MEDIA
Schools in Vilnius Region
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At the beginning of 1919, Lithuania became a unique country - it was left without its historic capital and for almost 20 years it lived in the hope of regaining it. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, which had occupied Vilnius. On 10 October of the same year, Vilnius was returned to Lithuania from the hands of Stalin. Lithuania lost territory when it regained Vilnius, getting back only one-fifth of the Vilnius region.

In 1935, Lithuanian schools in the Vilnius region were being closed down and planned to be replaced by 100 Polish Jozef Pilsudski schools, with the 100th primary school being opened in Bezdonys.
The 40th school in the plan of 100 schools was the Liepkalnis Primary School in Vilnius, at that time named after Jozef Pilsudski. It was the most modern building in the city at the time, and it introduced another innovation: girls and boys were studying together. The school has an authentic parquet floor.
In Vilnius, we will visit our contemporary Dr Julius Šalkauskas, a Sea Scout, philosopher and educator. His grandmother Barbora Goštautaitė spoke Polish and would say, “Julius, don’t think that we are Poles, even though we speak Polish, we are all Lithuanians.”

Vilnius Antakalnis School (1930, architect Stefan Narębski) was called the House of Primary Schools in the interwar period and consisted of the General Lucjan Żeligowski school for boys and the poet Władysław Syrokomla school for girls. The two schools were connected by a common sports hall built in the middle. The entrances were decorated with Baroque portals similar to those in the Sapieha Palace. The Antakalnis apartment complex (architect Vaičiakovski, 1932), thought to have been built for military officers. This type of housing has opened up the possibility for middle-income earners to live in good conditions.
What people say
from the eye and from the heart
Dr Michał Pszczółkowski,
architectural historian
Modernist architects thought that innovation in architecture and easy maintenance of the facade were important, so the facade of Liepkalnis Primary School had no sculptures, which would collect dust and dirt.
Dr Julius Šalkauskas,
son of Stasys Šalkauskis
Even my father wrote that Kaunas was better prepared for the role of capital than Vilnius under Polish rule, as Vilnius was a provincial city and not as important to the Polish people.
Dr Kastytis Antanaitis,
historian, VMU
The overall average number of illiterate people in Poland and Lithuania in 1923 was almost the same - 33%. Unlike in Lithuania, every second soldier in the Polish army was illiterate at the time of the Wars of Independence. So there they learned how to shoot and to read.
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