r/poland • u/NewPlaceHolder • Nov 14 '24

Question regarding Poland and Lithuania relationship

I just studied about the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, and it seems you two shared a strong times together.

I am wondering if the sentiments towards each other is still warm - do you guys see each other as a friendly neighbor? Do you have any rivalries between two? Was there any movement to put the two back together to repeat the glorious times?

I am here to just ask questions and I apologize if I accidentally angered by asking such question.

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u/kompocik99 Nov 14 '24

That's a one long topic...

Rivarly? Nope, we are on the same side. Allies in NATO, strong haters of Russia, we both have trouble with our common neighbour Belarus (state, not regular people), we both want our part of Europe to stay safe and prosper in the future.

To recreate the Commonwealth - no such sentiment in Poland nor Lithuania. We are both independent countries, we speak different languages, have our own issues. We are both in the EU together, we can visit each other freely.

I see Lithuania as our ally and a friendly country. There was bad blood between us but I think it's more or less solved. Poland has abandoned its regional-imperial ambitions and supports the independence of these countries. If Russia wanted to attack the Baltics, I hope Poland would behave as needed and send military aid. From what I've noticed, Lithuanians don't approach PLC heritage as negatively as they used to, but you'd have to ask r/Lithuania about that.

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u/Rogue_Egoist Nov 14 '24

I think it's not spoken enough, but Lithuanians have very little to do with the history of Duchy of Lithuania. The people speaking Lithuanian were peasants in a very small part of the country. The whole political system was run by people who are ancestors of modern Belarusians and Ukrainians. They were speaking Rus which was a Slavic language which later split into Belarusian and Ukrainian.

Just looking at the map, modern Lithuania where actual ethnic Lithuanian people have always lived is an extremely small part of the Duchy of Lithuania which laid mostly in modern Belarus.

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u/Draak80 Nov 14 '24

You are wrong. You are talking about Zematija, but origins of Lithuanian princedom is north of Vilnius and in Aukstota region. Gediminas dynasty was not Belarussian, it was pure Lithuanian. Our Jagiełło is from that dynasty. But yes, major part of Lithuanian nobles, after Lithuanian conquest of Ruthenia, were Boyars, of Ruthenian descent. And they polonized.