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Lituanistica

ISSN 0235-716X


2007 m. Nr. 1

Rytų ir pietryčių Lietuvos gyventojų repatriacija į Lenkiją (1944 m. pabaiga–1947 m.)
Vitalija STRAVINSKIENĖ

The agreement of September 1944 between the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR) and the Polish Committee for National Liberation concerning the exchange of population de termined large-scale migration processes from eastern and southeastern Lithuania to Poland. Poles and Jews (citizens of Poland) faced a dilemma: to stay in Lithuania or to leave for Poland. Many thousands chose the latter alternative. The process analysed in the article is referred to as repatriation, which chronologically covered the end 1944–mid 1947. In the article, the number and the territorial breakdown of eastern and southeastern Lithuania’s Poles at the end of World War II is discussed; the organisation of the repatriation process, its dynamics and results are revealed; factors stimulating or impeding this process are described. These issues have not been paid adequate attention to in the historiography of Lithuania and, as a matter of fact, have not been researched. More attention to the above-mentioned subject was paid in the historiography of Poland. The article is based on the materials stored in the archives of Lithuania and Poland. Most Poles compactly lived in eastern and southeastern Lithuania: Vilnius and the counties of Vilnius, Trakai, Švenčionys and Zarasai. Here lived about 85 per cent of Lithuania’s Poles (about 270 thousand). Poles made up the majority of population in the Vilnius county and city. This number was determined by political and socio-economic reasons. Significant demographical changes in this region were determined by World War II. The decision of the inhabitants to leave or to stay was influenced by several factors. Polish underground organisations, having a considerable influence on the population, were encouraging to stay. They were urging to stay in Lithuania, whereas this region was supposed to become part of Poland again in the short run. This attitude was close to that of Polish ecclesiastics. The Vilnius archbishop, Romuald Jałbrzykowski, ordered the priests not to leve and to encourage the believers to behave in the same way. The powerful factor determining the desire to leave was the repressive actions of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del, NKVD) – People’s Commissariat for State Security (Narodny Kommissariat Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, NKGB) against the Polish underground and its supporters as well as the international situation when the decisions made at the Yalta Conference according to which the Vilnius region was left outside Poland’s national bordero were made public. Implementation of the agreement was behind the schedule; in fact, repatriation-related activities started in the last days of 1944. In total, in 1944–1946, according to the data of the Lithuanian Repatriation Establishment, an intention to leave Lithuania was expressed by more than 361 thousand and according to the data of the Polish Establishment by more than 364 thousand persons. However, due to different attitudes of representatives of both sides towards the repatriation and its purposes, not all persons who expressed the wish realised it. In 1944–1947, according to the official calculation, more than 169 thousand persons departed from eastern and southeastern Lithuania (factually this figure was higher); among them, the most considerable share was comprised of Poles. The biggest share of persons left Vilnius (about 90 thousand), Riešė (about 13 thousand) and Naujoji Vilnia (over 9 thousand). The most significant number of persons left in 1946 (more than 96 thousand, which made up 50 per cent of all persons who left Lithuania over the said period). At the end of the article, the following conclusions are formulated: 1. The repatriation determined long-term consequences for the ethnic-geographical situation of eastern and southeastern Lithuania. Due to the large-scale departure of residents of the region as well as unsuccessful plans of the political government of the LSSR to populate the Vilnius city and Vilnius region with Lithuanians applying the internal migration mode, more favourable conditions for slavisation of the region appeared: places of the Poles who left Lithuania were occupied by the newcomers from the USSR (predominantly from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine). In 1946–1947, about 123 thousand newcomers came to Lithuania. They mainly settled in eastern and southeastern Lithuania. 2. The repatriation determined marked changes in the remaining part of the Polish community in Lithuania. It determined changes in the social structure: after the departure of Almos all Polish intelligentsia (Polish authorities were particularly interested in the arrival of former Polish professors of the Vilnius University; therefore, these professors were provided exceptional conditions), the rest of Poles found themselves in the cultural vacuum and rapidly capitulated to the denationalisation and assimilation processes. Still, it has to be stressed that Poles living in Lithuania in the Soviet period were in a better situation than their fellow countrymen in Belarus and Ukraine who had rather limited possibilities for cultural and educational development. This fact slightly smoothed the denationalisation. Moreover, the repatriation determined panhuman losses (infinity of separated families, broken cultural-social, emotional-psychological links, etc.). Persons who left for Poland experienced adaptation problems, felt hurt due to the left places, homes and property. 3. The large-scale departure of former Polish citizens to Poland in 1944–1947 induced the second wave of Poles’ departure from Lithuania (in 1956–1959). Due to the wishes and attempts of Poles who stayed in the USSR to leave for Poland, the government of the latter initiated negotiations with the USSR; they resulted in the resumption of repatriation. This possibility was also used by the Poles living in Lithuania, who pursued compensation for emotional losses (e. g., in the form of joining family members or relatives in Poland), improvement of their economical-social situation and status. In 1956–1959, the number of persons who left Lithuania reached more than 48 thousand; 40 thousand of them were Poles.
Numeriai:

2011 - T.57
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2010 - T.56
Nr.1-4

2009 - T.55
Nr.1-2, Nr.3-4

2008 - T.54
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2007 - T.53
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2006
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2005
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2004
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2003
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2002
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2001
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