Surrounded by Germans, the Wendish colony is doomed to disappear in spite of a literary renascence which helps to perpetuate national consciousness in its midst. According to statistics, the number of Wends is steadily declining. The progress of Germanization is particularly apparent in Lower Lusatia, which is part of the Prussian domain. It was estimated in 1885 that this people comprised about 176,000 souls. Later computations place this figure at about 156,000. The absence of an intellectual class among them, compulsory military service in German regiments and the use of the German language in church favor the progress of Teutonism.[127] The want of linguistic unity among the Wends also tends to weaken their position. Idiomatic differences between the languages of Upper and Lower Lusatia are such as to prevent the natives of the respective districts from rendering themselves intelligible to one another. The literary language of Kottbus differs from that of Bautzen. Diversity of customs and institutions is also noticeable between the two groups. German ideas increase this cultural split, the divergence from Slavic institutions and thought thus becoming accentuated. Unlike the Masurians, and because of their isolation, the Wends cannot look to eventual incorporation with the Polish body. Their political destiny is therefore distinct from that of the Poles. We have seen in this chapter that although conquered and divided Poland still lives. A compact mass of over 20,000,000 individuals speaking the same language is a force which cannot but make itself felt. This main body of Poles resides within its own linguistic boundaries. Smaller colonies are found outside these limits. The Polish inhabitants of Lithuania and Ukraine muster about 2,000,000. Vilna alone, the capital of Lithuania, has a population of 70,000 Poles out of a total of 170,000 inhabitants.[128] The Polish colonies of Ukraine, of the coal-fields of the Donetz, and of the Caucasus comprise wealthy landholders, manufacturers, bankers and merchants. These men though living outside the ethnographic boundaries of their people nevertheless exercise the weight of their influence on its behalf. Thus the three groups into which conquest has divided the Poles remain today in intimate contact in spite of the political boundaries which separate them. It is mainly in the economic field that binding ties have been established between the three, for the Poles of the three continental empires have made it a point to promote trade relations with one another. This was forging a new link to their pre-existing natural ties of kinship.