[1][2] According to the interpretation of Polish historian Piotr Lossowski, the concept of ethnographic Lithuania clashed with the right for self-determination of people living in that large territory, particularly Poles and Belarusians, who, according to the supporters of the ethnographic Lithuania, were "slavicized Lithuanians" who needed to be re-Lithuanized.
In 1920, Lithuanian politician Mykolas Biržiška wrote about nationality: "One cannot define it according to the opinion of every individual.
Belonging or not to a given nationality is not something everybody can decide for themselves, it is not something that can be solved according to political liberalism, even if hidden under the cloak of democratic slogans.
"[2]According to the interpretations of Polish historian, demands of this early program would only slightly be modified in the coming decades[2] (some would also include part of the Minsk Governorate around Naugardukas and the Lithuanian Minor territory around Memel).
[2] That territory was inhabited in the early 20th century by 5,850,000 people; out of those, according to the official Russian Empire statistics, linguistic Lithuanians formed 1,659,000 - i.e. less than 30%.