Lithuanian language school was opened in 1921, but was closed down in the early 1930s because of tensions between Lithuania and Poland.

During the Soviet occupation, Marijampolis was one of the main centers of Lithuanian culture in the south-eastern part of Lithuanian USR and Western Belorussia, the territories, which before the outbreak of the World War II belonged to the interwar Poland, but were claimed by interbellum Lithuania on historic and ethnographic grounds.

After the Soviet invasion of Poland, part of Vilnius region was transferred from occupying USSR to Lithuania on the grounds of Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty of 1920 and the new Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty.

The remaining part of Vilnius region was merged with the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Marijampolis served as a schooling center of the region in Lithuanian language.