USSR Divide and rule in Lithuania
THE central authorities and press of the Soviet Union have accused the People's Fronts of the Baltic countries of violating the constitution of the USSR. However, when a local soviet violated the constitution on September 7 by declaring a
Polish autonomous region near the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, TASS and the Moscow media rejoiced: "This is a great
Polish festival." The Moscow correspondent of the official
Polish daily Zycie Warszawy wrote in its September 9 issue that "In Lithuania the Polish population has to defend Its rights more and more energetically since they are being more and more threatened."
### ZBIGNIEW KOWALEWSKI
HE threat was supposed to come from the Lithuanian Restructuring Movement, or Sajudis, which is imposing the use of Lithuanian as the language of the republic. Zycie Warszawy's correspondent continued: "The Poles will lose their ability to continue to hold leading posts if they do not master Lithuanian in two years. Moreover, according to the laws presently in force, unless you know Lithuanian you cannot either hold the posts of chair of a kolkhoz [cooperative farm] , director of a sovkhoz [state farm] and even that of proprietor of a large [private] farm. Thus a lot of people who have not had to speak Lithuanian now find themselves threatened. Even in those areas where the majority of the population is not Lithuanian, all administrative affairs are beginning to be conducted in Lithuanian." Administration conducted in
Russian What Zycie Warszawy"'s correspondent - and the Soviet press — "forget" is that in those areas of Lithuania where a majority of the population is Polish, administrative affairs have not been conducted up until now in Polish but in Russian. That is, the tragedy for the Poles is that they now find themselves obliged to do their business in the language of the country, rather than in a foreign language that is not theirs either. This correspondent misinformed his readers in Poland no less grossly when he said: "The juridical situation in Lithuania today is such that the Poles have lost a lot of their rights, including the possibility of doing their university studies in Polish."
This suggests that Sajudis forced the closing of Polish colleges. But there has not been a single Polish college in Lithuania. What Sajudis wants to close is the Russian colleges. The legislation backed by Sajudis authorizes teaching minority languages up to and through secondary school.
The majority of the Polish population in Lithuania lives in and around Vilnius. In 1920, the Polish state, which had just been reconstituted, seized this region militarily, provoking a sharp conflict with the Lithuanian state and people. On the basis of the Stalin-Hitler Pact, in 1940 the entire Lithuanian national territory was reunited and incorporated into the USSR. After this area was occupied by the Nazis, guerrillas of the Polish Home Army (AK), the armed force of the underground Polish state, operated in it. But they were regarded by the Lithuanian people as representing Polish national oppression.
In July 1944, the AK and the Soviet Army jointly liberated the city of Vilnius, which had been turned into a German fortress. A few days later, Moscow betrayed its allies and wiped out the AK. It presented itself to the Lithuanian people as the guarantor of the territorial unification of Lithuania against the Polish expansionist claims. But this ushered in a new domination, just as much hated by the Lithuanian masses. The combination of a bureaucratic-military elimination of capitalism and the imposition of Great Russian domination touched off a people's war of resistance. In the country's forests, the guerrillas of the Lithuanian Liberation Army were only crushed in the early 1950s.
Le the sine in let as, sh p pete the 23 - except the intellectuals, who were the
USSR target of severe repression — enjoyed certain favors from the Stalinist regime, especially in the cultural and educational realms. Permission was given for establishing 260 Polish schools, Polish artistic groups and the only CP paper in the USSR in Polish, Czerwony Standar. In comparison with the situation of the Polish minority in other parts of the USSR, where every Polish national expression was stamped out, this can be termed exceptional.
The Russification of the Polish communities in Lithuania was not carried out with administrative and police methods. These communities became Russified by assimilating to what represented power, prestige and privileges, in short the power system of the Russian bureaucracy, its language and its culture. This was assimilation to the nation that oppressed the Lithuanians and not the oppressed nation.
