Polish–Lithuanian identity
This federation, formally established by the 1569 Union of Lublin between the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, created a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state founded on the binding powers of national identity and shared culture rather than ethnicity or religious affiliation.
[1][2] The term Polish-Lithuanian has been used to describe various groups residing in the Commonwealth, including those that did not share the Polish or Lithuanian ethnicity nor their predominant Roman Catholic faith.
Self-identifications during the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth often made use of the Latin 'gens-natione' construct (familial or ethnic origin combined with a national identity).
The theory of the Roman descent of Lithuanians heretofore mostly used to be considered as emerging during Vytautas the Great times (1392–1430), with Lithuania as a 'corrupted' form of l'ltalia.
Famous for his eloquence, Sirvydas spent 10 years of his life preaching sermons at St. John's church in Vilnius (twice a day – once in Lithuanian, and once in Polish).
[6] German minority, heavily represented in the towns (burghers), particularly in the Royal Prussia region, was another group with ties to that culture ("Natione Polonus-gente Prussicus").
The development of nationalism through the Lithuanian National Revival was a crucial factor that led to the separation of the modern Lithuanian state from Poland; similar movements took hold in Ukraine and later in Belarus (the territories of both modern countries had formerly been part of the Commonwealth, but did not achieve independence until after the late 20th-century collapse of the Soviet Union).
[23][19] Lithuanian nationalism was a reaction to both the Russification in the Russian partition, and to the threat of further Polonization due to the pressure of Polish culture.
[24] Following the abolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire in 1861, social mobility increased, and Lithuanian intellectuals arose from the ranks of the rural populace; language became associated with identity in Lithuania, as elsewhere across Europe.
[27] On July 14, 1812, the Lithuanian Provisional Governing Commission formally submitted to the General Council of the Confederation of the Kingdom of Poland.
[citation needed] Krajowcy, a group of individuals who tried to maintain their dual identity, emerged in the early years of 20th century in an effort to recreate a federalist Grand Duchy of Lithuania in close association with Poland.
With the collapse of Russian and German occupying authorities, virtually all of the newly independent neighbours began fighting over borders: Romania fought with Hungary over Transylvania, Yugoslavia with Italy over Rijeka, Poland with Czechoslovakia over Cieszyn Silesia, with Germany over Poznań, with Ukraine over Eastern Galicia, with Lithuania over Vilnius Region.
[40][41][42] The failure to create a strong counterbalance to Germany and Soviet Union, such as Międzymorze, which Piłsudski saw as a counterweight to Russian and German imperialism, according to some historians, doomed those countries to their eventual fate as victims of World War II.
[49] Anatol Lieven makes a counterpoint by describing Scottish aspirations to independence as essentially crushed at the 1746 Battle of Culloden, which in his view made Scott's path less difficult, and sees pre-1939 Polish-Lithuanian culture as a combination of romantic idealization of medieval Lithuania and contempt for modern Lithuanians.
[49] Similarly, he states: "For educated Poles before the Second World War, Lithuania was not a nation but an assemblage of peasants speaking a peculiar dialect", an attitude that further served to alienate the new Lithuanian intelligentsia.
