Vilkaviškis
Encyclopedia
VilkaviškisVilkaviškis ' onMouseout='HidePop("37279")' href="/topics/Lithuania">Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

. It is located 25 km (15.5 mi) northeast from Marijampolė
Marijampole
Marijampolė is an industrial city and the capital of the Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad oblast, and Lake Vištytis. The population of Marijampolė is 48,700...

, on a bank of Šeimena River. The city got its name from the Vilkauja River, a tributary to Šeimena. Initially named Vilkaujiškis the name was later changed to an easier to pronounce form Vilkaviškis.

Until 1940 the city had a large Jewish Community which was annihilated by the Nazis and their local collaborators. The whole Jewish population was killed in a single day,(tzom-gedalia), after the entry of the Germans into the city.

Names

The names of the town as it is called or was formerly called in other languages spoken by non-Lithuanian ethnic groups which have lived or live in or around the town include: ; ; . Other spelling variants include Vilkavishkis and Wilkowyszki.

History

The town was granted city rights in 1670 by the King of Poland, Jan Kazimierz, which was one of the first times such privileges were granted to a place in Lithuania. The coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 of the town was most likely borrowed from the Pac family, as the head of the village at the time, Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac
Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac
Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac was the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.He was the brother of Michał Kazimierz Pac, the Great Lithuanian Hetman who sponsored St Peter and St Paul's Church in Vilnius, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture. After their deaths, the influence of the Pac family...

, was also the Chancellor of Lithuania.

It remained in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...

 until 1795 when, in the First Partition of Poland
First Partition of Poland
The First Partition of Poland or First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. Growth in the Russian Empire's power, threatening the Kingdom of Prussia and the...

 it became part of Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

 (the region in which the town is located was split between Prussia and Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

) until 1807. At this time the town was incorporated into the Duchy of Warsaw
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...

 and merged into the Białystok region. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815 the region switched hands again and became part of Russia, and then Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...

, as part of the Augustów
Augustów
Augustów is a town in north-eastern Poland with 29,600 inhabitants . It lies on the Netta River and the Augustów Canal. It is situated in the Podlaskie Voivodeship , having previously been in Suwałki Voivodeship . It is the seat of Augustów County and of Gmina Augustów.In 1970 Augustów became...

, and later Suwałki, district. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 the town was captured by German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 forces and held until 1918, when the place became part of independent Lithuania, on the basis of the Suwałki Agreement. During the interwar period a rail line was constructed running through nearby Marijampolė
Marijampole
Marijampolė is an industrial city and the capital of the Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad oblast, and Lake Vištytis. The population of Marijampolė is 48,700...

 which caused that town to become the regional center, replacing Vilkaviškis in its traditional role.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the control of the area fell to the Soviets
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, between 1940 and 1941, on the basis of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...

. In 1941 Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 attacked the Soviet Union, invaded Lithuania, and occupied the town. Between June and September 1941, the Germans, along with Lithuanian collaborators, destroyed almost all the houses in the town and murdered more than 3000 people, most of them Jews.
The city was the scene of a successful counter-attack by the German Panzer-Grenadier-Division Großdeutschland in the autumn of 1944 and the aftermath of the fighting was the scene of several propaganda photographs in which the name of the town was prominently featured. The town was captured by the Red Army in August 1944. After the war, it was part of the Lithuanian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...

 within the Soviet Union.
When Lithuania regained its independence in 1991, the town became the capital of the newly established Vilkaviškis district municipality
Vilkaviškis district municipality
Vilkaviškis district municipality is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania....

.

Notable people

The town and the surrounding district.
  • Vincas Kudirka
    Vincas Kudirka
    Vincas Kudirka was a Lithuanian poet and physician, and the author of both the music and lyrics of the Lithuanian National Anthem, Tautiška giesmė. He is regarded in Lithuania as a National Hero. Kudirka used pen names - V...

    , author of the Lithuanian National Anthem (born in nearby Paežeriai (Pojeziory)).
  • Jonas Basanavičius
    Jonas Basanavicius
    Jonas Basanavičius was an activist and proponent of Lithuania's National Revival and founder of the first Lithuanian language newspaper Aušra. He was one of the initiators and the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 1905 Congress of Lithuanians, the Great Seimas of Vilnius...

    , an activist of the Lithuanian National Revival
    Lithuanian National Revival
    Lithuanian National Revival, alternatively Lithuanian National Awakening , was a period of the history of Lithuania in the 19th century at the time when a major part of Lithuanian inhabited areas belonged to the Russian Empire...

    .
  • Marian Lalewicz
    Marian Lalewicz
    Marian Lalewicz - was a Polish architect and one of the main proponents of Academic classicism in interwar Poland.-Early life and studies:...

    , Polish architect
  • Sonia Gaskell (1904), dancer and choreographer

External links

Short history
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