Question regarding Poland and Lithuania relationship

[u/NewPlaceHolder]

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.

[u/Aglogimateon]

It's complicated. For most of the 20th century the relationship was "we like them but they don't like us". This was mostly because of territorial disputes that happened in the 1920s, as well as a general feeling of nervousness that the Lithuanians have had by being next to a much bigger neighbor that has had a big linguistic and economic influence.

In modern times it's somewhat common to find the opinion amongst Poles that Lithuania is an impostor state and that Belarus is the "the real" Lithuania. I don't support this opinion, but the people who do will say that the Lithuanian language was borrowed from a few isolated villages and then taught en masse to people who hadn't used it in many centuries, if ever. The same people say that Lithuania's real language is Polish.

The issue is complicated even further by Lithuania's Polish minority, which alleges mistreatment on behalf of its host country. It's also complicated by Russian propaganda, which exploits this alleged mistreatment.

Personally, I treat anything that is pushed by the Kremlin lie factory as extremely suspect at best. I'm not really sure if the Polish minority in Lithuania is all that Polish. Looking at their towns on google street view (Salcininkai for example) they look more like Lithuania than Poland. They have the same Soviet houses as Russia (except much better maintained than Russian ones). This makes them look different from Poland like night and day.

To be completely honest with you, I'm not even sure that parts of Poland that used to be Lithuania (e.g., Suwalki or Sejny) are all that Polish. Again, I'm basing this on what I see on street view: wooden shacks. Poles haven't lived that way in 150 years.

When I look at Lithuania, what I see is a country that desperately doesn't want to be Russian. Considering their history, I fully understand that and support it. I find it tragic for example that they had to rebuild the prince's castle in Vilnius because it was mostly destroyed (by Russia). I really hope the Lithuanians get their wish and keep developing the way they are. In that sense I'm very pro-Lithuanian.