As a result, today there are only 88 Polish schools left. The great majority of the Polish population opts for Russian schools. This does not mean that they choose them freely. If there is a Polish elementary school in a Polish town, but the Polish primary school is six kilometers away and the Polish secondary school is 15 kilometers away, while the Russian primary and secondary school are in the same town, then the Poles will send their children to the Russian school. Path to university blocked for
Poles
In the Polish towns, there are no Lithuanian schools. The sharp national rivalry between Lithuanians and Russians for access to university education has blocked the path for Poles. Lithuanians represent 80% of the population of the republic, and 84% of students. Russians are 9%, and 10% of the population. But Poles are 8% of the population and 2% of students. For every thousand Lithuanians, there are 200 intellectual workers, whereas for every thousand Poles it is only 32, that is, six times less.
Published in Polish but traditionally oblivious to the problems of the Polish minority, Czerwony Standar started to concern itself with these problems in the spring of 1987, facing the rise of the Lithuanian national movement. A year later, the Polish Socio-Cultural Association was founded, and held its congress in April 1989, at which it transformed itself into the Union of Poles in Lithuania. Its aspirations transcend the borders of the republic. It aims to create a national center in Vilnius for all the Polish communities that exist also in Byelorussia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Siberia.
In general, the demands and objections of the Union are legitimate. But its political dynamic soon proved to be very dubious. The Polish communities have been 24 exposo Lot danization. However, they exposed for decades to Russification and started to mobilize in defense of their national rights, not against the Russian bureaucracy but against the Lithuanian national movement. From the outset, the Russian bureaucracy supported this mobilization.
In its August 27 issue, the "liberal" but bureaucrat-controlled Polish weekly Preglad Tygodniowy, summed up the problem as follows: "Sajudis did not extend a hand to the Poles, and the latter immediately lined up against this movement. The essential thing is the methods Sajudis used. In its official statements, it says that it is open, understanding and well intentioned. But secretly the entire movement is working under the slogan of 'Lithuania for the Lithuanians.' ...To all these historic questions, the Lithuanians have only one answer — Stalinism. It is not so simple. The Poles say sometimes that until a little while ago everything was going well. But when Gorbachev gave democracy to the Lithuanians, they raised their heads. They say also that if the Lithuanians had governed after the war and not Stalin, there would not be a single Polish school."
Sajudis candidate defeated by Polish leader
In the elections for the Congress of People's Deputies, Jan Ciechanowicz, leader of the Union of Poles, ran in the same district as Virgilijus Cepaitis, secretary general of Sajudis. In the Brezhnev period, up until 1983, Ciechanowicz was one of the editors of Czerwony Standar. Cepaitis was one of the leaders of Sajudis who warned his Lithuanian compatriots against adopting anti-Polish chauvinist attitudes. In the second round of the elections, Ciechanowicz, who was backed by the Russian and Polish minorities and by the apparatuses of the bureaucratic regime, defeated Cepaitis.
In the first session of the Congress of People's Deputies in Moscow, Ciechanowicz entered a speech in the minutes that he had not been able to give. In this speech, he vigorously denounced the extermination of several thousand Polish army officers in Katyn in 1940, the Stalinist crimes against the Polish minority and the tragic situation of the Polish minority in various regions of the USSR. But he also tried to confirm the legitimacy of his own organization in Lithuania in the eyes of the central authorities by saying that "today People's Poland is the most important and most reliable military and political ally of the Soviet Union." (Zmiany, September 10). A Stalinist oath of allegiance of this sort could only reinforce Sajudis's suspicions that in the Union of Poles, Ciechanowicz and his friends are setting up a Russian-Polish fifth column.
In a region of Vilnius, a movement arose for Polish territorial autonomy. The local soviets, whose members are still the old nomenklatura bureaucrats, declared
International Viewpoint #173 • November 13, 1989
30 rural townships and three towns Polish autonomous zones. The majority of the leadership of the Union of Poles decided to back this movement. In the course of the negotiations that took place then, the Sajudis leaders asked them to drop the demand for territorial autonomy and accept cultural autonomy.
