1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania
On March 12, Poland, feeling supported by international recognition of the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, decided to deliver an ultimatum to Lithuania.
[1] The ultimatum demanded that the Lithuanian government unconditionally agree to establish diplomatic relations with Warsaw within 48 hours, and that the terms be finalized before March 31.
The establishment of diplomatic relations would mean a de facto renunciation of Lithuanian claims to the region containing its historic capital, Vilnius (Wilno in Polish).
Although diplomatic relations were established as a result of the ultimatum, Lithuania did not agree to recognize the loss of Vilnius de jure.
[3] Lithuania severed its diplomatic ties with Poland after General Lucjan Żeligowski's mutiny in October 1920 by order of Józef Piłsudski.
[4] General Zeligowski invaded Lithuanian-held territory, captured the disputed city of Vilnius and established the short-lived Republic of Central Lithuania.
[17] On March 11, 1938, [note 1] a day before Austria was annexed into Greater Germany following the Anschluss, Justas Lukoševičius, a Lithuanian border guard shot Stanisław Serafin, a Polish soldier, on the demarcation line in the village of Trasninkas near Merkinė.
The following day, the Senate of the Republic of Poland called for the establishment of diplomatic relations and for the Lithuanian renunciation of claims to Vilnius.
[18] This was a partial measure that clearly did not satisfy Poland,[19] who responded by refusing, in the first paragraph of the ultimatum delivered three days later,[20] to establish such a commission.
In his view, such an ultimatum would not have violated any genuine Lithuanian interests and would offer much-improved prospects for peaceful resolution of the conflict and a speedy relief of tension.
[18] It was in accordance with Beck's vision for Eastern Europe, which was based on a Warsaw-dominated Polish–Baltic–Scandinavian bloc free of Soviet or German influence,[23] a modified version of Józef Piłsudski's Międzymorze, which required the normalisation of relations with Lithuania.
[18] The removal of the other demands also reflected political pressure on Poland from the Soviet Union, France and the United Kingdom to prevent the conflict from escalating into warfare.
[19] This stance has been attributed to the growth of a threat from Japan;[18] armed assistance to Lithuania would have required the Red Army to invade either Poland or Latvia[24] and could have resulted in a war on two fronts.
[18] The Soviets urged France, a major ally of Poland at the time, to de-escalate the conflict and encourage a more moderate version of the ultimatum.
[28] In Latvian and Estonian opinion, the Polish–Lithuanian dispute over Vilnius was outside the scope of the Entente, but they wished for a resolution, considering the conflict detrimental to the stability of the region.
A refusal would have cast Lithuania in an unfavourable light as an unreasonable disputant that had irrationally rejected peaceful diplomatic relations for eighteen years.
[33] While Paul Hymans' regional peace plans at the League of Nations were under negotiation, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ernestas Galvanauskas barely survived an assassination attempt.
It relieved some of the pressure on Germany that had arisen in the aftermath of the Anschluss and tested the Soviets' willingness to defend their interests in Eastern Europe.
[37] Fears were expressed, both in Lithuania and abroad, that the establishment of diplomatic relations was not the only goal of Warsaw and that more far-reaching ultimata might follow.
It stated that it had no wish to incorporate Lithuanian territories and maintained that the bloc would be formed on the basis of bilateral non-aggression and economic treaties.
[39] According to The New York Times, the impact of the ultimatum was felt on Wall Street; on March 17, the foreign currency and bond markets sagged, in some cases reaching the lowest points seen in several years.
[41] The acceptance triggered a government crisis in Lithuania: on March 24, Prime Minister Juozas Tūbelis, who held uncompromising positions over Vilnius and at the time of the ultimatum was undergoing medical treatment in Switzerland, stepped down.
[44] Negotiations over practical matters began on March 25, in Augustów, and by June three agreements covering rail transit, mail service, and river navigation had been concluded.
After the German–Czech and German–Lithuanian crises, Poland made more active efforts to ensure Lithuania's assistance, or at least neutrality, in the event of a war with Nazi Germany.
[47] Neither country was aware at the time of the secret protocols of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, signed in August 1939, in which Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to divide the region into their spheres of influence.
