Did the Nations Inhabiting the „Taken Lands” of the Old Noble Polish Lithuanian Republic Want an Independent Poland?

The author presents the development of a national consciousness among peasant nationalities inhabiting eastern parts of pre-partition Poland. The rise of national identities of Belarusians, Lithuanians and Ukrainians led very often to anti-Polish sentiment and the elites of these nations did not identify with the Polish state. This fact, the author argues, was overlooked by Polish political elites who tended towards support for direct restoration of the Polish state’s 1772 borders.