The response of the Polish leaders was that this was a tactical maneuver by Sajudis, which they accused of really pursuing a strategy of assimilating the Polish minority. For its part, Sajudis feared that the emergence of Polish autonomous zones around Vilnius was in line with a strategic plan to open the way for annexationist pressures from the Polish state, combined with Soviet plans for smashing the Lithuanian national movement.
Old claims and fears revived by Interfront journal
Sajudis leaders explained to the Solidarnosc daily Gazeta (August 21): "The idea is spreading that if we declare independence, Poland will demand Vilnius. Obviously, this fear is being instigated by the Russians. They openly tell us: 'If we leave, the Poles will take our place.' Incredible as it may seem, the publications of Edinstvo [the "internationalist" organization in Lithuania] intended for the Polish minority in Lithuania condemn the annexation [by the USSR] of Poland's eastern territories and call on the Poles to reestablish the Polish character of these territories. By sowing such illusions, they want to provoke a dispute among us."
Lithuanization is a corollary of the efforts of the Lithuanian people, subjected for decades to Russification, to reassert themselves and regain their national identity and their control over their historic conditions of existence. Like any mass movement of an oppressed people, Sajudis shows certain Jacobin-type and nationalistic tendencies toward a highly centralized national state. Such tendencies conflict with the rights of the national minorities, especially when the latter do not raise their demands within the framework of this national movement but rather seek support in the camp of the oppressor nation. Sajudis is not the first nationalliberation movement to be torn by a contradiction of this sort. It is an extremely difficult one to resolve, even for exponents of internationalist socialism, and still more for those who, like the Sajudis léaders, are not.
However, it is interesting to note that in Latvia, where the Polish minority never enjoyed any rights under the Stalinist regime and where there have not been any Polish schools, the Polish Socio-Cultural Association set up at the end of1988 is collaborating closely with the People's Front. This alliance is perfectly possible because, as its chair, Ita Kozakiewiecz, explained in the August 23 issue of Gazeta, "The Latvians see that we take a totally
negative attitude to the Interfront, an organization of Russians living in Latvia who are trying to oppose the [Latvians"] aspirations for independence and democratic reforms."
Tomas Venclova, a leading Lithuanian poet who lives in exile, has said: "The old complexes, the senseless myths and fears of Polish influence are still alive in Lithuania and at times they take pathological forms. They are cultivated by a part of the older generation, but also cheerfully fostered by the authorities...But what most frightens me are the voices - although they are not very numerous — of Lithuanians who call for eliminating the Polish schools and folklore groups, who oppose the justified demands for cultural autonomy in those areas where the Polish population predominates, who prevent Polish flags from being carried along with Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian ones in the big demonstrations in Vilnius...or the celebration of Polish masses in the Vilnius cathedral, which was recently returned to the believers under the pressure of all the inhabitants of the country." (Kultura, Paris, March 1989)
Poles distrustful of everything Lithuanian
For his part, in the weekly Tyogodnik Solidarnosc of July 28, Bohdan Skaradzinski pointed out that "a Pole who visits Lithuania will be repelled by the concentration of itionalist feeling among his or her compatriots in Vilnius," and that Poles in Lithuania are "distrustful of everything| Lithuanian." "I do not know when they are going to realize that their national survival depends on their capacity to establish good relations with the Lithuanians, because otherwise they will be condemned to Russification."
On August 23, the anniversary of the Stalin-Hitler Pact, the Sejm (the governing body of Sajudis) called on the Lithüm in people "to re-establish an independent democratic Republic of Lithuania, not subordinate to the administrative system and jurisdiction of the USSR." Together with the People's Fronts of Estonia and Latvia, Sajudis organized an impressive demonstration - a human chain of at least a million citizens of the three republics.
The chair of Sajudis, Vytautas Landsbergis, told the independent Polish press that the organizers hoped that next year they would be able to extend this human chain to Warsaw and Budapest, and if possible to Prague. For his part, Jan Sienkiewicz, chair of the Union of Poles in Lithuania, called on his compatriots to join in this demonstration. In this way, he wanted to demonstrate the falseness of the propaganda of Sajudis, which, he said, 'is trying consistently in every way to present us Poles in Lithuania as fierce adversaries of the progressive national aspirations of the Lithuanians, as loyal allies of the Rus-
USSR sians living in Lithuania and as champions of Moscow's great power policy (Tygodnik Powszechny, September 24.)
