Wojskowe aspekty operacji wileńskiej w kwietniu 1919 roku

Abstract

The article throws some light on the Polish army's military operation in Vilnius in the spring of 1919; the basic political aspects of the operation are presented as well. The author also emphasises different viewpoints towards Vilnius: for Lithuanians, Vilnius was an inseparable part of the Lithuanian state, while the majority of Poles strongly believed that this city belonged to Poland. Many people in the newly reborn Poland did not imagine their state without Vilnius and Lvov, as they could not imagine it without Krakow and Poznan. Partly these ideas could be viewed as sentiments in favour of the former Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth; however, the decisive factor was the number of Polish population in the above mentioned cities, and in Vilnius the number was greater than in Lodz or Byalystok, for example. [...]