Ethnic Borders of Lithuania

[Peterski]

Lizdeika,

This thread is about ethnic borders - not political ones. And Vilnius was Polish-Lithuanian, part of our Commonwealth, it was one state (like the United Kingdom, Italy or France). Had Lithuanian-speakers not started their "Linguistic Nationalism", Lithuania and Poland (as well as Belarus, etc.) could be once again united in 1918. The UK, France and Italy are countries which consisted of many ethnic groups and speakers of many languages. But in our part of Europe every little group of speakers of something had to have their own country.

Languages in France in period 1789 - 1806 (green territory = area where majority of population spoke French, "Francais"):



Can you tell me why for example Occitan-speakers did not want to start their own independent country ???

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - just like France - also included speakers of several languages.

But in France everyone gradually adopted French language, which was spoken by the most numerous group (58,5%):

Languages in France (within modern borders) by number of speakers in year 1806:

Langues d'oïl (French) - 16,408,000 - 58,5%
Occitan - 8,461,000 - 25,0%
Francoprovençal - 2,197,000 - 7,4%
Dialectes allemands - 1,036,498 - 3,5%
Breton - 985,558 - 3,3%
Corse - 174,702 - 0,6%
Flamand - 156,973 - 0,5%
Catalan - 118,700 - 0,4%
Basque - 109,306 - 0,4%

Total - 29,648,000 - 100,0%

But France did not fragment into independent: France, Occitania, Provence, Corsica, Alsace, Bretagne, etc.

Also, people adopted the dominant language - French (which in 1806 was spoken only by 58,5% and today by almost everyone).

On the other hand, our Commonwealth fragmented into Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, etc.

And many Lithuanians are hostile towards Polish language (dominant in the PLC), for some reason.

[Peterski]

Lizdeika,

In the United Kingdom they also have: English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Northern Irish, etc. people - yet they are one country.

And even though they used to speak different languages in the past, nowadays almost all of them speak English.

[FeederOfRavens]

Lizdeika,

This thread is about ethnic borders - not political ones. And Vilnius was Polish-Lithuanian, part of our Commonwealth, it was one state (like the United Kingdom, Italy or France). Had Lithuanian-speakers not started their "Linguistic Nationalism", Lithuania and Poland (as well as Belarus, etc.) could be once again united in 1918. The UK, France and Italy are countries which consisted of many ethnic groups and speakers of many languages. But in our part of Europe every little group of speakers of something had to have their own country.

Languages in France in period 1789 - 1806 (green territory = area where majority of population spoke French, "Francais"):



Can you tell me why for example Occitan-speakers did not want to start their own independent country ???

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - just like France - also included speakers of several languages.

But in France everyone gradually adopted French language, which was spoken by the most numerous group (58,5%):

Languages in France (within modern borders) by number of speakers in year 1806:

Langues d'oïl (French) - 16,408,000 - 58,5%
Occitan - 8,461,000 - 25,0%
Francoprovençal - 2,197,000 - 7,4%
Dialectes allemands - 1,036,498 - 3,5%
Breton - 985,558 - 3,3%
Corse - 174,702 - 0,6%
Flamand - 156,973 - 0,5%
Catalan - 118,700 - 0,4%
Basque - 109,306 - 0,4%

Total - 29,648,000 - 100,0%

But France did not fragment into independent: France, Occitania, Provence, Corsica, Alsace, Bretagne, etc.

Also, people adopted the dominant language - French (which in 1806 was spoken only by 58,5% and today by almost everyone).

On the other hand, our Commonwealth fragmented into Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, etc.

And many Lithuanians are hostile towards Polish language (dominant in the PLC), for some reason.

So do you believe the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth should've assimilated all the Lithuanians, Ruthenians, Russians, Cossacks and Germans into the dominant Polish linguistic group? Like what happened to France and UK?

Because if so it says a lot about the Polish Nationalism which I accused you of some time ago.

[Peterski]

Below some data illustrating the effects of post-war deportations on ethnic Polish population in the Grodno-Vilna areas of Belarus:

This data is from an article written (in Polish) by a Belarusian from Grodno - Siarhiej Tokć:

http://kamunikat.fontel.net/pdf/bzh/22/03.pdf

Examples from three raions (counties) - Wasiliszki, Wołkowysk and Skidel. If we count these three counties altogether then their total population in 1945-1947 (Skidel in 1947, the other two counties in 1945) was - according to Belarusian data - 124.451 including 60.615 Poles, 61.295 Belarusians, 1.407 Russians and 1.134 others. By 1959 their population was 136.382 including 43.356 Poles, 80.307 Belarusians, 9.637 Russians and 3.082 others.

So the percentage of Russians among the population increased from 1.13% in 1945-1947 to 7.07% in 1959.

In 1945 Poles were an absolute majority in Wasiliszki and Wołkowysk. By 1959 they were still a relative majority (49.2%) only in Wasiliszki:

Deportations.png

[Peterski]

Ethnic situation in north-eastern Poland in 1919-1921, after the end of WW1:

75-100% Lithuanian / 75-100% Polish / 75-100% Belarusian / Mixed areas:

PUR_map_mixethnic1a.png