Migruojantis Vilnius: 1915-1994 metai

LTKnygoje aptariamas Vilniaus ir vilniečių aštuoniasdešimties metų gyvenimo tarpsnis. Miestiečių likimus daugiau ar mažiau veikė emigracijos iš miesto ir imigracijos j jį, pradedant masine evakuacija iš Vilniaus Pirmojo pasaulinio karo pradžioje (1915) ir baigiant reemigracija pirmaisiais atkurtos Lietuvos nepriklausomybės metais (1994). Sostinės gyventojams teko patirti tiek priverstinių (tremtinių, kalinių ir kt.), tiek savanoriškų (darbo, demobilizacijos, šeimos susijungimo ir pan.) migrantų dalių. Vis dėlto būtent migracijos lėmė, kad šiandien Vilnius yra toks, koks yra - daugiatautis, įvairioms kultūroms ir patirtims atviras didmiestis. [Anotacija knygoje]

ENFor centuries, migration processes have played a significant role in the life of Vilnius. Even the first mention of Vilnius in 1323 refers to the importance of the movement of people for the city and looks forward to the arrival of new Vilniusites. Migration processes in the city intensified in times of political change (wars, uprisings, revolutions, etc.) or social cataclysms (fires, famines, disease outbreaks, etc.). With each passing century, the importance and significance of migration has increased. It was perhaps in the twentieth century that this had the strongest impact on the city's community. That was when not just thousands but tens and even hundreds of thousands of people were caught up in the whirl of migration. At the centre of this maelstrom were the inhabitants of Vilnius who more than once were in the focus of interest for several countries. These interests led to the deformation and re-creation of the identity of the Vilniusites. The most drastic changes took place during the Second World War and the early post-war years, when the city lost almost all of its former inhabitants. Paradoxically, it was migration that facilitated the growth of the city and its social environment. In the twentieth century, Vilnius went through several major transformations: first it was a city of a guberniya of the tsarist empire, then it became a city on the outskirts of Poland (with much higher ambitions to be seen as the country's cultural capital), and, finally, the actual capital. For some groups of the residents of Vilnius, for example, Jews, Vilnius was a world-class city of special significance. It was also equally special or unique for Lithuanians, Poles, and Belarusians. Vilnius has always attracted people. Therefore, there was no shortage of people who wanted to be residents of this city. However, not everyone's wishes were granted.The study aims at showing the dynamics and results of migratory processes in Vilnius between the 1910s and 1990s, that is, starting with the major evacuation of the inhabitants of Vilnius to the east during the First World War and ending with the process of Soviet re-emigration during the early years of the re-established independence of Lithuania. It is therefore not too bold to say that during the period discussed, migration was the key factor in the demographic change of Vilnius and that all political systems used it as an instrument for political or social-economic purposes. They were particularly widely used by the Soviet authorities in organising or provoking large-scale coercive actions. It should be stressed, though, that this migratory ‘instrument’ did not always work in line with the intentions and wishes of its planners. It often had the side effect’ of creating new demographic problems in Vilnius, which were again addressed by migration. Between 1915 and 1994, there were two phases ofintensive emigration from Vilnius and immigration to the city: (1) 1915-1922, when the First World War led to the evacuation of around 40 % of the residents of Vilnius to the east and the return of around half of them in the first post-war years. The movement of the residents of Vilnius in various directions was also considerably intensified by the 1918-1921 war between Poland and Bolshevik Russia, and the struggle between Lithuania and Poland for the city; (2) The Second World War and the early post-war years were the time of the biggest population shift in Vilnius: the old inhabitants, of whom hardly any remained in the city, were replaced by the new Vilniusites from Lithuanian villages and various regions of the Soviet Union. This was the result of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and the plan of the Soviet authorities to homogenise the western territories of the Soviet Union (with Vilnius at its centre).According to that plan, the ethnic composition of Vilnius was to change significantly: the number of Poles was to drop and that of Lithuanians to rise. This was done by means of a relocation campaign officially known as evacuation or repatriation. It was to take place in autumn 1944 and end in 1945. It was estimated that around 50,000 Polish residents of Vilnius would express their wish to move from Vilnius to Poland, which found itself in a new geographical space. However, the Soviet planners of the Vilnius resettlement campaign ‘miscalculated’: twice as many people left for Poland as expected (the plan was to resetde about 50 % of the city's population, but actually 80 %, i. e., about 90,000 people, left). It should be noted that the current demographic situation of Vilnius has been shaped by the multidirectional migrations of the second half of the twentieth century. In the early post-war years (1946-1948), the ‘contribution’ of migration to the city's population growth ranged from 71 % to 93 %, and then gradually declined, reaching 64 % by the end of the Soviet era. In reality, this meant that two out of three residents of Vilnius were newcomers. Therefore, we can safely call Vilnius a migrant city. Migration processes had a direct impact on the changes in the social structure of the city. If at the beginning of the period in question the ethnic composition of the city's inhabitants was Polish-Jewish-Russian, at the end of the period it became Lithuanian-Russian-Polish. Up to two dozen ethnic groups lived in Vilnius in the first half of the twentieth century, and by the end of the century, there were about a hundred of them. As for larger ethnic communities (with over a hundred members), there were about forty of them. Other pronounced social changes took place at the same time. Until 1939, the city could be described as a centre of the intelligentsia and small traders. [...]. [From the publication]