However, with Moscow's aggressive political counteroffensive, the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse. On August 26, the Central Committee of the CPSU issued a very grave warning to the People's Fronts in the Baltic countries to rein in their aspirations for independence. On September 5, the boss of the Lithuanian Communist Party, Algirdas Brazauskas, recognized that changes were going too fast in these countries and that Moscow's worries, although overly nervous, were justified. He said that he did not exclude the possibility of military intervention by Moscow. At the same time in Vilnius, bureaucratic reaction, grouped in the Committee for the Defense of Soviet Power in Lithuania, held a rally.
ESTONIA Tartu@ LATVIA • Riga gay pils LITHUANIA @nounas VIlnius • POLAND
TASS reported the rally in the following terms: "In the name of the working people of various nationalities and social strata in Lithuania, the participants in the rally demanded that the Supreme Soviet of the republic block the adoption of the laws and decrees leading toward separation of Lithuania [from the USSR]." They also demanded, according to TASS, assurance of real equality for the national minorities and confirmation of the leading role of the Communist Party of Lithuania."
Parallel to this, in Moscow, an article appeared in the magazine Politicheskoe Obrazovanie, published for political workers in the bureaucratic apparatus and which has specialized in "proving" that all nationality problems in the USSR have been resolved in an exemplary way, "according to Leninist norms." It was written by S. H. Vysotsky, secretary of the CP Salcininkai district committee, who is of Polish origin. Vysotsky denounced the imposition of the Lithuanian language fostered by Sajudis, which he said would block the national and cultural development of the Polish minority. The only solution, according to him, was to set up a Polish autonomous region.
Scarcely two days later, on September 7, what was prefigured in Moscow by Vysotsky, became a reality. The soviet of the Salcininkai district - 50 kilometers south of Vilnius, which has a population of 40 thousand, of whom 81% are Poles - proclaimed a Polish national district. Some of the Polish members of the soviet voted against. All of the Russian members voted for.
The session was attended by two big bureaucratic bosses of the republic, V. Astrauskas, chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Lithuania; and S. Gedrajtis, second secretary of the Lithuanian CP. Discredited as Stalinists in the eyes of the Lithuanian masses, these two tried to regain credibility by saying that the unilateral declaration of Polish territorial autonomy would contribute to the destabilization of the republic and put in danger peaceful coexistence among the nationalities.
On September 16, the soviet of the Vilnius Raion (that adjoins but does not include the Lithuanian capital declared a second autonomous Polish raion. On September 21, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic annulled the decisions of the raion soviets in both Salcininkai and Vilnius.
### Differences in minority leadership
Around this question, serious political differences rose in the leadership of the Union of Poles in Lithuania. Czeslaw Okinczyk, vice chair of the union, opposed the majority position, telling the Solidarnosc daily Gazeta (September 11) I that the Salcininkai soviet's decision could not help but drastically worsen Polish-Lithuanian relations, which were already quite tense.
"What worries me most is the fact that *What worries me most is the fact tha n the rally that preceded the session of th soviet Polish banners appeared expressing support for the August 26 statement of the Central Committee of the CPSU. It is unacceptable to attack the Lithuanians with Moscow's threats.
The illusory character of what the Russian press called a 'Polish success, . can be appreciated if you take into consideration the fact that the Salcininkai soviet established trilingualism in the district, that is, equality of the Polish, Russian and Lithuanian languages. "In reality this changes nothing in the traditional situation, because it means that Russian will continue to be the language of communication among the nationalities. This means suspending the application of the law that requires citizens of the republic to know Lithuanian. Those happiest about this obviously are the Russians."
