[2] apylinkės in the district The Šalčininkai district's official Communist newspaper was called Lenin's Precepts (Russian: Заветы Ленина, romanized: Zavety Lenina; Polish: Przykazania Lenina; Lithuanian: Lenino priesakai) and published in three languages: Russian, Polish and Lithuanian.

[4] Although officially, the absolute majority of the district's residents were Poles, as many as 8,000 of the inhabitants were subscribed to the Russian-language newspaper, while only one and a half thousand - to the Lithuanian and Polish language versions.

[4] The newspaper spread hostile misinformation towards the re-emerging independent Lithuanian state of Lithuania in all language versions of its issues.

[4] On 11 March 1990, when the Supreme Council of Lithuania declared the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, some non-Lithuanians in the Vilnius Region, mostly members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, began actively creating a separatist territorial entity under Moscow's inspiration and guidance.

[4] In order to disrupt the Lithuanian state at that time, both aforementioned district councils adopted dozens of anti-state resolutions.

[4] The autonomists acted brazenly, because of Moscow's direct support and because they were aided by the Soviet army, which was still stationed on Lithuanian soil.