Poles in Lithuania and Latvia. Brothers who don’t know each other? / Script

● Oryginał w języku polskim pożę przeczytać here.
● Русский перевод is available here.

Today, the train from Vilnius runs four times a day, unfortunately without a connection to Daugavpils, as it was in pre-pandemic times. However, there are people in political circles who hope for the restoration of the Vilnius-Daugavpils railway connection.

If the Lithuanian railway line is extended, will the Poles of Daugavpils and Turmanta have a desire to cooperate more closely?

“The Polish Union of Lithuania (ZPL) and the Polish Union of Latvia (ZPŁ) are members of the Polish continental platform, the Union of European Polish Communities, where the leaders of national organizations can exchange opinions and outline strategic cooperation between member associations,” in an interview with rus.LSM. lv says Edwards Trusewicz, Vilnius City Council member, activist of the Polish community of the Vilnius region and vice-chairman of the Polish Union of Lithuania. “The Polish Union of Latvia and ZPL have similar goals, we also operate in similar conditions. Two branches of the Polish Union of Lithuania – in the cities of Visaginas and Zarasu with the headquarters in Turmant) – operate near Polish Inflantia,

therefore, geographical proximity leads to a natural need for cooperation,”

adds Trusevich, president of the European Union of Polish Communities (EUWP), which also includes Polish associations from Vilnius and Daugavpils, since 2022.

“The Union includes seven groups with a total of several dozen members,” rus.LSM.lv is told by Terese Narkiewicz, who has been living in Turmanta since 2004 and has been the chairman of the Polish Union of Zarasu for ten years. The headquarters of the organization is located in Turmant, because there are more Poles here, and there is also a Catholic church nearby, where masses are held in Polish (similarly, the headquarters of the Syrvinta branch, where there are relatively few Poles, is located in Jauniun).

“Once upon a time in Turmant, right after 1945, there was even a Polish school, but it was transformed into a Russian [skolu]and later on Lithuanian,”

sighs Narkeviča, whom I first contacted during the pandemic. I was interested in whether the pre-war Latvian Saeima member of Polish origin and chairman of the Polish Union of Latvia 1923-1931 has been preserved in the town. tombstone of Jarosław Wilpiszewski. Unfortunately, on the website of the Saeima of the Republic of Lithuania, we will not find information that Vilipiševskis died here in 1945, his tombstone has not yet been found, although many historical graves with Polish inscriptions have been preserved (currently, the majority of burials are in Lithuanian and Russian).

Together with Mrs. Narkevičas and Kristīna Kunicka, a citizen of Daugavpils, the secretary of the Polish Union of Latvia, whose headquarters is located in Daugavpils, on Varshavas street, in the middle of April we went to Turmant via Zarasie. Mrs. Tereza showed us her house, where she treated us to a delicious lunch and took us to the Polish cemeteries in the area. Together with him, we visited the closed Lithuanian school (during the pandemic, due to the small number of children, this problem affected many Lithuanian municipalities).

The building of the former Lithuanian school has now become a gathering place for Poles. In Turmant, they have their own small vocal ensemble “Srebrne pasemko” (“Silver strand”) (in turn, the choir “Promień” (Lat. Star) operates in Daugavpils). The ensemble sings not only Polish, but also Lithuanian, Belarusian, Russian, Jewish and Ukrainian songs. The collective is inclusive. Mrs. Vera, a Russian and an Old Believer, is also a member of the Turmant Ensemble and the Polish Union (it is worth mentioning that there is a delightful Old Believer prayer house in the town, which is a few steps away from the Catholic Church). It was for me that she performed the Jewish song “טום־באלאלאיקע” (“Tum-balalaika”), then the Ukrainian song “Калина” (“Irbene”), as well as Russian, Belarusian and Lithuanian songs.

The Turmant region, which belonged to the village of Smalva in Braslav County before the Second World War, has always been multicultural. Poles mixed here with Belarusians, Russians and Jews.

Right next to it was the Lithuanian border (Zarasi, then the capital of the county (now district), until 1939 was already on the Lithuanian side), on the other side – there was the station “Zemgale”, which has now been converted into a church, about which a Polish woman from Daugavpils, Wanda Baulina (Wanda Baulina). “It was done in violation of conservation regulations,” she laments and shares her family’s story: after the war, Mrs. Vanda’s family traveled by train from Daugavpils to Turmant, and then walked to their former property in Latvia.

Although Turmant is often forgotten in Vilnius by the “big activists”, as the boss Tereza Narkiewicz says, he is sometimes remembered in distant Poland. Recently, a delegation from the “Odra-Niemen” (“Odra-Nieman”) organization visited the headquarters of ZPL, which came from Warsaw with aid packages and good words. “Odra-Niemen” also helps Poles in Latvia. The organization recently visited Klaipėda and Liepaja, where they visited the organization “Wanda” (“Wanda”), which is headed by Rita Rozentāle from Liepaja.

