The Poles in the Vilnius District as Lithuanian Citizens in the Context of Research on Posttransformational Reality
The Poles in the Vilnius District as Lithuanian Citizens in the Context of Research on Posttransformational Reality

Summary/Abstract: It was not possible to present the entire, extensive theoretical aspects of this issue within the framework of this paper. It is equally infeasible to recall the result of the gathered empirical material and profound conclusions drawn. Due to the lack of the possibility to present wider context of the social environment of the Polish minority in Lithuania, its atmosphere determining given attitudes, approaches or deeply rooted stereotypes, it could imply circumstances to misinterpret the phenomena descried within the framework of this article. Therefore, I shall focus on the attempt to answer the question what image the citizenship among the Polish Lithuanians depicts. Answering the question “what it means to be a good citizen” the straight majority replied that one should “participate actively in the elections” – 90.7 %, belong to various organizations and be socially active – equally 51 % each of the responses, get engaged in the issues crucial for the growth of the region and the country (i.e. reading press and gathering information what happens in their own country, participating in referendum etc) – 37.2 %. The minority of voices claimed that the citizenship means “not to gossip”, “not to quarrel” “to help the neighbours”, “to set a good example”, “raise children in the patriotic atmosphere”. Are the Poles living in Lithuania good citizens? while searching for the answer to this question, the analysis of convergence of the key words in the researched definition was carried out, comparing the key words of the notion “a good citizen” with the declarations of own attitudes. The analysis proved that 86.1 % of the respondents actively participated in the elections concerning various levels of political and social life (83 % of the researched took part in the referendum on the process of accession to the European Union by the Republic of Lithuania), 13.8 % declared their membership in one of the political organizations in Lithuania, whereas 11.1 % participated in a local organizations, or association of a social character at a local level. 36.1 % of the researched declared knowledge on the region and familiarity with its urgent problems. Of course, it must be remembered that the presented analysis is predominantly a measurement of the declarations stated by the researched, not the indicator of their authentic engagement. Moreover, it is also difficult to firmly judge whether the declared activity (particularly the one regarding elections) is the result of self-aware decision (determined by the citizenship of the researched group), or just a habit from the period, when the election activity was imposed by the previous system and this duty became a habit embedded in the collective memory of that generation. Both the rich theoretical material, as well as the empirical one, gathered upon the field research method favour the conviction that the repercussions of the transformation experienced by the representative of Polish Lithuanians, as well as strat

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