Both governments – in the era nationalism swept through Europe – treated their respective minorities harshly during the interwar period. In interwar Lithuania, people declaring Polish ethnicity were officially described as Polonized Lithuanians who needed to be re-Lithuanized, Polish-owned land was confiscated, Polish religious services, schools, publications and voting rights were restricted. According to the Lithuanian census of 1923 (not including Vilnius and Klaipėda regions), there were 65,600 Poles in Lithuania (3.2% of the total population). Although according to Polish Election Committee in fact the number of Poles was much higher, about 10% of total population, this number was based on election results. Many Poles in Lithuania were signed in as Lithuanians in their passports, and as a result, they also were forced to attend Lithuanian schools. While the number of Polish language schools in Lithuania increased from 20 to 30 from 1920 to 1923, and to 78 in 1926, they decreased to 9 by 1940. After the establishment of Valdemaras regime in 1926, 58 Polish schools were closed, many Poles were incarcerated, and Polish newspapers were placed under strict censorship. Polish government, on the other hand, increased the Polish presence in the Vilnius region. Lithuanian cultural activities in Polish controlled territories were curtailed and closure of Lithuanian newspapers and the arrest of their editors occurred (particularly in the period 1920–1922). In 1927, as tensions between Lithuania and Poland increased, 48 Lithuanian schools were closed and another 11 Lithuanian activists were deported. Following Piłsudski's death in 1935, the Lithuanian minority in Poland again became an object of Polonization policies with greater intensity. 266 Lithuanian schools were closed after 1936 and almost all Lithuanian organizations were banned. Further Polonization ensued as the government encouraged settlement of Polish army veterans in the disputed regions.