History

According to a source from the Middle Ages, the Sejny region was part of the so-called terra Sudinorum or Sudorum. Its inhabitants were defined by the name Sudav or Jacwing. They were tribes of Western Balts closely related to the Prussians and Lithuanians. They were engaged in a constant battle with the Russians and Poles, but were ultimately defeated by the Teutonic Knights at the end of the 13th century.

The start of the planned settlement reaches as far back as the time of Zygmunt Stary. It proceeded from two directions: from the north (the Lithuanian colonization) and from the south (the Polish colonization). The border of that settlement ran through the Sejny region, which, with some diminishing of the area of the Lithuanian settlement, lasted until today. 

The Polish and Lithuanian states, which were resurrected after the First World War, used force to arbitrate the matter of ownership of the Sejny lands. Sejny itself changed hands 11 times. 

The state border that was established after the First World War on the Sejny lands was upheld, in principle, until after the Second World War. Because of this, a significant part of the population of the today’s districts of Puńsk, Sejny and Szypliszki have become Lithuanian.

Józef Sygit Forencewicz, Litwini: Katalog Miejsko-Gminnego Ośrodka Kultury (Lithuanians: Catalogue of the municipal-county cultural center), Sejny 1989