 In the same year, about 60–70% of rural Polish community chose Polish.However, even in towns with predominantly Polish population the share of Polish language education was less than the percentage of Poles.Even though, historically, Poles tended to strongly oppose Russification, one of the most important reasons to choose Russian language education was the absence of Polish language college and university learning in the USSR, and during Soviet times Polish minority students in Lithuania were not allowed to get college/university education across the border in Poland.