Lietuvos lenkų ir Latvijos vokiečių vaidmuo nacionalinės konsolidacijos procesuose
LTŠiandieninio Vidurio Europos atgimimo metais išryškėjusi multikultūriškumo nostalgija skatina tyrinėti etnokultūrinių mažumų vaidmenį nacionalinės konsolidacijos procesuose. Manome, kad nedaug kas abejoja, jog siekiant reikšmingiausių išvadų labai svarbus tampa lyginamasis požiūris, kurį ir norime čia išmėginti [p. 140].
ENThe role of two ethnocultural communities which up to 1918 belonged to the Russian Empire in the process of national consolidation is compared in the article. Polish-speaking nobility of Lithuania in the first half of the 19th century did not consider themselves Poles in the ethnocultural sense. The democratically oriented part of the gentry got interested in Lithuanian popular culture and got involved in the matters of civic rights of the Lithuanian people. The process of the integration of society has been interrupted by the suppression of the uprising in 1863-64 and the reactionary policy of the Russian government which followed and which contributed to the “Polonization” of the Lithuanian gentry. A new political movement expressing the sentiments of a part of Lithuanian gentry (the krajowcy movement) arose in 1905-1915. Its programme of the national consolidation was based on the principle of sovereignty of the historical GDL. Up to the middle of the 19th century, the majority of the Germans in Latvia did not care about any social relations with the Latvians. Only occasionally did some Balto-Germans contribute to the development of Latvian culture and several of them occupy a proper place in the Latvian historic tradition. In 18771878 there seemed to be real prospects for the Latvians to be drawn into participation in the political organs of self-government of the country. That did not take place, and the revolution of 1905 only aggravated the conflict between the Latvians and Balto-Germans. A part of the Balto-Germans emigrated, others looked to Germany expecting its support or intervention. At the beginning of World War I the supporters of the movement of the krajowcy and Lithuanian democrats adopted several common resolutions (The Universal of the provisional council of the Great Lithuanian confederation on 19.12.1915 among others) which could facilitate the restoration of the historical GDL.Römeris campaigned for this project in the Polish Piłsudskian groups. However, pro-German political actions of Lithuanian nationalists, the imperialistic ambitions of Piłsudski, the nationalistic ambitions of the Polish national democrats (endeks) and the passivity of the majority of Poles of Lithuania resulted in the "restitution" of the ethnographic GDL, the conflict between Lithuania and Poland, and the failure of national consolidation. After the occupation of Kurzeme (Curonia) in 1915, Vidžeme (Latvian Midlands) and Estonia in 1918 Balto-Germans began to support the idea of the formation of political structures dependent on Germany. In such structures the Latvians and Estonians would find themselves in the state of national minorities. After the final defeat of Germany in World War I this idea failed. The national minority of Balto-Germans in Latvia supported by Germany did not become, however, a factor in national consolidation. After the Soviet-German treaty of August 23,1939, repatriation of Balto-Germans began. National consolidation failed in all the countries. Chances for it were better in Lithuania than in Latvia. That can be explained by the differences in the social structure of Lithuania and Latvia and in the historic traditions.
