Demographic history of the Vilnius region
The city of Vilnius, now the capital of Lithuania, and its surrounding region have at various times come under Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, German, and Soviet rule. The population has been categorised by linguistic and sometimes also religious indicators. At the end of the 19th century the main languages spoken were Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Russian. Both Catholic and Orthodox Christianity were represented, while a large proportion of the city's inhabitants were Jews. The "Lithuanian" element was seen as declining, while the "Slavic" element was increasing.
Census data are available from 1897 onward, although the territorial boundaries and ethnic categorisation have not been consistent. The Jewish population decreased greatly because of the Holocaust of 1941-44, and subsequently many Poles were removed from the city, but less so from the surrounding countryside. Consequently, recent Census figures show a predominance of Lithuanians in the city of Vilnius, but of Poles in the Vilnius district outside the city.
Ethnic and national background
Already prior to the early Middle Ages, Lithuania proper was inhabited by Lithuanian-speaking tribes. Towards the 16th century in parts of eastern Lithuania, the Lithuanian language began interacting with the Slavic languages. Right until the end of the 19th century, the majority of peasants in eastern Lithuania proper were Lithuanians, as attested by their un-Polonized surnames. Most Lithuanians in eastern Lithuania proper were Slavicized by schools and churches in the last quarter of the 19th century.[1] The result of this Polonization was the mixed language spoken in Vilnius region was known as "mowa prosta", which is not recognized as a dialect of Polish, and borrows heavily from the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Polish languages.[2] In 2015 Polish linguist Miroslaw Jankowiak attested that many Polish-speakers of Vilnius region still speak the language which they call mowa prosta ('simple speech') by local people.[3]
After the partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
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Following the decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century, the state had been divided among its neighbours in what is known as the partitions of Poland.
Most of the lands that formerly constituted the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were annexed by the Russian Empire. While initially, the lands around the city of Vilnius had a certain local autonomy, with local nobility holding the same offices as prior to the partitions, after several unsuccessful rebellions in 1830-31 and 1863-64 against the Russian Empire, the Imperial government started pursuing a policy of both political and cultural assimilation of the newly acquired lands (Russification).
Following the failed November Uprising all traces of former Polish-Lithuanian statehood (like the Third Statute of Lithuania and Congress Poland) were replaced with Russian counterparts, ranging from the currency and units of measurement to offices of local administration. The failed January Uprising of 1863-64 further aggravated the situation, as the Russian authorities decided to pursue the policies of forcibly imposed Russification. The discrimination of local inhabitants included restrictions and bans on usage of Lithuanian (see Lithuanian press ban), Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian (see Valuyev circular) languages.[4][5][6][7] This however did not stop the Polonization effort undertaken by the Polish patriotic leadership of the Vilna educational district even within the Russian Empire.[8][9]
Despite that, the pre-19th-century cultural and ethnic pattern of the area was largely preserved. In the process of the pre-19th-century voluntary[10] Polonization, much of the Lithuanian nobility adopted Polish language and culture. This was also true to the representatives of the then-nascent class of bourgeoisie and the Catholic and Uniate clergy. At the same time, the lower strata of the society (notably the peasants) formed a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural mixture of Lithuanians, Poles, Jews, Tatars and Ruthenians, as well as a small yet notable population of immigrants from all parts of Europe, from Italy to Scotland and from the Low Countries to Germany.
During the rule of the Russian tsars, Polish remained the Lingua franca as it had been in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. By the middle of the 17th century, most of the Lithuanian upper nobility was Polonized. Over time, the nobility of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth unified politically and started to consider themselves to be citizens of one common state. The leader of independent Poland during the interwar period, the Lithuanian-born Józef Piłsudski was an example of this phenomenon.[11]
Censuses
Following is a list of censuses that have been taken in the city of Vilnius and its region since 1897. The list is incomplete. Data are at times fragmentary.
