Why was Vilnius majority Polish speaking before WW2?

by jigglysquishy

The 1931 Polish census has 60% being Polish with another 30% being Jewish. Less than 10% were Lithuanian. Vilnius was the capital of Lithuania for 600 years at that point. Why did Poles so greatly outnumber the Lithuanians in their own capital?

Mr_GlaS5

Because there was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was established in 1569 and lasted (nominally) to 1795. This Union essentially joined not only those two aforementioned kingdoms; but it encompassed Białoruś (Belarus), Ukrainę (Ukraine), and so on. As a result, Polish became the most-spoken language within the Commonwealth; thus, over time, people merely stuck with what worked for them.