Ethnic-demographic situation in Vilnius city: 1944–1951

The article analyses the demographic development of the city of Vilnius during the Stalin era; it focuses on the factors determining the demographic changes in Vilnius, the influence of the then social-economic processes (industrialization, collectivization, etc.) in the republic on the demography of Vilnius, the decisions taken by the Soviet government regarding the elimination of demographic problems in the capital (mobilization of residents, organised recruitment of labour force, etc.). In the second half of 1944 the central government of the USSR implemented radical demographic changes, the residents of Vilnius falling to their epicentre. The former citizens of Poland – Poles and Jews – had to take an immediate decision: whether to stay in the city and to create Soviet Vilnius or to depart to Poland. The majority of them chose (or were encouraged to choose) the latter alternative. The quantitative results of this process were striking: in 1945–1946 around 100,000 persons departed from the city, while over 100,000 new residents arrived in Vilnius. Vilnius turned from a multinational city dominated by Poles into a multinational Russian-Lithuanian city. The Polish residents who departed from Vilnius had to be replaced by Lithuanian residents from other counties in Lithuania. Such a decision was determined by objective factors – due to the war and repressive policy, the USSR faced huge demographic losses; therefore, the Lithuanian SSR had to rely on internal resources. However, the plan was realised only partially. The mass arrival of Lithuanians in Vilnius was mostly impeded by economic factors (poor living conditions in Vilnius, delayed payment of wages, shortage of foodstuffs, their high prices, etc.) and psychological obstacles (strong attachment to one’s land, unwillingness to refuse a more stable and richer life in one’s native land and to move to the city full of foreign-born residents). Nevertheless, owing to the same economic factors (more severe consequences of the war, famine, etc.) and the ethnic structure of the leadership of organisations in Vilnius (more persons from other places in the USSR), the residents from other Soviet republics moved to Vilnius and willingly settled down in the city. The result of these changes was 75% of residents of non-Lithuanian origin in Vilnius in 1951. The "Lithuanian part" of the party administrative government of the Lithuanian USSR was planning to embark on partial Lithuanization of the city and to strengthen the position of Lithuanians in Vilnius; however, in its understanding, the city had to maintain the status of a multinational city. The Lithuanization of the city was very gradual and was mostly driven by the general economic-social factors of the republic and the changes of the national policy