#pilsudski

Polish soldiers in Vilnius.

October 9 1920, Vilnius–After the Polish victory outside Warsaw, the Poles could once again turn their attention back to Lithuania, where Polish ambitions had been checked a year before.  In early September, Poland protested to the League of Nations about Lithuania’s complicity in the Soviet invasion of Poland, and the League attempted to mediate the ongoing dispute between the two countries.  While negotiations were proceeding, Polish forces brushed aside Lithuanian troops to outflank Soviet positions on the Niemen.  The annoyed the League, who demanded a ceasefire between Poland and Lithuania.

On October 7, a ceasefire was agreed to, along with a demarcation line between Polish and Lithuanian troops.  However, its eastern progression abruptly ended at Bastuny, on the railway line leading south from Vilnius, as Poland demanded freedom of action further east to fight the Soviets (although ceasefire negotiations between Poland and the Soviets were well underway).

Piłsudski wanted to take Vilnius for Poland, but realized this would be unacceptable to the League.  He instead arranged for Lucjan Żeligowski, a division commander, to “mutiny” and seize the city, taking inspiration from D’Annunzio’s seizure of Fiume in 1919 with covert backing from Badoglio.  The Lithuanians, outnumbered by Żeligowski’s forces and the majority Polish population of the city, fell back, and the city came under Żeligowski’s control on October 9.  Three days later, Żeligowski declared the existence of the Republic of Central Lithuania, which he would rule as an effective Polish puppet state until Poland annexed it two years later.

Sources include: Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919; Prit Buttar, The Splintered Empires.