish Military Organization" had been formed in the areas under the control of the Lithuanian Provisional Government. Known as the POW (Polska Organizacja Wojskowa), it had divided all of the remaining Lithuanian  p276 territories into thirteen districts, adopted a special code for purposes of communication, and prepared for the overthrow of the existing Lithuanian government and for the ultimate incorporation of the entire country with Poland. The conspiracy was detected, and on the very night, August 28‑29, 1919, for which the coup d'état had been scheduled, the quarters of the organization were raided and its existence suppressed. The official register revealed a member­ship of 435 Polish individuals. One hundred and seventeen were arrested, while the others succeeded in escaping to the Polish occupied area of Vilnius.

On December 8, 1919, the Supreme Council of the Allies, seeking to bring about a cessation of hostilities between the Lithuanians and the Poles, proposed the famous Curzon line, defining the eastern frontiers of Poland. This Curzon line left Vilnius (city and province) and Gardinas to the Republic of Lithuania, and by way of compromise ceded the Lithuanian area of Suvalkai (with the towns of Suvalkai, Augustavas, Punskas and Seinai) to the Poles. Although later at Spa, Belgium, the Poles accepted and promised to comply with the details of this new demarcation line, their actions hardly indicated any intention to fulfill the terms of the agreement or to forsake their ideals of restoring the boundaries of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In the spring of 1920, the efforts of Pilsudski and Paderewski to regain the historical frontiers of Poland attained a surprising but temporary success. After the April treaty with Petlura, leader of the Ukrainian independence movement, the Polish offensive against the Soviets had led to the capture of Kiev on May 8th. Yet, the counter-offensive of the Bolshevik troops completely altered the tide of the battle. And within the next three months the Polish armies were compelled to withdraw along the entire eastern front, until they were pushed back to Warsaw in August of the same year.

These Polish reverses had allowed the reoccupation of the Vilnius province by the Lithuanians, who could not, however, prevent a similar action on the part of the Russians. On July 4th, under pressure of the Allies, Poland finally granted de facto recognition to Lithuania. Hard pressed by the Supreme Soviet troops from the north  p277 and the east, the Poles began to evacuate Vilnius two days later. On the 9th, the Reds took Svencionys and the Lithuanians recovered the towns of Tauragnai, Kuktiskes, Alunta, Sirvintai, Sesuoliai, as Poles retreated. On July 14th, the Bolsheviks marched into the city of Vilnius. The Lithuanians entered their capital on the following day, after being detained by a clash with the Poles at Vievis-Rikontai. And within two weeks, the Lithuanian forces were in possession of practically all the Lithuanian territories determined by the Curzon line of December 8, 1919. Only after a special request made by the residents of the town, did the Lithuanian soldiers take Suvalkai on July 13th.

Having proclaimed their neutrality in the Russo-Polish war, the Lithuanians, by the treaty of August 6th with the Russian command, arranged for the complete evacuation of all Soviet troops from the Lithuanian province of Vilnius (chiefly the cities of Svencionys, Vilnius, Gardinas and Lyda). And on August 27th, the Red forces left the city of Vilnius and the Lithuanian government began the transfer of its offices to the Lithuanian capital.

With French assistance the Poles had succeeded in repelling the Soviet advance against Warsaw and had at the end of August reached the Suvalkai area, which then was under Lithuanian control. The Poles rejected offers of negotiations, with the result that Lithuanian and Polish troops were engaged in combat over the possession of Suvalkai and Seinai and the neighboring villages early in September. Meanwhile, on September 4th, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Grabski, announced at Paris that Poland was willing to renounce her pretensions to Vilnius. But the struggle in the Suvalkai area continued. On September 24th, the Poles expelled the remaining Russian forces at Gardinas and occupied the city. Previously, Polish-Lithuanian negotiations at Kalvarija had failed. And by October 4th, the Polish troops had penetrated as far as Varena in the Vilnius province. Finally, on October 7, 1920, the now famous Agreement of Suvalkai was signed by Lithuanian and Polish plenipotentiaries in the presence of the Military Control Commission of the League of Nations. Poland officially recognized the Lithuanian possession of the city and province of Vilnius; the Curzon line of December 8, 1919, was adopted as the demarcation  p278 line in the disputed Suvalkai area; and the Gardinas sector as far as Varena and Bastunai (a little north of Lyda) was ceded to the Poles. Furthermore, it was agreed that all armed hostilities between Lithuanian and Polish troops were to be suspended, and an exchange of prisoners of war was to be arranged.