“We know very little about each other, I almost never visit Daugavpils myself, but not only because neither my husband nor I drive a car anymore, but there is never such a need,”

admits Tereze Narkeviča, already thinking about whether it would be worth inviting Daugavpils to the August festival organized by the Polish Union.

“When I was young, I went to Turmant to change trains there,” says Kristīne Kunicka, “but I have never visited the local Poles,” she adds. However, now the secretary of the Latvian-Polish Union expresses his confidence: perhaps cooperation should be established not only with Turmant, but also with Visaginas, 18 kilometers away, which was once known for its nuclear power plant.

Poles also live in Visaginas, who won seats in the city council in 2023, representing a joint list of Poles and Russians.

They have been in the City Council for several convocations. The Poles of the Zarasu district have not yet managed to enter the district council. However, as Ms. Tereza emphasizes, “the main task of the Türmant branch of the Polish Union is the maintenance of culture, not involvement in politics.”

Pēteris Dzalbe (Daugavpils County Party), member of the Daugavpils City Council, executive director of the Upper Daugava County Municipality and chairman of the Polish Union of Latvia, is also convinced of the need for cooperation, who together with Kristīni Kuņicka plans to visit the Polish parade in Vilnius on May 4, right after the Polish holiday celebrations in Daugavpils. kEvery year on May 3 Constitution Day or the day before, a Polish march is organized along Warsaw Street. This is a special address for Poles in the heart of Daugavpils, near Baznīci hill. On Warsaw street, there is a Polish cultural center headed by Żanna Stankiewicz, as well as Juzef Pilsudski Daugavpils State Polish Gymnasium headed by Halina Leskowski, whose birthplace is also near the border of Turmant (territory that now belongs to Belarus).

On the other hand, in Vilnius, activists of the Lithuanian Polish Union chapters, including Poles from Turmant, will, as every year, march from the Vilnius Cathedral to the Dawn Gate. “Perhaps more people will come from Daugavpils,” expresses hope Kristīne Kunicka, who together with ZPŁ chairman Pēteri Dzalbi also visited Vilnius last year.

In May 2023, I asked the new chairman (in April 2023 he replaced another citizen of Daugavpils, Ryszard Stankiewicz) how he liked Vilnius, he answered: “I have visited this city many times, but it was the first time I took part in the poliskumas parade. I was very impressed.

In Daugavpils, we celebrate the Varshavas street festival, however, this event in the capital of Lithuania has a completely different scope, a different scale.

Poles come from all over the country to march together through the streets of the old town and pray at the Dawn Gate. A great highlight was, of course, the TDK “Mazowsze” (“Mazovše”) concert. Poles in Lithuania are very open and friendly. Next year, Poles from Latvia will definitely join the Polish parade in larger numbers,” Mr. Dzalbe said in an interview with “Kurier Wileński” (“Vilnius Courier”) in the spring of 2023.

***

It would definitely be worth getting to know Poles from Lithuania and Latvia better. These are neighboring countries where the fate of our ancestors in the 20th century was very similar, although, of course, not identical. Although the life of the Polish minority was active in both countries during the interwar period, after 1945 the situation changed. Polish schools still functioned in Lithuania, the newspaper “Czerwony Sztandar” (Lat. Red Flag) was published, and people had the opportunity to study Polish philology. In Latvia, the last Polish schools were closed in 1949, and Polish organizations did not exist until 1978, when the club “Polonez” (Latin Poloneze) was founded in Riga. In Lithuania, the Poles mostly kept the Polish language, but in Latvia it was different.

During the times of the USSR, the Poles of Riga envied their compatriots from Vilnius.

They subscribed to “Czerwony Sztandar” and eagerly awaited the performances of the Lithuanian Polish Theater on the stage of the capital of the Latvian SSR. Ita Kozakiewicz once went to Vilnius, who was well remembered by the Polish activist from Lithuania, Romualdas Miečkovskis, the publisher of the quarterly magazine “Znad Wilii” since 1989. Other Poles also visited Lithuania, Halina Drozdowska from the Riga branch of the Polish Union, Danuta Szawdyn and Beata Surgoft mentioned this in the conversation with me.

Currently, the idea that the Poles of the two countries should get to know each other is coming back more and more often (it should be added that the Vilnius-Riga train will start running in December, which can promote integration), it is supported, for example, by Jan Olszewski’s “Help for Poles in the East” foundation. The foundation attracted Lithuanian Poles in the film about Colonel Aleksandr Myszkowski (a Pole who, during his stay in Riga, made an important contribution to the development of Polish-Latvian relations.

Activists of the Union of European Polish Communities have good news: at the EPKS board meeting at the end of April, it is planned to create an invitation to member organizations to implement at least one event in cooperation with a Polish organization from a neighboring country in 2025.

Is Turmanta expecting guests from Daugavpils?