Litwa (newspaper)

Litwa (transl. Lithuania) was a Polish-language newspaper edited and published by Mečislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis in Vilnius, then part of the Russian Empire, from July 1908 to May 1914.

It was published monthly in 1908, every two weeks in 1909–1912, and weekly in 1913–1914. The newspaper was mainly directed to the Polish-speaking Lithuanian nobles who maintained the dual Polish-Lithuanian identity and sought to involve them in the Lithuanian National Revival.^[1] Lithuanian activists believed that the nobles were Lithuanians who "forgot" their Lithuanian roots and heritage and needed to be "returned" to the Lithuanian nation.^[2] The newspaper supported the concept of the ethnographic Lithuania and fiercely criticized ideas about recreating the old Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Polish National Democracy.^[3] More practically, Litwa also wrote on how to address the Polonization of Vilnius and Vilna Governorate. This later led to the establishment of a separate Polish-language magazine Lud targeting the Polish-speaking peasants living in the area. The newspaper did not become a catalyst for polemic discussions and did not generate any new ideas. It mainly translated and reflected ideas propagated by the Lithuanian Christian Democrats and Nationalist Democrats [lt].^[4] It failed to attract and retain interest of Polish groups, the Krajowcy, or activists of the Belarusian National Revival. The newspaper was discontinued due to low readership and financial difficulties in May 1914.