Dear nphoenix,
This is a brief history of the area where Svencioneliai is located. I
am very sorry I did not find much about the town itself; put it proved
impossible to get information of Svencioneliai, even from printed
sources. Nevertheless, I hope that you will like what I managed to
find out:
The area where Svencioneliai is located today, approximately 70
kilometers northeast of the lithunian capital Wilna, has seen man
rulers in its changeful past. To understand why it changed owners so
frequently in the 20th century, it is necessary to first have a brief
look at the earlier history.
In the 14th century, the area belonged to the powerful
Grand-Principality Lithunia as part of the Polish realm, which was
considerably larger than the modern state Lithunia, including
noticeable shares of today's Belorussia, Russia and the Ukraine. Then,
in 1569, Lithunia and the kingsom of poland merged in the Lublin
Union, forming a mighty Polish-Lithunian empire, stretching from the
Baltic coast to the shores of the Black Sea, from Silesia deep into
the steppes of the Ukraine.
But the power of Poland-Lithunia was fugacious and faded away when the
influence of centralized royal power declined. During the 17th
century, more and more border provinces were lost to ohther states,
such as Sweden, Austria, the Osman Empire, and Russia. In the late
18th century, Poland had become so weak that its neighbor countries
Russia, Austria, and Prussia divided up the Polish territory among
them in 1772, 1793 and, finally, in 1795. The area surrounding Wilna,
including the city of Svintsyan, close to today's Svencioneliai (which
was not yet founded then), came under Russian rule.
When the 20th century began, the greater Vilna area was a rural,
remote part of the Russian Empire. The population was rather mixed:
The overwhelming majority was Polish, but there were also Lithunians,
Jews, a small number of Russians (surprisingly small, considering a
century of Russian rule), Belorussians, and Germans - "Baltendeutsche"
- who lived mainly as merchants in Wilna itself or as ground-owning
country nobility. Svencioneliai was still a young town then: It had
been founded in 1861 and received its name from nearby Svencionys. Due
to the many languages spoken in the region, the city was known under
several names: Svenchioneliai in Lithunian, Nowe Sweciany, Nova
Svencionys, to name but a few.
In 1914, World War I broke out, and in 1915 the area of Svencioneliai
was occupied by the army of Imperial Germany. The German military
government tolerated the movements propagating a Lithunian state, and
in November 1917 independance from Russia was declared by the
provisional parliament, the Taryba. German count Urach of Württemberg
is, due to massive German influence, proclaimed king of Lithunia by
the Tabya in April 1918. But the same day Germany surrendered, 11
November 1918, Lithunia was declared a republic.
In the first days of January 1919, the Red Army of the young Soviet
Union invaded southern Lithunia, in an attempt to re-gain lost Russian
territories in the Baltic and Poland, and Svenchioneliai was occupied
by Bolshevist troops. However, Lithunian and Polish forces were able
to repel the Soviets in Spring 1919. Polish troops reached the Wilna
and Svenchioneliai area before the Lithunians, and Polish leader
general Pilsudski did not intend to hand it over to Lithunia again.
He, as many Poles, regarded the region wih strong Polish population a
historical part of Poland.
Poland continued fighting the Soviet Union successfully, pushing deep
into the Ukraine, but the tides turned again in Summer 1920. With
Poland heavily engaged in stopping the Soviet advance towards the
Polish heartland, Lithunia got back the southern part of the country,
supported by the Soviets. But in return, Lithunia had to agree that
the region was "temporarily" occupied by the Red Army as deployment
area against Poland.
War luck is elusive, and in August 1920 the Soviets were beaten by the
Poles at the Weichsel river. After that defeat, the Red Army left the
greater Wilna area and Svenchioneliai again. But still the conflict
between Lithunia and Poland concerning the disputed territory had to
be settled. The Leage of Nations proposed a partition of the area,
both sides agreed and in October 1920 a demarcation line was
recognized in the Treaty of Suwalki.
Nevertheless, two days after the treaty was signed, Polish general
Zeligowski invaded the entire Lithunian part of the area, including
the new Lithunian capital Wilna, in a surprise operation. Officially,
the Polish government under marshall Pilsudski denied any connection
to this occupation; but in fact, the Polish leader was seeking for
territorial compensation after his attempt to conquer the Ukraine and
thus re-establish Poland in its 16th century borders had failed. For
one and a half years, the area became a puppet state of Poland, called
"Middle Lithunia". Polish was declared official language, all leading
officials were Poles.
In January 1922, elections were held in "Middle Lithunia". Since
nearly 70% of the population were of Polish ancestry, and since there
was tremendous pressure on the voters, it was not surprising that the
majority voted in favor of joining Poland. On April 20, 1922, the
Wilna area became a part of Poland. Lithunia never recognized this act
as legal and continued referring to Wilna as "Capital of Lithuna",
while Kaunas, where the government was located, was regarded
"temporary capital" only.
In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. And, as arranged by the
secret pact between Hitler's Third Reich and Stalin's Soviet Union,
the Red Army marched into the eastern part of Poland. The Wilna area
and Svencioneliai came under Soviet rule in Autumn 1939. And in Summer
1940, Lithunia was annexed by the USSR together with Estonia and
Latvia. Now declared the new "Soviet Republic of Lithunia",
approximately half of the Wilna area was given to the new Baltic
Soviet Republic, including Svencioneliai. But there was, in fact, no
independent Lithunia anymore.
For a fee, you can buy digital reproductions of picture postcards
showing street scenes from Svencioneliai on the following website.
They date from the time of German occupation in World War I, but I
doubt that the appearance of the small rural town has changed much
over the next 20 years:
Avotayno: Turn-of-the-century postcards and photographs of Belarus,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, by Tomasz Wisniewski
http://www.avotaynu.com/wconnect/wc.isa?jg~jgsys~avotaynupc~Svencioneliai
Sources:
Geschichte der baltischen Staaten, by Georg von Rauch. Published by
Kohlhammer, 1970
Die baltischen Nationen, by Boris Meissner. Published by Markus, 1991.
ISBN 3-87511-041-2
Daten der polnischen Geschichte, by Manfred Hellmann. Published by
dtv, 1985.
Geschichte Polens, by Jörg K. Hoensch. Published by Ulmer, 1990. ISBN
3-8001-2625-7
Baedeker Reiseführer Baltikum. Published by Verlag Karl Baedeker,
1994. ISBN 3-87504-566-1
Hope this is what you were looking for!
Regards,
Scriptor |
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