* The views expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. government. I would like to thank Roxane D. V. Sismanidis for her help and encouragement.Google Scholar

1. Girnius, Saulius, “Belarus Lays Territorial Claims on Lithuania,” RFE/RL Daily Report, 25 February 1992, p. 4.Google Scholar

2. The state was called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Rus’ until the mid-fifteenth century, when the name Samogitia was added.Google Scholar

3. Belarusians in Lithuania number about 63,000–1.7% of the population—according to the 1989 census. Grzegorz Błaszczyk, Litwa współczesna (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1992), pp. 63, 70.Google Scholar

4. Zaprudnik, Jan, Belarus: At a Crossroads in History (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), pp. 107–108.Google Scholar

5. Quoted in Goliński, Cezary, “Nikt tam na nas nie czeka,” Gazeta Wyborcza, 12 July 1993.Google Scholar

6. Paz'niak, Zianon, “Belarus', Rasiia, SND,” Narodnaia Hazeta, 14 January 1993.Google Scholar

7. Hall, John A., “Nationalisms: Classified and Explained,” DFF3Baedalus, Summer 1993, p. 4.Google Scholar

8. Plamenatz, John, “Two Types of Nationalism,” in Kamenka, Eugene, ed., Nationalism: The Nature and Evolution of an Idea (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1973), pp. 30–31. Exceptions include the Poles and possibly the Hungarians. See Roman Szporluk, “In Search of the Drama of History: Or, National Roads to Modernity,” East European Politics and Societies Winter 1990, p. 143.Google Scholar

9. Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991), p. xiv.Google Scholar

10. Ibid., pp. 198, 205.Google Scholar

11. Smith, Anthony D., “The Ethnic Sources of Nationalism,” Survival, Spring 1993, p. 56.Google Scholar

12. Zaprudnik, Jan, “Interpretation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Recent Works by Soviet Belorussian Historians,” in Ziedonis, Arvids Jr. et al., eds, Baltic History (Columbus, OH: Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, Inc., 1974), p. 64. This issue was, of course, a bone of contention. Other Soviet Belarusian historians emphasized Belarus’ historical ties to Russia.Google Scholar

13. Charopka, Vitaǔt, “Praǔda ‘neabverzhnykh’ faktaǔ,” Polymia, December 1990, p. 204. See also “100 voprosov i otvetov iz istorii Belarusi,” Narodnaia Hazeta, 26 May 1993. Ivan Sǔverchanka, answering question number 35—“What was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania”—writes, “The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a medieval Belarusian state that arose in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries as a result of the unification by Navahradak of neighboring principalities—Polatsak, Turaǔ-Pinsk, and Smolensk—on an economic and cultural foundation, as well as of lands settled by tribes of Lithuania, Latgalians, Jathwingians, and others.”Google Scholar

14. “Kanstytutsyia (Asnoǔny Zakon) Respubliki Belarus,” Zviazda, 22 August 1992.Google Scholar

15. Mihalisko, Kathleen, “Belorussia Lays Claim to Lithuanian Territory,” Report on the USSR, 13 April 1990, p. 21.Google Scholar

16. In line with the secret protocols of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union took control of the Vilnius region after its invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939. On 22 October 1939, the population of “West Belarus,” including inhabitants of the Vilnius region, elected a national assembly of West Belarus. Six days later the assembly convened to request incorporation into the USSR. On 2 November, the USSR Supreme Soviet acceded to the assembly's request; the Act of Incorporation, published on 4 November, made East and West Belarus into a single state. The Belarusians were unaware that on 10 October 1939, the Soviet Union and Lithuania had reached an agreement by which Moscow was to give much of the Vilnius region to Lithuania in exchange for military basing rights there. Subsequently, Soviet Lithuania received additional territory in the Vilnius region.Google Scholar

17. “Litva-Belorussiia: K voprosu o territoriiakh,” Sel'skaia Zhizn' 23 August 1990.Google Scholar

18. Mihalisko, , “Belorussia Lays Claim,” p. 23.Google Scholar

19. Miȩdzy Bałtykiem a Morzem Czarnym. Z Igorem Czerniawskim, członkiem władz Białoruskiego Frontu Narodowego, rozmawia Andrzej Romanowski,” Tvaodnik Powszechnv 3 February 1991. Romanowski doubtless took it for granted that most of the residents of the Vilnius region were ethnic Poles.Google Scholar

