POLES IN LITHUANIA FROM THE SECOND HALF OF 1944 UNTIL 1946: CHOOSING BETWEEN STAYING OR EMIGRATING TO POLAND
Summary
VITALIJA STRAVINSKIENĖ
With the Second World War ending, the changes in the political and
economic structure as well as the borders caused a large scale
migration from Lithuania. Particularly in Vilnius and Vilnius
region. This especially touched Vilnius and the Vilnius
region. After the LSSR and Poland reached an agreement concerning the
evacuation of former Polish citizens and Jews (The term
‘repatriation’ is used in the article) from the
territory of the Lithuanian SSR to Poland and Lithuanians from the
territory of Poland to Lithuania, many thousands of people had to
decide their fate, i.e. to remain in Lithuania despite the various
political, economic, and social changes or to take advantage of the
opportunity and be repatriated to Poland.
The article describes the situation of the Poles in Lithuania during
the first post-war years and reveals the factors which determined their
decision one way or another, the views of various institutions, and the
effect on the repatriation process.
The majority of the Poles lived compactly in Vilnius and counties of
Vilnius, Trakai, and Švenčionys.
300–330 thousand Poles resided in Lithuania from the end of
the 1944 until first half of 1945, the greatest part of them in the
Vilnius region.
It is possible to state that the position held by the Polish
underground organisations strongly influenced the decision of Poles to
be repatriated or remain in Lithuania. The organisations were opposed
to the repatriation process. The attitude of the Polish clergy, who had
a great deal of influence on the inhabitants, was close to this
position. Romuald Jałbrzykowski, who was the archbishop of the Vilnius
Diocese, together with those priests under him exhorted their
countrymen to remain in Lithuania. The repatriation process increase
after the Polish underground was liquidated and some of the clergy were
repressed in the first half of 1945. Initially mostly Poles emigrated
from Vilnius (about 90 thousand).
The territorial changes in Poland as well as the political and economic
changes in Lithuania also induced the Poles to be repatriated. The
majority of the Poles in the Vilnius region had hoped and expected that
this region would belong to Poland after the war. The new political
reality, however, dispersed these hopes and spurred them to emigrate to
Poland.
The following conclusions are formulated at the end of the article:
The agreements signed at the end of the Second World War by the LSSR
and Polish Committee of National Liberation concerning the repatriation
of former Polish citizens to Poland gave Lithuania’s Poles an
alternative: to remain in Lithuania or emigrate to Poland. The
people’s decision to remain in Lithuania or to emigrate to
Poland was influenced by both external (territorial changes in Poland,
the position of the Polish underground, and political-economic changes
in Lithuania) and internal (subjective emotions) factors. The agitation
by Polish underground organisations against repatriation and the Polish
conviction that Vilnius and the Vilnius region belonged to Poland
stopped the repatriation process. But NKVD-NKGB repressions against the
Poles, the liquidation of the underground, and the changes in
Poland’s state borders forced Poles to emigrate. Human
factors also had a big impact on the decision of Poles to remain or
emigrate. It was difficult to choose: to leave everything behind and
emigrate into the unknown to a place where their countrymen lived or to
remain in their homeland. Nevertheless the greater part of Poles chose
repatriation to Poland.
The severe and unconditional position of the chief LSSR representative
for repatriation, Albertas Knyva, towards Polish representatives helped
realise the repatriation plans of the leadership of the LSSR. They
significantly differed from Poland’s plans. It should be
noted that the repatriation occurred in a differentiated manner: the
departure of Poles from Vilnius was little hindered while the departure
of Poles residing in the villages of the Vilnius region as well as in
other counties was slowed. 180–190 thousand Poles emigrated
from Lithuania during 1944–1946. Among these emigrants were
many Lithuanians who took advantage of the repatriation to reach the
West through Poland.
One consequence of the repatriation was the weakening of the Polish
nature of the Vilnius region. Arrivals from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine,
etc (including many Poles) took the place of the emigrating Poles.
After practically all the Polish intelligentsia left, the remaining
Poles yielded more quickly to the denationalisation process. But on the
other hand, repatriation positively affected the lives of some Poles:
by emigrating to Poland, they avoided arrest, imprisonment, and/or
deportation.
© The Lithuanian Institute of History, January 19, 2006