Russian census of 1897
|
City of Vilna
|
Vilna Governorate
|
Vilna Uyezd
|
Trakai Uyezd
|
In 1897, the first Russian Empire Census was held. The territory covered by the tables included parts of today's Belarus, that is the Hrodna, Vitebsk and Minsk voblasts. Its results are currently criticised with respect to the issue of ethnic composition because the ethnicity was defined by language spoken. In many cases, the reported language of choice was defined by general background (education, occupation), rather than ethnicity. Some results are also thought as skewed due to the facts that pidgin speakers were assigned to nationalities arbitrarily and the Russian military garrisons were counted in as permanent inhabitants of the area. Some historians point out the fact that the Russification policies and persecution of ethnic minorities in Russia were added to the notion to subscribe Belarusians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians and Poles to the category of Russians.[13][16][17]
1916 German census
|
City of Wilna
Source: 1916 German census[18] |
County of Wilna (without the city)
Source: 1916 German census[19] |
Occupied Lithuania
Source: 1916 German census[18] |
During World War I, all of modern-day Lithuania and Poland was occupied by the German Army. On 9 March 1916, the German military authorities organized a census to determine the ethnic composition of their newly conquered territories.[18] Many Belarusian historians note that the Belarusian minority is not noted among the inhabitants of the city.
A similar census was organized for all of the territories of German-occupied Lithuania and the northern border of the territory was more or less correspondent to that of present-day Lithuania; however, its southern border ended near Brest-Litovsk, and included the city of Białystok.
1921 Polish census
|
City of Wilno
Source: 1921–1923 Polish census |
Administrative Area of Wilno
Source: 1921–1923 Polish census[20] |
The Treaty of Riga, which ended the Polish-Bolshevik War, determined the eastern border of Poland. In 1921 the first Polish census was held in territories under Polish control. However, Central Lithuania, seized in 1920 by the forces of General Lucjan Żeligowski after a staged mutiny, was outside of de jure Poland and it was not until 22 March 1922 that the short-lived state was annexed by Poland.
As a result, the Polish census of 20 September 1921 covered only parts of the future Wilno Voivodeship area, that is the communes of Brasław, Duniłowicze, Dzisna and Wilejka.[21] The remaining part of the territory of Central Lithuania (that is the communes of Wilno, Oszmiana, Święciany and Troki) was covered by the additional census organised there in 1923. The tables on the right give the combined numbers for the area of Wilno voivodeship (Administrative Area of Wilno), taken during both the 1921 and 1923 censuses.
Polish census of 1931
|
City of Wilno
Source: 1931 Polish census[22] |
Source: 1931 Polish census[22] |
The 1931 Polish census was the first Polish census to measure the population of whole Wilno and Wilno voivodeship at once. It was organised on 9 December 1931 by the Main Statistical Office of Poland. However, in 1931 the question of nationality was replaced by two separate questions of religion worshipped and the language spoken at home.[23] Because of that, it is sometimes argued that the "language question" was introduced to diminish the number of Jews, some of whom spoke Polish rather than Yiddish or Hebrew.[23] The table on the right shows the census findings on language. Wilno voivodeship did not include Druskininkai (Druskinieki) area and included just a small part of Varena (Orani) area where the majority of inhabitants were Lithuanians. The voivodeship, however, included Brasław, Dzisna, Mołodeczno, Oszmiana, Postawy and Wilejka counties which now belong to Belarus.
Lithuanian census of 1939
In December 1939, shortly after the return of Lithuanian control to what it claimed was its capital city, the Lithuanian authorities organized a new census in the area. However, the census is often criticized as skewed, intending to prove the historical and moral rights of Lithuania to the disputed area, rather than to determine the factual composition.[24] Lithuanian figures from that period are criticized as significantly inflating the number of Lithuanians.[25]
German-Lithuanian census of 1942
|
City of Wilna
Source: 1942 German census[26] |
Wilna-Gebiet
Source: 1942 German census[26] |
After the outbreak of the German-Soviet War in 1941, the area of eastern Lithuania was quickly seized by the Wehrmacht. On 27 May 1942 a new census was organised by the German authorities and the local Lithuanian collaborators.[26] The details of the methodology used are unknown and the results of the census are commonly believed to be an outcome of the racial theories and beliefs of those who organised the census rather than the actual ethnic and national composition of the area.[26] Among the most notable features is a complete lack of data on the Jewish inhabitants of the area (see Ponary massacre for explanation) and a much lowered number of Poles, as compared to all the earlier censuses.[27][28] However, Wilna-Gebiet did not include Brasław, Dzisna, Mołodeczno, Postawy and Wilejka counties but included Svyren district (current Kaišiadorys and Elektrėnai municipalities). That explains the decline in the number of Poles.