20. Viachorka, Vintsuk, “Tysiacheletnee sosedstvo,” Neman, June 1990, pp. 171, 174. Liavon Lutskevich, a Belarusian cultural activist in Lithuania, has seconded Viachorka's arguments, saying that because of prewar and postwar repressions of the Belarusian intelligentsia in Vilnius and the Vilnius region, the local Belarusian people “got lost for a while.” See “Vil'nia,” ibid., December 1992, p. 153.Google Scholar

21. Haretski, R. et al., “Historyia ne tserpits’ perakosaǔ,” Zviazda, 11 January 1992. I would like to thank Jan Zaprudnik for providing me with this source.Google Scholar

22. These talks may have finally produced an agreement. See “Sleževičius, Belarus Counterpart Hold Negotiations,” Radio Vi lnius, 29 October 1993.Google Scholar

23. Such assertions have parallels in other times and places. Lithuanians in the immediate post-World War I period sought a large national state: acknowledging Lithuanian ethnographic territory did not coincide with the territory they claimed but arguing that people inhabiting this territory had once spoken Lithuanian and that their descendents, even if they did not consider themselves Lithuanians, would return to their roots, once united with their Lithuanian-speaking brethren. Žepkaitė, Regina, Diplomatija imperializmo tarnyboje. Lietuvos ir Lenkijos santykiai 1919–1939m (Vilnius: Mokslas, 1980), pp. 18–19; and Wielhorski, Władysław, Polska a Litwa: Stosunki wzaiemne w biegu dziejc/w (London: The Polish Research Centre Ltd., 1947), pp. 254–255. Eric Hobsbawm also writes of so-called Wasserpolacken in Silesia and the Windische in Slovenia who refused to accept political unity with Poles and Slovenes respectively. Hobsbawm, E. J., Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Proramme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 59.Google Scholar

24. Lutskevich, , “Vil'nia,” p. 136Google Scholar

25. Ibid., p. 141; Szebet, Tatiana, “Białorusini o Wilnie,” Obserwator Codzienny, 1 April 1992.Google Scholar

26. Haretski, et al., “Historyia ne tserpits’ perakosaǔ.”Google Scholar

27. The historian Uladzimir Kananovich also writes of the need to restore historical justice with regard to the Vilnius question. See ‘“Dlia miane belaruskasts’ pachalasia z Vil'ni …',” Literatura i Mastatstva, 24 April 1992.Google Scholar

28. Zaprudnik, , Belarus: At a Crossroads in History, p. 221.Google Scholar

29. Quoted in Basta, Alicja, Zamȩt pod Ostra̧ Brama̧ (Warsaw: Alma Press, 1991), pp. 124–125. Numerous Lithuanians believe the Poles of the Vilnius region are denationalized Lithuanians—tutejsi, people who have a regional, rather than a national, identity. See Burant, Stephen R., “Polish-Lithuanian Relations: Past, Present, and Future,” Problems of Communism, May–June 1991, p. 79.Google Scholar

30. Stepanovas, Andrejus, “Kas tic ‘tuteišiai'?” Atgimimas, 1 January 1989; see also, Abramauskas, Stasys et al., “Kreipimasis i̧ Lietuvos Prezidenta p. Algirda Brazauska̧, i Baltarusijos Aukščiausiosios Tarybos Pirmininka p. Stanislava Šuškevičiu̧, i̧ visus baltarusius ir lietuvius,” ibid., 2 June 1993; and Kolek, Stanisław Marek, “Ziemia spraw niedokończonych,” Odra, April 1992, pp. 16–17.Google Scholar

31. Daugėla, Arūnas, “Ar S. Šuškevičius paneigs gandus?” Respublika, 26 March 1992.Google Scholar

32. ‘“Długie trwanie’ Europy Środkowej. z prof. Jerzym Kłoczowskim rozmawia Andrzej Romanowski,” Tygodnik Powszechny, 1 April 1993.Google Scholar

33. Tsikhanovich, Alena, “Kali Belarus’ byla Litvoiu,” Zviazda, 10 July 1992. Although Lithuanian historians may agree with their Belarusian colleagues on this issue, Lithuanian politicians do not. Landsbergis has criticized the Belarusian U.N. ambassador for calling the Grand Duchy of Lithuania a Belarusian state: saying such statements create the impression that “political conflicts are ripening in this part of Europe.” See Ramonis, Justas, “V. Landsbergis apie kaimynus ir lyderius,” Respublika, 31 July 1993.Google Scholar

