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Imagining Ethnic Democracy: Polish Minority's Response to the Governance of the Lithuanian State

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Imagining Ethnic Democracy: Polish Minority's Response to the Governance of the Lithuanian State Imagining Ethnic Democracy: Polish Minority's Response to the Governance of the Lithuanian State By Karolis Dambrauskas Submitted to Central European University Nationalism Studies Program In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Advisor: Professor András Kovács Second reader: Professor Luca Váradi CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There is a number of people without whose help this thesis would not have seen the light of day. Therefore, these few humble lines of gratitude are dedicated to: András Kovács and Luca Váradi – my two supervisors – for their numerous comments, remarks, advises, suggestions and support. Sanjay Kumar – for his numerous help in language issues and friendship. My friends and family in Lithuania, whom I have left for these two years of studies abroad. My girlfriend Csilla – for patience and love. My friends from CEU – I have learned from you a lot. Special thanks also go to: My aunt and her family – for accepting me in her house for a month-long stay during my fieldwork in Vilnius. Andrzej Pukszto - my former teacher at Vytautas Magnus University – for his assistance and help in writing this thesis. Lithuanian Armed Forces – for helping to organise interviews with soldiers of Polish origins. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all of my interviewees, who kindly agreed to participate in this study. CEU eTD Collection ii ABSTRACT This thesis analyses the governance of national minorities in Lithuania and asks how members of Lithuanian Polish minority go about living in an ethno-democratic Lithuanian state. In Lithuania tensions between dominant and minority ethnic groups are caused not by what the state does, but rather by what it doesn't. Solutions for the minority rights related problems have been delayed for years. This poses the questions – how the conflict between Lithuanian ethnic majority and Polish ethnic minority is managed and prevented from turning into its hot stage and how the stability of the state's ethno-democratic regime is sustained? Based on an ethnographic field research with a combination of participant observations and interviews conducted with members of Polish minority in several Lithuanian towns and Vilnius during the period of January and later in March and May 2016, this thesis finds that the ambiguity of Lithuanian ethno-democratic regime is reflected in the lives of the members of Polish minority. The thesis also shows that although members of the minority explain this ambiguity in a different way and therefore undertake different strategies for the improvement of minority situation, they identify themselves with the Lithuanian state. The thesis provides a ground for the further argument that perceived common threats are used to negotiate the state's ambiguous posture vis a vis its national minorities and to persuade the state to take a more active and effective stance in terms of the protection of minority rights. CEU eTD Collection iii Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................................1 1.1. The Lithuanian State and its Polish Minority..........................................................................................................1 1.2. Vilnija/Wilenszczyzna Region: Historical Background and the Region's People...................................................3 1.3. Approach and Structure............................................................................................................................................7 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK..................................................................................................................................10 2.1. Minorities' Governance in CEE: Multiculturalism v. Nationalising Nationalism.................................................10 2.2. The Model of Ethnic Democracy...........................................................................................................................11 2. 3. Analytics of Ethno-democratic Governance.........................................................................................................15 2.4 The State as an Analytical Concept.........................................................................................................................19 2.5 The Nation-State as an Object of Ethnographic Inquiry.........................................................................................21 3. CONTEXT......................................................................................................................................................................25 3.1. Deconstructing the Governance of Poles in Lithuania...........................................................................................25 3.2. Re-establishing Independence of the Lithuanian Nation State..............................................................................25 3. 3. 1st Period – “For Sacred Peace's Sake”. The Law On Ethnic Minorities v. the Law on State Language.............28 3.4. Second stage. Co-optation and European Norms...................................................................................................33 3. 5. The Third Stage. Ignoring.....................................................................................................................................37 3. 5. 1 Minority's Linguistic Rights..............................................................................................................................38 3. 5. 2 Minority's Education..........................................................................................................................................40 3.5.3 Techniques. Governing Indirectly........................................................................................................................43 3. 5. 4 Technique/rationale – Argumentum ad Sovieticum............................................................................................45 3. 6 The Fourth Stage. The Post-Maidan Period, Securitization and a Shift Towards a Civic Definition of the State.48 3. 6. Structural v. Direct Discrimination and Research Questions................................................................................52 4. METHODOLOGY.........................................................................................................................................................55 5. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................62 CEU eTD Collection 5.2 Perceiving the Ethno-democratic (Ambiguous) Governance.................................................................................62 5.2.1 The State-effect in Minority Education................................................................................................................63 5. 3 Responses to the Ethno-democratic Ambiguity.....................................................................................................74 5.4 Negotiating the State's Ambiguous Governance.....................................................................................................81 5. 5 Discussion..............................................................................................................................................................89 iv 7. CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................................................94 BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................................................................96 APPENDIX 1...................................................................................................................................................................100 CEU eTD Collection v ABBREVIATIONS APL – Association of Poles in Lithuania EAPL – Electoral Alliance of Poles in Lithuania EU – European Union NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization PDC – Polish Discussion Club CEU eTD Collection vi 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. The Lithuanian State and its Polish Minority Lithuania is a young state. Its young age allows one to study how the state develops. Such development can be measured from various perspectives, i.e. in terms of its political or cultural achievements. The relation ethnic minorities have created for themselves through various encounters with their home state can also be among the possible perspectives studying this development. From the first sight, relations between Lithuanians and Lithuanian Poles seem to be of a typical kind in case of a post-totalitarian, democratising, Central and Eastern European nation-state – an ethnic majority attempts to dominate over an ethnic minority. Tensions between the majority and minority groups are mostly generated by political actors from both sides: 'Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania' (EAPL) – an ethnic party representing the Lithuanian Poles – and its supporters, are accused of being disloyal to the state, while EAPL's accusations mostly relate to the state's assimilationist policies. Unlike other political parties in Lithuania, EAPL is openly Euro-sceptic and... pro-Russian, which adds fuel to the fire and sparkles discussions about the minority's loyalty to the state. The party has been governing (on the level of self-government) the country’s
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