Soviet data from 1944-1945
| City of Vilnius 1944
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: 1944 Soviet data[29] |
The registered population of Vilnius was 107,000. People who moved to the city during the German occupation, military personnel and temporary residents were not counted. According to the data from the beginning of 1945, the total population of Vilnius, Švenčionys and Trakai counties amounted to 325,000 people, half of them Poles.[29] About 90% of the Vilnius' Jewish inhabitants had been killed in the Holocaust. Every Pole in the city was forced to register for resettlement and about 80% of Vilnius Poles left for Poland.[30]
Soviet census of 1959
During 1944-1946 period about 50% of the registered Poles in Lithuania were transferred to Poland. Dovile Budryte estimates that about 150,000 people left the country.[31] During 1955-1959 period, another 46,600 Poles left Lithuania. However, Lithuanian historians estimate that about 10% of people who left for Poland were ethnic Lithuanians. While the removal of Poles from Vilnius was a matter of primary importance for the Lithuanian communist authorities, the depolonization of the countryside was limited due to fear that it would cause depopulation and labour shortage. This led to the emergence of the ethnic segregation, with Lithuanians and Russians prevailing in the city and Poles in the surrounding areas.[32][33] These are the results of the migration to Poland and the growth of the city due to industrial development and the Soviet Union policy.
|
Vilnius region
Source: |
Soviet census of January 1989
|
City of Vilnius
Source: Census 1989[34] |
Vilnius region
Source: |
Poles accounted for 63.6% of the population in Vilnius rayon/county (currently Vilnius district municipality, excluding the city of Vilnius itself), and 82.4% of the population in Šalčininkai rayon/county (currently known as Šalčininkai district municipality).[35]
Lithuanian census of 2001
|
Vilnius city municipality
Source: 2001 Lithuanian census[36] |
Vilnius district municipality
Source: 2001 Lithuanian census[36] |
Lithuanian census of 2011
| Vilnius city municipality 2011
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: 2011 Lithuanian census[37] |
Vilnius district municipality
2011
| Lithuanians | (32.5%) | 30,967 |
| Poles | (52.1%) | 49,648 |
| Russians | (8.0%) | 7,638 |
| Belarusians | (4.2%) | 3,982 |
| Ukrainians | 623 | |
| Jews | 109 | |
| Other | 754 | |
| Not indicated | 1,627 | |
| Total | (100%) | 95,348 |
Source: 2011 Lithuanian census[37]
Jews of Vilnius
The Jews living in Vilnius had their own complex identity, and labels of Polish Jews, Lithuanian Jews or Russian Jews are all applicable only in part.[38] The majority of the Yiddish speaking population used the Litvish dialect.
The situation today
The Vilnius urban region is the only area in East Lithuania that doesn't face a decline in population density.
Poles are the majority of native rural population in the Vilnius region. The share of the Polish population across the region is decreasing, mainly due to natural decline of rural population and process of suburbanization – majority of new residents in the outskirts of Vilnius are Lithuanians.[33]
Most speakers in the area today speak a dialect known as the simple speech (po prostu), and they consider this language to be Polish.[39] Colloquial Polish in Lithuania includes dialectic qualities and is influenced by other languages.[40] Educated Poles speak a language close to standard Polish.
The Northern-kresowy dialect of Polish is also spoken.[41]
See also
- Polish National-Territorial Region
- Polish minority in Lithuania
Notes and references
- In-line:
- Zinkevičius, Zigmas. "Lenkiškai kalbantys lietuviai". archyvas.punskas.pl.
- Martinkėnas, Vincas (1990). Vilniaus ir jo apylinkių čiabuviai. Vilnius. p. 25.
- http://zw.lt/opinie/jankowiak-mowa-prosta-jest-dla-mnie-synonimem-gwary-bialoruskiej/
- Alekseĭ I. Miller. "Identity and loyalty in the language policy of the Romanov Empire at her Western Borderland". The Romanov Empire and Nationalism: Essays in the Methodology of Historical Research. Central European University Press. 2008. pp. 70, 81-82.
- Jerzy Lukowski, Hubert Zawadzki. A concise history of Poland. Cambridge University Press. 2006. p. 195.
