| Popis: |
At the beginning of 1919, the Poles in South Suvalkija became more active. Supported by wealthy local landlords and the Warsaw authorities, they acquired weapons and other military ammunition. In the first half of January in 1919, A. Koc, the highest Polish POW commander, appointed officer A. Rudnicki as the head of the Sualkai and Kaunas POW districts. A. Koc provided A. Rudnicki with funds, instructions, secret publications, and instructors. After a month and a half, A. Rudnicki boasted of organizing over 1.200 partisans in Suvalkai County. A. Rudnicki preached to be Polish not only Lazdijai, Kalvarija, Serijai, but also Simnas districts. On August 22, 1919 Polish partisans (about 300 people armed with machine guns) attacked Seinai, but the city crew led by the commandant officer Stasys Asevičius, repelled the attack. Resented after a failed attack, the Polish partisans received support from the Polish army on August 23 and at 4 a.m. in the morning Seinai was attacked again. The persistent battle lasted up to 6 hours. The Lithuanians defending Seinai, seeing the city surrounded from the south and the north, retreated accurately towards Lazdijai. As they retreated to Lazdijai, the Seinai County commandant troops found out that the town had already been occupied by insurgent «peovics» («peovakai»), the Lithuanian militia had been disarmed, and important staff and public figures had been arrested. The Seinai Commandant troops under the lead of officer Stasys Asevičius attacked the «rebels» and, with the support of Lithuanian partisans, in two hours fought them out of Lazdijai. Three «peovics» were killed, and a dozen were injured. The Poles of the Simnas town organized their secret organization, the «Kuopa» («Crew»), secretly armed themselves, and prepared for the uprising in order to annex Užnemunė to Poland. They would come together at night, hold meetings, and wait for the opportunity to realize their ideas. . Particularly active were the Poles of the Kolonistai village at Simnas County. If the Polish upheaval in Simnas had succeeded, Jurgis Vaičiulionis would have been the Commandant, and Adomas Juknelevičius would have been the Captain. Konstantinas Paulauskas was to have been appointed as the Commandant of the Lazdijai town. The Seinai upheaval took place, and Seinai was annexed to Poland. However, the Lazdijai Poles were faster, and did not wait for the Polish army to arrive in Seinai, but occupied the town themselves, disarmed the local militia, occupied the post office and other offices. However, the soldiers of Lithuanian Armed Forces and local partisans quickly put an end to this upheaval. The documents and lists of the participants of the Polish «Kuopa» in Simnas were found in the beehive at Adomas Juknelis-Juknelevičius farmstead. The Lithuanian Central State Archive, the Lithuanian Armed Forces Prosecutor›s Office and the Armed Forces Court Funds preserved 2 files containing almost 400 pages of investigation, conviction and execution documents of the people accused of espionage against the Polish state in Alytus County, Simnas Township, as well as of those hiding and in search. After convicting the members of the Simnas Polish «Kuopa», anti-Lithuanian activities in the vicinity of Simnas ceased because local Poles realized that Simnas was their birthplace and Lithuania was their homeland. |