But the very day after the Suvalkai Agreement, October 8th, Polish forces, on direct order from Pilsudski and under the leader­ship of General Zeligowski, continued the Polish invasion of Lithuania. Driving from the direction of Lyda, they attacked and defeated the Lithuanian troops at Jasunai and occupied the city of Vilnius on October 9th. The Polish government disavowed all responsibility for Zeligowski's fait accompli and proclaimed him a rebel, although Pilsudski later confessed his official conspiracy in the matter. Svencionys was taken on October 10th, Valkininkai on October 16th, and Sirvintai on October 26th.

On the 17th of the following month, the Poles launched a strong attack from Sirvintai and Giedraiciai, preparing to capture Ukmerge. But on the 19th, the Lithuanians defeated them at Sirvintai and two days later routed them at Giedraiciai, compelling their forces to retreat towards Vilnius. At this point, a Commission of the League of Nations intervened to end hostilities, with the hope of bringing about a peaceful settlement through negotiations. On November 29th, it created a neutral zone between the Lithuanian and Polish troops. And the armed Polish invasion of Lithuania was brought to a halt.

This Polish-Lithuanian conflict, however, was continued with great intensity in the diplomatic sphere, giving little satisfaction to either party or to the arbiters. The Lithuanians were willing to accept the compromise of the Polish-Lithuanian Agreement of Suvalkai, which ceded the Suvalkai area to the Poles, but recognized the sovereignty of Lithuania over the Vilnius region. Nevertheless, the Poles simply refused to consider the compromise to which they had solemnly bound themselves in October, 1920. They were unwilling to relinquish those occupied areas, which had formed an integral part of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy from the very beginning of its political existence, which had fallen under  p279 Russian domination in 1795, and which were returned in 1920 to the Lithuanian Republic by their 18th century usurper.

The intervention of the League of Nations in this Polish-Lithuanian dispute began in September, 1920. The following month, through Leon Bourgeois, President of the League's Council, the League rebuked the Polish government for the seizure of the Vilnius territory, as an action not consonant with pledges previously given and contrary to the principles and policies of international arbitration. Thereupon, the League Council suggested that a plebiscite be conducted under the auspices of an international police force in the Vilnius region (or Central Lithuania, as Zeligowski had designated that area) to determine the will of the inhabitants. But the Polish authorities refused to comply with the necessary requirement; namely, the removal of the Polish administration and Polish troops from the region. Consequently, a solution through a plebiscite became an impossibility. Finally, on March 3, 1921, the League proposed that Lithuania and Poland enter into direct negotiations. As a result, two Polish-Lithuanian conferences followed.

The first series of these conferences opened on April 20, 1921, at Brussels. Ernest Galvanauskas, Minister of Foreign Affairs, headed the Lithuanian delegation. The Belgian, Paul Hymans, acted as the presiding officer. And on May 10th, the latter presented his suggestions for the settlement of the Polish-Lithuanian disposes. This plan sought to bring about a compromise between the two interested parties, but in reality, at the sacrifice of the integrity of Lithuanian independence. It was characterized by the notion that some form of alliance must necessarily be created between Lithuania and Poland. It proposed the restoration of the Vilnius region to Lithuania as an autonomous canton, the cession of Gardinas and Suvalkai to the Poles, the establishment of intimate political, military and economic relation­ships between the two nations, and the adoption of Polish in addition to Lithuanian, as the official languages of the Lithuanian Republic. The Poles, however, suggested that delegates from Vilnius province be admitted to these discussions on an equal basis with the representatives of Lithuania and Poland, and therefore requested postponement of further  p280 deliberations until the election of these deputies could be made. Naturally, the Lithuanians could hardly accept this proposal unless the Polish administration were first removed from the Vilnius area, as a guarantee that the chosen delegates would be representative of the population in the disputed province. The conference, having achieved little, was dissolved in the early days of June. On the 28th of June, the Council of the League recommended that Hymans' plan be accepted as the basis for further negotiations.