- Aviel Roshwald, Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires: Central Europe, Russia and the Middle East, 1914–1923, Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0-415-17893-2, Google Print, p.24
- Anna Geifman, Russia Under the Last Tsar: Opposition and Subversion, 1894–1917, Blackwell Publishing, 1999, ISBN 1-55786-995-2, Google Print, p.116
- Tomas Venclova, Four Centuries of Enlightenment. A Historic View of the University of Vilnius, 1579–1979, Lituanus, Volume 27, No.1 — Summer 1981
- Rev. Stasys Yla, The Clash of Nationalities at the University of Vilnius, Lituanus, Volume 27, No.1 — Summer 1981
- Ronald Grigor Suny, Michael D. Kennedy, "Intellectuals and the Articulation of the Nation", University of Michigan Press, 2001, pg. 265
- The genealogical tree of Józef Klemens (Ziuk) Piłsudski
- (in Russian) Demoscope.
- (in Polish) Piotr Łossowski, Konflikt polsko-litewski 1918–1920 (The Polish-Lithuanian Conflict, 1918–1920), Warsaw, Książka i Wiedza, 1995, ISBN 83-05-12769-9, pp. 11.
- (in Russian) Demoscope.
- (in Russian) Demoscope.
- Egidijus Aleksandravičius; Antanas Kulakauskas (1996). Carų valdžioje: Lietuva XIX amžiuje (Lithuania under the reign of Czars in the 19th century) (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Baltos lankos. pp. 253–255.
- various authors (2002). Wiesław Łagodziński (ed.). 213 lat spisów ludności w Polsce 1789–2002 (in Polish). Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Warsaw.
- Michał Eustachy Brensztejn (1919). Spisy ludności m. Wilna za okupacji niemieckiej od. 1 listopada 1915 r. (in Polish). Biblioteka Delegacji Rad Polskich Litwy i Białej Rusi, Warsaw.
- Joanna Januszewska Jurkiewicz (2010). Stosunki narodowościowe na Wileńszczyźnie w latach 1920—1939 (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.
- Ludwik Krzywicki (1922). "Rozbiór krytyczny wyników spisu z dnia 30 IX 1921 r". Miesięcznik Statystyczny (in Polish). V (6).
- Ludwik Krzywicki (1922). "Organizacja pierwszego spisu ludności w Polsce". Miesięcznik Statystyczny (in Polish). V (6).
- "Drugi Powszechny Spis Ludności z dnia 9 XII 1931 r". Statystyka Polski (in Polish). D (34). 1939.
- Joseph Marcus (1983). Social and political history of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939. Walter de Gruyter. p. 17. ISBN 978-90-279-3239-6. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
- Zakład Wydawnictw Statystycznych (corporate author) (1990). Concise Statistical Year-Book of Poland: September 1939 – June 1941. Zakład Wydawnictw Statystycznych. ISBN 83-7027-015-8.
- Ghetto In Flames. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. pp. 27–. GGKEY:48AK3UF5NR9. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
- A. Srebrakowski (1997). Liczba Polaków na Litwie według spisu ludności z 27 maja 1942 roku (in Polish). Wrocław University, Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie.
- Główny Urząd Statystyczny (corporate author) (1939). Mały rocznik statystyczny 1939 (in Polish). Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Warsaw.
- Stanisław Ciesielski; Aleksander Srebrakowski (2000). "Przesiedlenie ludności z Litwy do Polski w latach 1944–1947". Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie (in Polish) (4): 227–53. ISSN 1429-4168. Archived from the original on 17 October 2002.
- Vitalija Stravinskiene. Polska ludność Litwy Wschodniej i Południowo-Wschodniej w polu widzenia sowieckich służb bezpieczeństwa w latch 1944-1953. Instytut Historii Litwy. "Biuletyn Historii Pogranicza". Vol 11. 2001. p. 62.
- Timothy Snyder. The Reconstruction of Nations. Yale University Press. 2003 . pp. 91-93, 95
- Dovile Budryte, Taming nationalism?: political community building in the post-Soviet Baltic States, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2005, ISBN 0-7546-4281-X, Google Print, p.147
- Theodore R. Weeks. "Remembering and forgetting: creating Soviet Lithuanian capital Vilnius 1944-1949." In: Jorg Hackmann, Marko Lehti. Contested and Shared Places of Memory: History and politics in North Eastern Europe. Routledge. 2013. pp. 139-141.
- Donatas Burneika, Rūta Ubarevičienė, Gintarė Pociūtė, Edis Kriaučiūnas. The Impact of Vilnius City on the Transformation Trends of the Sparsely Populated EU East Border Region. Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Institute of Human Geography and Demography, Vilnius. pp. 50, 58-59.
