Żeligowski’s mutiny

After the Battle of Warsaw the Bolsheviks transferred Vilna to Lithuania. In early October 1920 Piłsudski prepared a plan to return the Vilna region to Poland. In line with that plan the detachments, composed mostly of Poles coming from the disputed territories, led by General Lucjan Żeligowski, conducted a ‘mutiny’ and on 9 October 1920 took Vilna from the Lithuanians. Three days later General Żeligowski announced the establishment of the Republic of Central Lithuania, led by him. 70.6 percent of the nearly 500,000 people living there were Polish, while Lithuanians constituted only 13 percent of the population. In February 1922 the democratically elected Sejm of the Republic of Central Lithuania adopted a resolution declaring that the Vilna Region was unconditionally an integral part of the Republic of Poland. On 6 April 1922 the Legislative Sejm of the Republic of Poland ultimately incorporated those lands into Poland, while in March 1923 the Conference of Ambassadors recognized the eastern border of Poland and the fact that Vilna was Polish.

The formula of the separate state with the capital in Vilna was to make Lithuania accept Piłsudski’s federation conception, but the Lithuanians were completely against it. In the photograph Józef Piłsudski reviewing the military parade at the Cathedral Square in Vilna in 1922. (NAC)
General Lucjan Żeligowski. (Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London)

he whole city was teeming with enthusiasm. Everybody spilled onto the streets. Their singing, crying, and weeping could be heard all at once. The troops and inhabitants formed one great crowd. Everybody wished to tell somebody something or present them with something. The ranks came to a halt. People kissed the soldiers on the hands, hugged them and their horses.

Military parade on the streets of Vilna in 1922. (NAC)