34. Again, there is a parallel in the early-twentieth-century history of this region. The Poles and Lithuanians each sought sovereignty over Vilnius in the aftermath of World War I. Józef Piłsudski attempted to resolve the conflict through a union of Poland and Lithuania, with Vilnius as the latter's capital. The Lithuanians would have none of it.Google Scholar

35. Paz'niak, “Belarus', Rasiia, SND.” Belarusian national activists raised the idea of reconstituting the Grand Duchy under German auspices with Lithuanian, Polish, and Jewish representatives during World War I, and on 12 March 1919, the Lithuanian and Belarusian soviet republics united in the short-lived “Litbel.”Google Scholar

36. Landsbergis, Vytautas, “Baltarusija kryžkelėje,” Lietuvos Aidas, 14 April 1993; Czech, Mirosław, “Polska i Ukraina—działanie i rozmowy,” Kultura, April 1993, p. 94.Google Scholar

37. Lithuanians in the early twentieth century premised their claims to Vilnius on similar grounds. Such arguments are no less dubious than those of the Belarusians. See Žepkaitė, , Diplomatija imperializmo tarnyboje, p. 18.Google Scholar

38. Abramauskas, et al., “Kreipimasis.” They rest their arguments on the mid-ninteenth century research of N. Lebedkin and confirm them by Polish investigations of the period.Google Scholar

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40. Wandycz, Piotr, The Lands of Partitioned Poland 1795–1918 (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1974), pp. 243–244.Google Scholar

41. Deutsch, Karl W., Nationalism and Social Communication (Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T Press, 1966), p. 39.Google Scholar

42. Szporluk, Roman, “West Ukraine and West Belorussia: Historical Tradition, Social Communication, and Linguistic Assimilation,” Soviet Studies, January 1979, p. 79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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44. Błaszczyk, , Litwa współczesna, p. 323.Google Scholar

45. Ibid.; Kurzowa, , “Sytuacja jȩzykowa,” p. 12.Google Scholar

46. Błaszczyk, , Litwa współczesna, p. 328.Google Scholar

47. Basta, Zamȩt pod Ostra̧ Brama̧, p. 93.Google Scholar

48. Ibid., p. 139.Google Scholar

49. Błaszczyk, , Litwa współczesna, pp. 224, 335.Google Scholar

50. Ibid., p. 226.Google Scholar

51. Kurzowa, , “Sytuacja jȩzykowa,” p. 14.Google Scholar

52. Cited in Lakis, Juozas, “Przegla̧d socjologiczny pod ka̧tem mniejszości narodowych na Litwie,” Znad Wilii, 29 March–11 April 1992.Google Scholar

53. Karp, Marek J. et al., “Z Litwy,” Res Publica, February 1989, p. 93.Google Scholar

54. Cited in Paradowska, Janina, “Smutki znad Wilii,” Polityka, 31 July 1993.Google Scholar

55. On the importance of the census in this regard, see Anderson, , Imagined Communities, pp. 164–170.Google Scholar

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58. John A. Armstrong has written that “groups tend to define themselves not by reference to their own characteristics but by exclusion, that is, by comparison to ‘strangers',” Nations Before Nationalism (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1982), pp. 4–5. On the numerous conflicts between the Polish population and the Lithuanian government, see Burant, Stephen R., “International Relations in a Regional Context: Poland and Its Eastern Neighbors—Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine,” Europe–Asia Studies, May–June 1993, pp. 401–404.Google Scholar

59. Borkowicz, Jacek, “Renesans polskiego s;a015owa,” Gazeta Wvborcza, 4 July 1990.Google Scholar

60. Błaszczyk, , Litwa współczesna, p. 224.Google Scholar

61. Jesswein, Rafał and Kapica, Jacek, “Polskie radio w Wilnie,” Rzeczpospolita, 20 July 1992.Google Scholar

62. Dubavets, Sergei, “Belorusskaia gazeta iz Vil'niusa,” Sovetskaia Belorussiia, 16 May 1992.Google Scholar

63. “Novyia straty Vilenskikh Belarusaǔ,” Zviazda, 23 April 1993.Google Scholar

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66. Błaszczyk, , Litwa współczesna, pp. 336–339.Google Scholar

67. “Mozhno li upustit’ sluchai poradovat'sia drug drugu?” Ekho Litvy, 6 January 1993.Google Scholar

68. See, for example, Goliński, Cezary, “Kościuszko polskim imperialista̧ był,” Gazeta Wyborcza, 13 October 1993.Google Scholar