Suwałki Agreement

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Suwałki Conference. Polish delegates at left, Lithuanian at right.

The Suwałki Agreement, Treaty of Suvalkai^[1], or Suwalki Treaty^[2] (Polish: Umowa suwalska, Lithuanian: Suvalkų sutartis) was an agreement signed in Suwałki on October 7, 1920, to take effect on October 10, between Poland and Lithuania, achieved under pressure and mediation from the League of Nations, and resulting in a ceasefire of the Polish-Lithuanian War. It established demarcation lines running through the disputed Suwałki Region (Polish: Suwalszczyzna, Lithuanian: Suvalkų kraštas) (but not through the also-disputed Vilnius Region).

The agreement was scheduled to come into effect on October 10, but a few days earlier, Polish general Lucjan Żeligowski, acting under secret orders from the Polish Chief of State, Józef Piłsudski, staged a sham mutiny and took control of the Vilnius region. Pilsudski announced in a 1923 speech that he had torn up the treaty.^[2] As a result of Żeligowski's Mutiny, the region, along with a corridor connecting it to Poland, was controlled by Poland until 1939.

The agreement was controversial in regard to the disputed Vilnius Region and the key city of Vilnius, not mentioned in the agreement but under Lithuanian control as of the time the agreement was negotiated and signed. Numerous authors in works that briefly mention the Agreement have described it as allotting Vilnius to Lithuania.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]} Polish historian Piotr Łossowski, however, in a chapter dedicated to the Agreement, characterized the agreement as a ceasefire of limited scope which did not address the issue of the Vilnius Region (the agreement does not mention the city or the Region at all and it explicitly states in Article I that it does not address the territorial claims of either side).^[13] This characterization is common in Polish historiography.^[14][13]

[edit] Background

The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were joined in the 1569 Union of Lublin, creating the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The resulting federation comprised a complex mixture of Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, Jewish, and Belarussian cultures and identities. The Commonwealth was dissolved during the late 18th century. Poland and Lithuania gained independence in 1918, following the events of World War I, but borders in the region were not precisely established. Military conflicts among Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and what would later become Belarus arose during the next several years.

[edit] Negotiations

During the closing days of September 1920, in parallel to ongoing hostilities between Lithuanians and Poles in the Suwalki region, diplomatic struggle intensified as well. On September 22nd, the Polish Foreign Minister, Eustachy Sapieha, delivered a diplomatic note to Lithuania which stated that Poland had decided to take severe actions against Lithuania with full freedom of action. The Lithuanian representative in London, Count Alfredas Tiškevičius, informed the secretariat of League of Nations that Sapieha's telegram should be regarded as a declaration of war; he also asked that the League of Nations take immediate intervention in order to stop new Polish aggressive acts.^[15] On September 26 the League of Nations passed a resolution urging that all sides cease hostilities. Recent Polish military actions had created a more negative perception of Poland by the League. The Polish Foreign Minister, Eustachy Sapieha, seeking to resolve the situation, proposed negotiations in Suwałki (Suvalkai)^[15] on September 26, 1920. Lithuania accepted the proposal on the following day. Tiškevičius had, in the meantime, asserted that Poland's primary goal was to capture Vilnius before the negotiations could begin.^[15]

After negotiations had begun, Poland intensified its offensive and refused to observe a ceasefire, despite the League's resolution.^{[citation needed]} The conference began on the evening of September 29. The Polish delegation was led by colonel Mieczysław Mackiewicz (who originated from Lithuania), and the Lithuanian by general Maksimas Katche.^[13] The negotiations were carried out in Russian language.^{[citation needed]}

Polish historian Piotr Łossowski asserts that the Lithuanian side, having suffered a series of setbacks in the Polish-Lithuanian War, was ready for a compromise over the Suwałki Region (and cession of most of the disputed territory to Poland), but that this concession would be made in exchange for Poland's recognition of Lithuanian claims to Vilnius (Polish: Wilno), the historical capital of Grand Duchy of Lithuania which at that time however had a Polish majority.^[13] In demographic terms Vilnius was the least Lithuanian of Lithuanian cities, ^[16] divided near evenly between Poles and Jews, with ethnic Lithuanians constituting a mere fraction of the total population (about 2-3% of the population, according to Russian 1897^[17][18] and German 1916 censuses^[19] - see ethnic history of the Vilnius region for further details). The Lithuanians nonetheless believed that their historical claim to the city (former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) had precedence and refused to recognize any Polish claims to the city and the surrounding area.^[16]

Attendees of the Suwałki Conference, 1920, in front of the building of the conference.

Lithuania proposed an immediate armistice again, but the Polish delegation refused. Only after Lithuanian delegation threatened to leave the negotiation table did Poland agree to stop fighting, but only in the Suwalki region. The Polish side was stalling for time. Having the upper hand in the ongoing war, its main problem was the increased pressure from the League of Nations, which wanted both sides to sign a peace treaty. Vilnius was under Lithuanian control (it had been recently transferred by the retreating Soviets, after they were defeated by the Poles in August at the battle of Warsaw, to the Lithuanians as a result of the Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty of 1920). The Polish leader, Józef Piłsudski, feared that the Entente and the League might accept the fait accompli that had been created by the Soviets' transfer of Vilnius to Lithuania. Pilsudski was preparing a fait accompli of his own — Żeligowski's Mutiny — and preferred that the negotiations be prolonged.^[13]

Hence while the Lithuanians wanted to sign a treaty as soon as possible and safeguard the status quo, the Polish side raised issues such as violations of Lithuania's neutrality in the Polish-Soviet War, and protested the Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty.^[13]

