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The issue of Polish and Lithuanian relations during the World War II is a controversial one, and some modern Lithuanian and Polish historians still differ in their interpretations of the related events, many of which are related to the Lithuanian collaboration with Nazi Germany and the operations of Polish resistance organization of Armia Krajowa on territories inhabited by Lithuanians and Poles.
Poland continued to suppress Lithuanian organisations in Vilnius. [1] [18] A thaw in Polish–Lithuanian relations began in spring 1939. After the German–Czech and German–Lithuanian crises, Poland made more active efforts to ensure Lithuania's assistance, or at least neutrality, in the event of a war with Nazi Germany. [1]
The territories that Lithuania received from the Soviet Union were former territories of the Second Polish Republic, disputed between Poland and Lithuania since the Polish-Lithuanian War of 1920 and occupied by the Soviet Union following the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939.
Polish units had either surrendered or withdrawn, disorganized, towards the Lithuanian border or deeper into Poland. Celebrations of Vilnius (Wilno) return to Lithuania near Vilnius Cathedral in 1939.
During the Second World War Polish and Lithuanian territories were occupied by both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but relations between Poles and Lithuanians remained hostile. Following the end of World War II, both Poland and Lithuania found themselves in the Eastern Bloc, Poland as a Soviet satellite state, Lithuania as a Soviet republic.
After the German and Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, the Soviet Union signed a treaty with Lithuania on 10 October, exchanging the predominantly Polish and Jewish city of Wilno (Lithuanian:Vilno) to Lithuania, [9] for military concessions, and subsequently annexed Lithuania in 1940. [10]
A secret protocol of the pact places Estonia, Latvia, and Finland in Soviet sphere of interest, Lithuania in Germany's sphere of influence. Poland was effectively divided between Stalin and Hitler. 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland. This event signifies the start of World War II in Europe.
According to the 1897 Russian census, the disputed city of Vilnius had a linguistic breakdown of 30% Polish speaking, 40% Jews, and 2% Lithuanian speaking; [23] [24] however the percentage of Lithuanian speakers in the surrounding countryside was a few times higher than that of Polish speakers – the population was 35% Lithuanian and 12% Polish speaking in Vilnius county (if excluding its ...