[3] Therefore, the Polish authorities decided that the region should belong to the newly-established Polish state, and attempted to implement this idea using military force, ignoring the Curzon Line and taking advantage of the fact that victorious Poles after the Battle of Warsaw were advancing to the East against the Bolsheviks in the Polish–Soviet War.

Several years later, the Polish leader Józef Piłsudski confirmed that he personally ordered Żeligowski to stage a mutiny.

[7] Following the partitions of Poland, most of the lands that formerly constituted the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were annexed by the Russian Empire.

The Imperial government increasingly pursued a policy of Russification of the newly acquired lands, which escalated after the failed January Uprising of 1864.

[10][11] These measures, however, had limited effects on the Polonisation effort undertaken by the Polish patriotic leadership of the Vilnius educational district.

[12][13] A similar effort was pursued during the 19th century Lithuanian National Revival, which sought to distance itself from both Polish and Russian influences.

Two early 20th-century censuses indicated that Lithuanian speakers, whose language in the second half of the 19th century was suppressed by the Russian policies and had unfavourable conditions within the Catholic church, became a minority in the region.

Stanisław Grabski, representative of Dmowski's faction, was in charge of the Treaty of Riga negotiations with the Soviet Union, in which they rejected the Soviet offer of territories needed for the Minsk canton (Dmowski preferred Poland that would be smaller, but with higher percentage of ethnic Poles).

However, when the Red Army was defeated in the Battle of Warsaw, the Soviets, knowing that they wouldn't be able to hold Vilnius, decided to hand it over to Lithuania.

[30] On October 27, while the Żeligowski's campaign still continued outside Vilnius, the League called for a popular referendum in the disputed area, which was again rejected by the Lithuanian representation.

[3] This version of the event was redefined in August 1923 when Piłsudski, speaking in public at a Vilnius theater, stated that the attack was undertaken by his direct order.

Armed clashes between Kaunas and Central Lithuania continued for a few weeks, but neither side could gain a significant advantage.

It was basically a modification of "Hymans' plan", with the difference that the Klaipėda Region (the area in East Prussia north of the Neman River) was to be incorporated into Lithuania.

However, both Poland and Lithuania openly criticized this revised plan and finally this turn of talks came to a halt as well.

[44] General Lucjan Żeligowski decided to pass the power to the civil authorities and confirmed the date of the elections (8 January 1922).

[45] There was a significant electioneering propaganda campaign as Poles tried to win the support of other ethnic groups present in the area.

The Polish government was also accused of various strong-arm policies (like the closing of Lithuanian newspapers[2] or election violations like not asking for a valid document from a voter).

Instead, it continued to treat the so-called Vilnius Region as part of its own territory and the city itself as its constitutional capital, with Kaunas being only a temporary seat of government.

[citation needed] Alfred Erich Senn noted that if Poland had not prevailed in the Polish–Soviet War, Lithuania would have been invaded by the Soviets, and would never have experienced two decades of independence.

[48] Despite the Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty of 1920, Lithuania was very close to being invaded by the Soviets in summer 1920 and being forcibly incorporated into that state, and only the Polish victory derailed this plan.

[citation needed] However, in 1940, Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union, forcing the country to become the Lithuanian SSR.