The Lithuanian delegation, after consultations in Kaunas on October 2, proposed their demarcation line on October 3. The Polish delegation, after consultations with Piłsudski, proposed a counterline of their own on October 4 — the day League mediation began.^[13]

In the meantime, both sides became involved in the battle of Varėna (Orany) — an important train station which the Poles had captured. Their control of the station prevented Lithuania from moving their troops from the Suwalki region — which they were prepared to surrender — to the Vilnius region, which they were not (but which was defended by relatively weak units). A semi-official ceasefire in the Swualki region — welcomed by the tired troops of both sides — had been in place since October 1.^[13]

[edit] The agreement

Selected lines of demarcation between Lithuania and Poland, 1919–1939. Light orange line denotes the line draw during the Suwałki conference, October 3, 1920.

The agreement was finally signed on October 7, 1920; it was to have taken full effect at noon on October 10.^[13]

The agreement featured the following articles:

• Article I: on the demarcation line; it also stated that the line "in no way prejudices the territorial claims of the two Contracting Parties". Demarcation line would start in the west following the Foch line until it reached the Neman River. It would follow the Neman River till Uciecha and Mereczanka (Merkys) River, than follow Merkys river till Varėna (Orany) — which was to be transferred to the Lithuanian side but its train station was on the Polish side. From Varėna the line would go near Bortele-Poturce-Montwiliszki-Ejszyszki (Eišiškės)-Podzitwa-Bastuny (Bastūnai, Бастынь), with the train station in Bastuny also remaining in Polish hands. The demarcation line east of Bastuny was to be determined by a separate agreement.^[13]
• Article II: on the ceasefire; notably the ceasefire was to take place only along the demarcation line, not on the entire Polish-Lithuanian frontline (i.e. not east of Bastuny).^[13]
• Article III: on the train station in Varėna (Orany); it was to remain under Polish control but the Polish side promised no restrictions on Lithuanian civilian trains and allowed Lithuanians the transit of 2 military trains per day
• Article IV: on prisoner exchange^[13]
• Article V: on the date and time ceasefire starts (October 10 at noon) and map used^[13]

Notably, the treaty made not a single reference to Vilnius (Wilno) or the Vilnius Region.^[13]

[edit] Aftermath

The Suwałki Region was split between Poland and Lithuania along a border that for the most part remains the border between Poland and Lithuania in modern times; notably the towns of Sejny (site of the Sejny Uprising), Suwałki and Augustów remained on the Polish side.^[13]

However, the agreement did not explicitly address the most controversial issue — the future status of the city of Vilnius (Wilno), located northeast of the Suwalki region and the demarcation line. The city had recently been transferred to Lithuania by the retreating Soviets.^[13] Historian Alfred Senn has written that the agreement tacitly left Vilnius in Lithuanian hands, and that Piłsudski's political opponents criticized this omission.^[20] When the Suwałki Agreement was signed by the Polish side, Vilnius was garrisoned by Lithuanian troops and behind Lithuanian lines.^[21][22] Yet this was changed almost immediately by Żeligowski's Mutiny, which began on October 8 (the agreement was scheduled to come into effect on October 10).^[23]. A problematic election in 1922 resulted in a more formal annexation of the city and its surrounding regions by Poland. The Poles denied knowledge of the mutiny (although in fact Piłsudski and his allies were the ones who orchestrated it^[2]), and noted that the demarcation line and the ceasefire did not extend east of Bastuny (the Polish delegation during the negotiations specifically refused to agree on the demarcation line east of Bastuny - which would cut off Polish access to Vilna - in order to allow Żeligowski's forces space for action). They saw the Suwałki Agreement as a ceasefire of minor importance. The Lithuanians however — particularly after losing Vilnius to Żeligowski's forces and being unable to regain control over it with their own military — expressed outrage at Żeligowski's actions and went on to use the Suwałki Agreement as the basis for protests in international venues. The Lithuanian side argued (contrary to the provisions of the agreement) that Poland had agreed to a truce along the entire front and to the concession of Vilnius to Lithuania, and that Żeligowski's actions violated the agreement (which they called a peace treaty); this would be denied by the Poles, who would point out that the Suwałki Agreement was explicitly limited in scope so as not to interfere in any way with the future of the Vilnius region.^[13] This point of view was, however, disputed by Léon Bourgeois, President of the Council of the League of Nations, in a rebuke to Poland soon after Żeligowski's mutiny:

In Piłsudski's view, signing even such a limited agreement was not in Poland's best interests, and he disapproved of it.^[13] In a 1923 speech acknowledging that he had directed Żeligowski's coup, Piłsudski stated: "I tore up the Suwałki Treaty, and afterwards I issued a false communique by the General Staff."^[2]

According to Łossowski, interwar Lithuanian diplomacy portrayed the agreement as a treaty that explicitly left the Vilnius Region under Lithuanian control; he stresses the fact that the treaty did not directly address the issue of Vilnius,^[13]

The city of Vilnius and its surrounding areas were given to Lithuania by the Soviet Union following Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, shortly before the Soviet union occupied Lithuania.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

• Richard C. Lukas, "The Seizure of Vilna, October 1920", The Historian, vol. 23, issue 2 (February 1961), pp. 234–46.

[edit] External links

• Text of Treaty. United Nations Treaty Collection: Lithuania and Poland. Agreement with regard to the establishment of a provisional "Modus Vivendi", signed at Suwalki, October 7, 1920