Lithuanian minority in Poland

Poland first[citation needed] acquired its Lithuanian minority after the Union of Lublin in 1569, which transferred the administration of the historical Podlaskie Voivodeship from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Polish Crown (both entities then formed a larger, federated state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth).

[4] Beginning in 1920, after the staged mutiny of Lucjan Żeligowski, Lithuanian cultural activities in Polish controlled territories were limited; newspapers were closed down and editors arrested.

[5] One editor – Mykolas Biržiška – was accused of treason in 1922 and received the death penalty; only direct intervention by the League of Nations spared him this fate.

[8] Following Piłsudski's death in 1935, further Polonisation ensued as the government encouraged the settlement of Polish army veterans in disputed regions.

At the same time, many Poles from the Kresy area were forcibly[dubious – discuss] repatriated west to the "Recovered Territories",[10] and the Polish minority in Lithuania (or Lithuanian SSR) was also significantly downsized.

[citation needed] Under the eye of the Soviet Union, the various ethnic groups in the Eastern Bloc were to cooperate peacefully in the spirit of Proletarian internationalism, and that policy,[citation needed] coupled with the population migrations limiting the size of both minorities in the respective regions, resulted in a lessening of tensions between Poles and Lithuanians.

[11] The modern Lithuanian minority in Poland is composed of 5,639 people according to the Polish census of 2002, with most of them (5,097) living in the Podlaskie Voivodeship (Suwałki Region), particularly in Gmina Puńsk where they form a majority (74.4% of population).

[13] There are Lithuanian publications (over 80 books have been published, and there are several magazines, of which the largest is "Aušra" (= "Dawn"),[1] co-sponsored by the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs).

[clarification needed] Ethnic Lithuanians control the administration in Gmina Puńsk, and they also have elected several representatives in Sejny County.