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In this video I explore why Lithuania controls a strange enclave that extends deep into Belarus, known as Dieveniškės. This unusual border has a rich backstory tied to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and later, the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Union. After being assigned to the Byelorussian SSR in 1939, the area was transferred to the Lithuanian SSR in 1940 - partly due to local Lithuanian officials lobbying for the change based on the area's ethnic makeup and historical ties although a local legend claims Stalin’s smoking pipe accidentally shaped the border during a meeting, and no one dared to move it off the map, drawing around it. Today, Dieveniškės remains Lithuanian and might be a good introduction into a potential claim for Lithuania's territorial expansion into the rest of the Vilnius region - now ruled by Belarus - but historically their territory.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Lithuania's (Not So) Strange Border
01:15 The Origins of Dieveniškės
02:02 The Grand Duchy of Lithuania
02:36 Old Jewish Population
03:13 The Partitions of Poland-Lithuania
03:37 Interwar Lithuania & Poland
04:01 German & Soviet Occupations During WW2
04:39 WorldAnvil
06:17 Soviet Population Displacements & Belorussian Annexation
06:28 How Dieveniškės Became Lithuanian Again
08:03 Transfer of the Territory
09:09 How Is It Today?
10:05 A Town Where Time Stands Still?
10:18 And... It's Inhabited By Polish People?
10:43 Previous Polish Occupation of Vilnius
11:47 Should Lithuania Regain ALL of Vilnius?
13:00 Summary & Patreon Credits
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