Central European Horizons, Volume 1, Issue 3 (2020)
The population of Wilno (Vilnius) numbered over 200 000 people when the Second World War broke out. The city found itself at the crossroads of Polish, Lithuanian and belated Lithuanian nation building efforts. In the first phase of the war, the multi-ethnic city that was also a centre of a voivodship, and in which Poles were the majority community, came under Lithuanian authority. Soviet military and diplomatic actions played a key role in this change. Until February 1940, 30 000 Polish and Jewish refugees arrived in the city and this triggered a humanitarian crisis. The arrival of Soviet troops halted the extensive “Lithuanianization” process that had begun. As a result, tensions between the Polish community and the Lithuanian state eased. Extermination of the Jewish population the city commenced with the German invasion on 24 June 1941. With assistance from Lithuanian authorities, Germans set up the ghetto and enclosed 15-17 000 people within it. Only 2-3 000 Jews survived the war out 60 000 Jewish inhabitants. In the last period of the war, when the Polish Home Army (AK) gained control over rural areas and prepared for a major operation called „Ostra Brama”, the Polish-Lithuanian conflict also included war crimes. Despite the Polish plans, Vilnius was liberated with the help of the Soviet Red Army on 13 July 1944. The relationship between the Polish and the Soviet army quickly turned hostile. Moreover, violence continued to accompany population movement: between 1945 and 1947 171 158 left the territory of the Lithuanian SSR, more than half of them were Polish from the region of Vilnius. Even though the Old Town remained largely intact, the demographic profile of Vilnius altered dramatically. First, it became a Russian dominated space. Following collectivization, as a result of the influx of Lithuanians intensified and they gradually became the majority in the city.
Keywords: Vilnius, memory, interetnic relations, city, identity, polish-lithuanian relations