= East Lusatia =
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Name: (Eastern) Republic of Lusatia (German: Republik Lausitz; Lower Sorbian: Republika Łužyca; Upper Sorbian: Republika Łužica; Polish: Republika Łużyce, informally often in English: Transnissia)
Short form: Lower Sorbian: Łužyca; Upper Sorbian: Łužica; Polish: Łużyce Capital: Budyšin (claimed), Zhorjelc (seat of the parliament)
Official languages: Sorbian (Lower & Upper; Upper Sorbian has been used almost exclusively, though communication in Sorbian is rare), Polish (de facto working language of the country)
Government: Parliamentary republic
President: Rafael Gronič
Established: 1945 (independence of Lusatia), 1948 (People’s republic of Lusatia proclaimed)
Population: 20000 (2012 estimate)
Area: 2080 km²
Currency: Polish złoty (currency union with Poland)
Time zone: CET
Drives on the: right
Calling code: +48 75 (integrated with the telephone numbering plan of Poland) ISO 3166 code: LW
Internet TLD: .lw (.pl is often used as well)
== Modern History ==
During the Yalta Conference, the allies agreed upon the creation of an independent Lusatia under the "protection and patronage" of
Czechoslovakia. The borders were provisionally drawn according to the
proposal of Jan Cyž, the leader of the Sorbian National Council in
exile, and his collaborator Jan Meškank. The proposal, which may have
been over-optimistic, included a narrow strip on the right bank of the
river Neisse, an area historically belonging to Lusatia but with very
few, if any, Sorbian inhabitants. The borders remained largely unchanged
after the end of World War II, with only minor adjustments.
Following the end of the war, the re-established Czechoslovak government expressed, at best, lukewarm support for the Lusatian case, and Lusatia
was set up on the path towards complete independence. Located between Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Soviet occupation zone and the US occupation
zone, it soon became the focus of a political battle over the influence
over the small country.
The right bank of the river was initially occupied by the Red Army and
later by the Polish army, in accordance with the Yalta agreements.
Initially, there was no internal division of the country. However, in
1948, when it became obvious the USSR and the USA would remain enemies
and Germany would remain divided, the People’s Republic of Lusatia was proclaimed. It was led by Pawoł Nowotny and controlled only the right
bank of the river Neisse. Initially recognized only by the USSR and
their aligned countries, the republic remained firmly under Polish
control ever since.
In 1951, the treaty of mutual friendship and cooperation with Poland was signed, effectively making the country a protectorate of Poland -
border controls were abolished and Poland assumed responsibility for
defense. This was followed by a full custom and monetary union in 1952,
along with mutual recognition of identification documents, education
degrees and other certificates.
The rise of Solidarność, the end of communist rule in Poland, the reunification of Germany and the breakup of the Soviet Union initially
had no impact on the politics of East Lusatia; there was no revolution,
no public protests, the government continued to espouse socialist
rhetorics, seemingly paying no attention to the events in the outside
world. However, its ability to control information flow and movement of
the population stopped, but only gradually the grip of the Lusatian
Workers’ Party on the society diminished, under pressure from the Polish government. The first free multiparty elections were held in 1997 (unsurprisingly, during the economic crisis, the LWP won the majority
anyway, but had to create a coalition government and ease restrictions).
Only after the turn of the 21st century did private businesses begin to
thrive. Nevertheless, the economy remains heavily subsidized and reliant
on monetary and goods (such as oil and natural gas) support from Poland.
By today, East Lusatia is a part of Poland in all but name. Majority of
the inhabitants are native Polish speakers (and almost universally dual
Polish citizens), and the common derogatory term in Poland for the
country is “Łużycka gmina”.
= Language =
While the official language is Sorbian (in both variants, Upper and
Lower), the everyday language is Polish. Sorbian (Upper) is spoken
mostly by elderly people. Younger generation uses Polish almost
exclusively, and whatever Sorbian they may speak is heavily Polonized.
The East Lusatia had practically zero native Sorbian speakers in 1948
(mostly officials, teachers and their families coming from the western
part of Lusatia). This was followed by forcible expulsion of Germans,
which resulted in significant depopulation. It is estimated that up to
three quarters of the population either fled before the end of WWII or
were expelled before 1948. Those who chose to remain and spoke any scrap
of any Slavic language claimed to be Lusatian, but German still remained
the majority language, albeit discouraged. However, the subsequent
influx of Polish settlers (mainly from areas annexed by the Soviet
Union) definitely shifted the linguistic balance away from German, but
in favour of Polish as the dominant language.
Officially, the laws and other government decrees are published in
Sorbian, with the Polish versions considered to be unofficial
translations. However, in practice, the “official '' Sorbian texts were riddled with polonisms and numerous grammatical errors and mistakes ever
since the 1970s, presumably after the last native speakers of the
translation office retired - though, the language quality tremendously
improved after 1990. A minor scandal erupted when it was discovered that
the Office of the Parliament and other government bodies were submitting
drafts of documents in Polish to an officially procured translation
agency, and the agency was “outsourcing” the translations to West
Lusatian companies, while charging many times the real expenses to the government, routinely submitting confidential and even secret documents
to West Lusatian companies. A financial connection of the company to the minister of interior has been rumoured, but no official investigation
ever took place and no one has been charged. However, as a consequence,
the parliament and the government “temporarily” stopped publishing texts
in Sorbian, continuing exclusively in Polish - and with this, Sorbian disappeared almost completely from public life. Even Telewizja Serbska
switched almost completely to broadcasting in Polish, with Sorbian
pressent only in sporadic movies and soap operas imported from West
Lusatia (Polish TV dominates the local market anyway).
= International Relations =
East Lusatia maintains embassies in 67 countries, though they are often collocated with the Polish embassies. Foreign policy always closely
followed the Polish one, with the exception of the years 1989 - 1997,
where Lusatia started to follow increasingly isolationist policy,
reversed only after the 1997 elections. The country is not a member of
the EU, but it is governed by separate treaties regulating its status,
and thanks to close integration of the economy with Poland, the
inhabitants practically do not see a difference. The country is the
member of the UN and other international organizations (though often
delegating execution of the membership to Poland, thus effectively
giving Poland two votes) and by the second half of the 20th century it
was diplomatically recognized by all the sovereign countries in the
world (with the exception of West Lusatia). The visa policies for
Lusatians usually mirror those appliled to Polish citizens.
Although both East and West Lusatia never stopped to declare their
desire to reunify (and claim the territory of the whole Lusatia), the
popular support is just not there - Polish speaking East Lusatian
inhabitants do not particularly wish to become citizens of a
German-Sorbian speaking country that has been separated by the Iron
Curtain for decades, and West Lusatians have no desire to annex small
strip of land with no economy value and a few thousands of Poles. Thus
the countries will probably remain separated for a foreseeable future.
Thanks to EU’s open borders and free movement of people and services,
this is not an important issue anymore.
--
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| Radovan Garabík
http://kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk/~garabik/ |
| __..--^^^--..__ garabik @ kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk |
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