In the name of the Sajudis leadership, Landsbergis told Gazeta: "Moscow is trying to weaken us by inciting interethnic conflicts. For a long time, Moscow has been trying to convince the Lithuanians that it is only thanks to Russia that they can keep Vilnius, and that they have to 25 beware of the intentions of the
USSR / AROUND THE WORLD Poles...Among the Poles, there are those who prefer an alliance with Russia....We are being blackmailed with the threat that if we do not meet all the demands of the Poles, they will create a Karabakh here....
"Only a week ago we met with the leaders of the Union of Poles in Lithuania. There was not even any suggestion of the possibility of what is happening now. We left convinced that we were heading toward an agreement. Now, it is evident that the real plans were hidden from us. The program of 'fragmenting' Lithuania into autonomous regions did not arise here. The Georgians, Latvians and Estonians are facing the same threats....This is how Moscow intends to block the process of the republics gaining national independence. Poles, please be reasonable. Lithuania is our common home."
For the bureaucracy, both in Moscow and Warsaw, the perspective of an alliance between Solidarnosc and the Baltic People's Fronts represents a major strategic threat. By fomenting interethnic conflict in Lithuania, the bureaucracy hopes to dispel this danger, to arouse nationalist solidarity in Poland with the Polish minority in Lithuania and a hostility of the Polish people toward the Lithuanian national movement. To this end, although very discreetly, it has not hesitated to exploit the old Polish expansionist claim to the Vilnius region.
Leszek Miller, secretary of the Polish CP and one of the leaders of the "reform" wing of the bureaucracy, accused some Solidarnosc leaders of "uncritically supporting some movements in the Baltic countries or in Ukraine, as if they did not know that the nationalism of these movements is not directed only against the Russians but also against the Poles." Adam Michnik, editor of Gazeta, answered: "The difficult Polish-Lithuanian questions can only be resolved in the context of Polish-Lithuanian dialogue. This is not an anti-Russian option but an antitotalitarian one." (Gazeta, September 18.)
The national leadership of Rural Solidarnosc gave the most thoroughgoing answer.
In an open letter addressed to Poles in Lithuania, it said about the proclamation of an autonomous Polish district in Salcininkai: "This is a shameful thing, and no •Polish festival.' The autonomist or separatist actions of Poles in Lithuania are not a Polish but a Russian political success. In the long run, this is an error and a negative development, both for the Lithuanians and the Poles. The policy of divide and rule can offer you a momentary success, but over time it can only produce sour fruit....If you seek external aid — in this case, Russian — to strengthen your position temporarily, you will become an alien element and rightly be treated as one in the future. A betrayal of Lithuania would be a betrayal of Poland." (Gazeta, Sep26 tember 15.) *
AROUND THE WORLD SOVIET UNION Right of referendum established in Lithuania THE SUPREME SOVIET of the Lithuanian SSR voted on November 5 to establish the right of referendum. Henceforward popular referendums can be called at the request of half of the members of the Supreme Soviet or 300,000 citizens. In reporting this step, the Western press has concentrated on the fact that it offers the means for asserting the independence of Lithuania. But it also has an important general democratic significance. It will be interesting to see if this measure is copied in the other Baltic republics, Byelorussia, Ukraine and beyond. * Armenian national movement founded THE FOUNDING conference of the Armenian National Movement was held in Yerevan on November 5. The new organization is reportedly a broad federa-
POLAND RUMANIA tion of ten groups, on the model of the People's Fronts in the Baltic, Byelorussia, and Ukraine. In its report of this meeting, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of November 6 said that the new organization is not proposing the perspective of secession from the Soviet Union, but is demanding that legislation adopted by the Soviet Supreme Soviet not be valid in Armenia before being approved by the republic's Supreme Soviet. The People's Front of Azerbaijan has also raised this demand. The Estonian Supreme Soviet was the first to vote such a law. It was struck down as unconstitutional by the USSR central authorities. But such initiatives are clearly continuing to multiply.* ALBANIA hard line re-affirmed as isolation decreases RAMIZ ALIA, leader of the Albanian Workers' Party, spoke out against the dangers of outside influences at the Eighth plenum of the Central Committee in late September. According to the party daily Zeri i Popullit (September 29), he admit-