Stosunki narodowościowe i etniczne na Suwalszczyźnie i Kowieńszczyźnie w dobie kształtowania się koncepcji granic odrodzonego państwa polskiego
National and Ethnic Relationships Within the Suwalki and Kaunas Regions During the Times of Poland’s National Rebirth and Shaping Its New Borders

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses relationships between various ethnic and national groups that were characteristic for the North-Western part of region called Eastern Borderlands at the turn of XIX century. Vast literature on this subject is available, but it should be noted that the subject itself remains under strong political and ideological influence, it is also surrounded by many myths and common beliefs; and last but not least, there are historical sources that still have never been used in the discussion. One of such sources, not yet being used for research on ethnic divisions within the Polish-Lithuanian borderland at the beginning of XX century, are data gathered by Warsaw Statistical Committee in volume II (Ethnic Statistics for the Congress Poland) of the book Territorial Development of Polish Nationality(1917), by Włodzimierz Wakar. This work includes information on headcount of Polish and Lithuanian populations in years 1910 and 1914, divided by all communes and towns in the Suwalki Governorate. These statistical data are of exceptional scientific value, as they were gathered and aggregated at the commune level, showing detailed characteristics of ethnic transformations. By comparing the information regarding populations’ headcount in 1914 and 1910, it is possible to assess which of the two populations grew within this 4-year period. Thorough knowledge of dynamics and direction of ethnic (nationalistic) transformations taking place within the Suwalki Governorate, might bring us some interesting answers. It might help us find out if just before the World War I other regions inhabited by both Polish and Lithuanian populations, such as Vilnius, Grodno and Kaunas provinces, were under the process of polonization or lithuanization.

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