Społeczność polska Wilna wobec nowej rzeczywistości: postawy i nastroje 1944-1945

ENThe object of the analysis requires outlining a more extensive exposition as well as rendering several issues more precise. The author examined the question of a Polish minority existing „here and now", in a concrete geographic space; the well-enrooted indigenous population possessed its own historical and regional traditions, and was involved in complicated relations with other nationalities, particularly the Lithuanians, for whom Vilno (Wilno, Vilnius) and its environs remained the object of years-long controversies with the Poles. At the same time, the large Polish community possessed a different type of national consciousness, comprehension of tradition, and attitude towards the Polish state. „Lithuania — the homeland, Poland — the motherland" — this motto from a programme of the Union of Poles defined its stance. A presentation of relations between the various nationalities residing in Vilno should take into consideration not only their genetic and structural similarities but also, to a greater degree, their divergencies. The nature of this relation was also affected by historical circumstances. Up to 1939 the region of Vilno remained part of the Polish state. This multi-ethnic terrain was also inhabited by assorted minorities: Jewish, Belorussian, Lithuanian, Russian, and Tartar; consequently, it produced a unique culture with distinct Polish predominance. Its privileged situation, especially during the 1930s, causes numerous conflicts. The outbreak of the war and its subsequent outcome resulted in political and demographic transformations, greater than in other parts of the Republic, and essentially altered the situation of the Poles who from a predominant and privileged community were reduced to a minority with restricted rights. Vilno was almost entirely abandoned by the intelligentsia, whose place was taken by the Lithuanians and the Russians.Those processes influenced the image of local historical and cultural tradition, which became moulded by other nationalities. The latter introduced Lithuanian and Russian tradition, on the other hand, and the traditions of the city, adapted to the needs of its new inhabitants and interpreted as elements of Lithuanian and Russian culture, on the other hand. This was the reason for the emergence of defence mechanisms conducive for the retention of Polishness. The Polish minority in small towns and villages also preserved certain stereotypes (primarily rural, and at times typical for petty landowners), while remaining under the external pressure of the prevalent model of socialist realist culture. In Vilno itself, the Russian component, devoid of an intelligentsia base, gradually declined. Thanks to schools with Polish as the language of instruction and the unceasing activity of several enthusiasts who had not left Vilno in 1945, Polish cultural life slowly revived; nonetheless, it was restrained by the tight corset of „people's" culture, provincial traditionalism, and assorted symptoms of ideological indoctrination, discernible especially in 1945. The mood and attitudes of the Polish community in Vilno were, to a significant degree, influenced by traditions shaping Polish national consciousness. The category of tradition, in accordance with the ascertainments by Prof. Tadeusz Bujnicki, an outstanding expert on the subject, ascribes crucial significance to the image of the phenomenon under examination because the attitude towards select components of one's own past and that of the others defines the behaviour of individuals and groups both vis a vis each other and towards outsiders; it also comprises a factor of inner-group identification and an element of distinction from the others. Its social and ideological role depends on the ways in which tradition is articulated.It could constitute a foundation for understanding, but it could also act as a source of conflicts. The menace of antagonism arises primarily wherever chances are unequal, the traditional values of a given group are threatened, and the risk of losing identity looms; it also comes forth whenever assorted forms of national megalomania merge with an image of the past that has been endowed with all the features of a myth. This sort of tension appears more frequently in relations between the national minorities and the majority. An additional complication is introduced by the different configuration of sources and relations in the past. For those reasons, tradition comprises a neutral historical-cultural heritage only in extremely rare cases; as a rule, it is an active factor that can exert a creative or a destructive influence. The situation of the Polish minority in Vilno makes it possible to perceive the functions of tradition from precisely this perspective. The chronological boundaries of this sketch are the years 1944-1945. The situation in which the Lithuanian state found itself produced qualitatively new circumstances for the Polish minority, different from the ones which had prevailed since 1939. During this period, Vilno changed its state affiliation upon a number of occasions. It remained the capital of Lithuania for not quite ayear, and subsequently was incorporated into the Soviet Union; in the years 1941-1944 it was occupied by the Nazis and then once again became the capital of a Soviet republic. Memory about the Polish past was gradually limited, and assumed „local" and „native" qualities. By retaining its language and oral tradition it became a regional „Polishness" , encompassing customs, songs, and narrated „stories". Hence the predominant element consolidating tradition was embedded in individual and collective memory; it was also transmitted in individual and collective memory. [...].