The second series of Polish-Lithuanian conferences took place at Geneva in September, 1921. With a few minor changes, Hymans once again introduced his detailed project for the settlement of the Vilnius dispute. It provided for the restoration of the Vilnius province as an autonomous district in the Lithuanian state, and offered a more tempered proposal for the establishment of mutual cooperation in foreign, military and economic affairs between Lithuania and Poland. It still retained the clause favoring the adoption of the Polish, along with the native Lithuanian, as the official languages and foreseeing the annexation of Klaipeda (Memel) by Lithuania, it required Lithuania to permit Poland free use of this port and of the Nemunas River, even for munition transports. The former condition unquestionably encroached upon the integrity of the Lithuanian independence, for hardly three percent of the population in unoccupied Lithuania used the Polish language. The latter condition, if accepted, would have automatically invalidated the treaty with Russia, which called for the maintenance of absolute neutrality on the part of Lithuania. The League, however, recommended this project as the best and the final plan for the settlement of the Vilnius problem.

The Poles completely rejected Hymans' suggestions. And on November 21st, Zeligowski appointed Mejsztowicz as the head of the administration in Vilnius, and on November 30th, proceeded to order arrangements for elections of a Constituent Assembly of the Vilnius province. At the same time, the Lithuanian government was compelled by the expressed general opinion of the Lithuanian people to inform the League of Nations, on December 24th, of its inability to accept Hymans' scheme.

In the meanwhile, Polish influence had been active in the Vilnius  p281 region. Serious opposition was afforded by the Lithuanian element. A Lithuanian Provisional Committee of Vilnius had been created. In spite of strict censor­ship under the Zeligowski regime and the many known cases of suppression and confiscation, numerous news­papers were published by the Lithuanians. On September 2, 1921, the Polish authorities issued an order forbidding any campaign activities aimed at the reunion of Vilnius with Lithuania. Homes of Lithuanians were raided, arrests made, fines and penalties inflicted. The explanation usually offered was that these offending individuals had cooperated with Communist agents and had prepared for the overthrow of the existing administration. Finally, on December 7, 1921, the Lithuanian Provisional Committee of Vilnius notified the Polish authorities, that the Lithuanians of the region would refuse to take part in the elections ordered by Zeligowski.

The elections for the Constituent Assembly of Vilnius took place on January 8, 1922. The Lithuanian, White Ruthenian and Jewish elements, who according to Russian statistics before the World War formed 90% of the population, boycotted the entire procedure. Neither was any serious effort made by the Poles to verify the eligibility of the voters, with the result that many strangers, including Polish armed forces, cast their ballots. And on January 13, 1922, the League of Nations Council received the report of its Military Control Commission on the elections at Vilnius. It stated that it was impossible to recognize the validity of these elections, which constituted an act placed without the recommendation of the League and without the consent of both interested parties. Nevertheless, two months later, March 22, 1922, the formal incorporation of the Vilnius province with Poland was completed.

Other Lithuanian efforts to attain a proper settlement of the Vilnius question availed nothing. The League of Nations had never approved the solution chosen by the Poles. Since any further intervention on its part could scarcely hope to produce different results, the League withdrew its Military Control Commission and sought rather to establish a modus vivendi between Lithuania and Poland by drawing a demarcation line in place of the neutral zone, which neither decided the boundary issue nor was accepted  p282 by Lithuania. The Poles refused to reopen the case either by direct negotiations or by presenting the question to the Hague Tribunal. Consequently, the Lithuanian government did not consent to the establishment of any diplomatic relations with Poland.

On March 15, 1923, the Ambassadors' Conference, somewhat light-heartedly, recognized Poland's eastern frontiers as they existed at the time. But through the League of Nations' Council, Lithuania issued a formal protest against this decision as having no juridical grounds, since Russia, who had been the final administrator of the Vilnius region (since the partitions), had returned the rights to these areas to Lithuania on July 12, 1920.

Although actual war between Lithuania and Poland did not exist, yet, the Polish-Lithuanian frontier remained closed and normal diplomatic intercourse was not maintained. In spite of the failure to recover her ancient capital, Lithuania had survived three foreign invasions in the early years of her reconstruction to retain her political independence.

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