- Saulius Stanaitis, Darius Cesnavicius. Dynamics of national composition of Vilnius population in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Bulletin of Geography, Socio-Economic Series. No. 13/2010. pp. 35-37.
- Piotr Eberhardt. Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, and Analysis. M.E. Sharpe. 2003. p. 59.
- Population by some ethnicities by county and municipality . Data from Statistikos Departamentas, 2001 Population and Housing Census. Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- Census 2011 Archived 1 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Statistics Lithuania, 2013
- Ezra Mendelsohn, On Modern Jewish Politics, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508319-9, Google Print, p.8 and Mark Abley, Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages, Houghton Mifflin Books, 2003, ISBN 0-618-23649-X, Google Print, p.205
- Lietuvos rytai; straipsnių rinkinys The east of Lithuania; the collection of articles; V. Čekmonas, L. Grumadaitė "Kalbų paplitimas Rytų Lietuvoje" "The distribution of languages in eastern Lithuania"
- K. Geben, Język internautów wileńskich (The language of Vilnius Internauts),in Poradnik Jezykowy, 2008 Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- Dialekt północnokresowy
- General:
- Rutowski, Tadeusz, ed. (1888). Rocznik Statystyki Przemysłu i Handlu Krajowego. Lwów: Krajowe Biuro Statystyczne.
- Kleczyński, Józef (1892). Spisy ludności w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Akademia Umiejętności, Kraków.
- Kleczyński, Józef (1898). Poszukiwania spisów ludności Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w zbiorach Moskwy, Petersburga i Wilna. Kraków: Akademia Umiejętności.
- Pierwsze dziesięciolecie Głównego Urzędu Statystycznego. T. 3, Organizacja i technika opracowania pierwszego polskiego spisu powszechnego z 30 września 1921 roku. Warsaw: Główny Urząd Statystyczny. 1930.
- Lietuvos Statistikos Metraštis. Lietuvos Statistikos Departamentas prie Lietuvos Respublikos Vyriausybės. 1995. ISSN 1392-026X.
- Strzelecki, Zbigniew; Toczyński, Tadeusz; Latuch, Kazimierz, eds. (2002). Spisy ludności Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1921–2002; wybór pism demografów. Warsaw: Polskie Towarzystwo Demograficzne, Główny Urząd Statystyczny. ISBN 83-901912-9-6.
- Strzelecki, Zbigniew, ed. (1991). Polish Population Review. Polish Demographic Society, Central Statistical Office. ISSN 0867-7905.
- Skarbek, Jan, ed. (1996). Mniejszości w świetle spisów statystycznych XIX-XX w. Lublin: Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej. ISBN 83-85854-16-9.
- Eidintas, Alfonsas; Bumblauskas, Alfredas; Kulakauskas, Antanas; Tamošaitis, Mindaugas (2013). The History of Lithuania (PDF). Vilnius: Eugrimas. ISBN 978-609-437-163-9.
- Dolbilov, Mikhail (2010). Русский край, чужая вера: Этноконфессиональная политика империи в Литве и Белоруссии при Александре II (in Russian). Moscow: Новое литературное обозрение. ISBN 978-5-86793-804-8.
- Anisimov, Vladimir Ilyich (1912). Виленская губерния. Энциклопедический словарь Русского библиографического института Гранат (in Russian). 10: Вех — Воздух. Moscow: Изд. тов. А. Гранат и К°.
External links
- Theodore R. Weeks, From "Russian" to "Polish": Vilna-Wilno 1900–1925
- Lithuanian-Belarusian language boundary in the 4th decade of the 19th century
- Lithuanian-Belarusian language boundary at the beginning of the 20th century
- List of the 19th-century Suwałki region family names
- 1921 and 1931 censuses (DOC), HTML
- Repatriation and Resettlement of Ethnic Poles
- std.lt 2001 census (PDF) std.lt In English
- A. Srebrakowski, Zmiany struktury narodowościowej Wileńszczyzny w latach 1939-1947 (w:) Kresy Wschodnie II Rzeczypospolitej. Przekształcenia struktury narodowościowej 1931-1948, Pod redakcją Stanisława Ciesielskiego, Wrocław 2006, s. 47-54
- [ vilniaus-r.lt]