Republic of Central Lithuania

The Republic of Central Lithuania, commonly known as the Central Lithuania, and the Middle Lithuania, was an unrecognized short-lived puppet republic of Poland, that existed from 1920 to 1922. It was founded on 12 October 1920, after Żeligowski's Mutiny, when soldiers of the Polish Army, mainly the 1st Lithuanian–Belarusian Infantry Division under Lucjan Żeligowski, fully supported by the Polish air force, cavalry and artillery, attacked Lithuania. It was incorporated into Poland on 18 April 1922. Centered around Vilnius, the historical capital of Lithuania, for 18 months the entity served as a buffer state between Poland, upon which it depended, and Lithuania, which claimed the area. The republic had some features of a state administration, but actually was an imitation of a sovereign state which repressed Lithuanian organizations, education, censored and suspended Lithuanian publications. This territory was a means of pressure on Lithuania as Poland tried to trade the Lithuanian capital to Lithuania in return for the dependence of re-emerged Lithuania (proposal of union between the two states) or surrender to Poland (proposal of autonomy for Lithuania within Polish borders). After a variety of delays, a disputed election took place on 8 January 1922, and the territory was annexed to Poland. Initially, the Polish government denied that it was responsible for the false flag action, but the Polish leader Józef Piłsudski subsequently acknowledged that he personally ordered Żeligowski to pretend that he was acting as a mutinous Polish officer. The Polish–Lithuanian borders in the interwar period, while recognized by the Conference of Ambassadors of the Entente and the League of Nations, were not recognized by Kaunas-based Republic of Lithuania until the Polish ultimatum of 1938. In 1931 an international court in The Hague stated that the Polish seizure of the city had been a violation of international law, but there were no significant political repercussions. History