Polacy w niepodległej Litwie w latach międzywojennych

ENAccording to official census data, there were about 60,000 Poles living in Lithuania during the interwar period. However, the number of Poles most likely reached as high as 200,000. In the first years of Lithuania's independence, Poles were not happy with the Lithuanian government. Some were involved in a conspiracy aimed at annexing Lithuania to Poland. The economic and political importance of the Polish minority was reduced by the agrarian reform. In the 1920s, Poles organized themselves and established their own schools. However, the authorities stopped these efforts. In the years 1920-1927, Poles managed to maintain their own representation in the Lithuanian parliament (the Seimas). Throughout the interwar period, the Polish minority in Lithuania (like Lithuanians in Poland) was the victim of retaliation, which was the result of the political conflict between Lithuania and Poland. The social life of the Polish population was finally eliminated after Lithuania was annexed to the USSR in 1940. Keywords: Poles, Lithuania, interwar period, Kaunas, schools, retaliation.