The English-language edition of Lithuanian news portal 15min.lt
features an interview with Lithuanian historian Šarūnas Liekis,
examining the controversial person of Polish general Lucjan
Želigowski. In 1920, Želigowski staged a coup that led to the
annexation of Vilnius–now the Lithuanian capital, at the time
part of a largely Polish-populated region–into Second Republic
Poland. Liekis suggests that Želigowski was acting as a
Lithuanian–the only dispute related to questions of identity.
Was Lithuania the nation-state of the ethnic Lithuanians, or was
Lithuania inheritor of the multiethnic (and largely Polish-
speaking) Grand Duchy of Lithuania federated with Poland? -
Želigowski’s name still sounds odious to Lithuanian ears, since
it is associated with the loss of Vilnius in 1920. Who is this
man and what was his connection to Lithuania? - Želigowski’s was
an old family coming from Ashmyany (currently part of Belarus),
its roots go back to the 16th century. An entry from 1623 in
Lithuanian chronicles reads: “