Eastern border ideas

The combination of an upcoming heavy workload, a serious lack of money and the simple fact that I want to start experimenting with Borders ideas has led me to start looking for ideas closer to home. I’ve always been intrigued by a tiny part of Lithuania just southeast of Vilnius that’s shaped like the nub of a jigsaw piece and that slots neatly into the western part of Belarus. I’ve no idea if this tiny little area’s got a name or anything else about it for that matter, but I do know that the language spoken in the area is a peculiar dialect of Lithuanian, Polish and Belarusian. Looking at it in detail using the highly recommended www.viamichelin.com, the place has a handful of tiny tracks and two roads that cross over into Belarus (albeit neither of them actual border crossings). Doing a quick bit of research I found out that one of the area’s tiny villages, Poškonys, is noted for its well preserved, 19th-century main street. This small and possibly insignificant fact does at least give me an incentive to go and explore. I now need to get somebody interested enough to take me there in a car. I really do like the idea of marching into unknown territory with a half-baked plan. I also read that nearby, close to the small village of Merkinė (there are two Merkinės in Lithuania, this is the one to the east of the capital, not the larger town just north of Druskininkai) lies the remains of a manor house with a remarkable history. Covering an area of less than three square miles, this was the site of the so-called Pavlova Republic (Paulavos Respublika). Founded by a man by the name of Povilas Bžostovskis and lasting from 1769 until 1797, the Pavlova Republic broke away from traditional serfdom and introduced a radical system of governance that included its own president (none other than Mr Bžostovskis himself) and that even had its own flag and currency. The republic was officially recognised by the Lithuanian-Polish parliament, became relatively wealthy, and was finally wiped out by the third partition of the region by the Russians. Hopefully I can get to see all of this on Sunday. Watch this space.