Authors

Konrad Rokicki¹;  ¹ University of Warsaw, Doctoral School of Social Sciences, Poland

Discussion

The main purpose of this presentation is to outline the organization and course of the so-called "evacuation" of Poles from the territory of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, which took place between 1944 and 1947. This operation, based on bilateral agreement between the communist Polish Committee of National Liberation and the Government of the Lithuanian SSR, and coordinated by Polish and Lithuanian officials, was disturbed by numerous abuses.

The evacuation process (a term introduced by the Soviets, which I will interpret in the presentation) was asymmetric between Poland and Lithuania. While only a few thousand people left postwar Poland for Lithuania, approximately 150,000–200,000 Poles and their family members—primarily from the Vilnius region —left Lithuania for Poland. Despite international agreements establishing the evacuation, the Polish side accused Lithuanian authorities of deliberately interpreting regulations in ways that prevented many individuals from leaving Lithuania (and, de facto, the Soviet Union).

Lithuanian officials obstructed or even forbade the departure of people who had lost documents proving their Polish citizenship before 1939 or who possessed German or Lithuanian documents incorrectly indicating a non-Polish nationality. Another example of restrictive interpretation was the prohibition on Polish women’s husbands from leaving, based on a literal reading of the agreement, which mentioned only "wives of Poles." Moreover, there were cases of uncontrolled confiscation of property and even the arrest of Polish officials on Lithuanian territory. The operation was also prolonged; initially scheduled to end by April 1945, it proved logistically impossible to complete until this deadline.

The course of the "evacuation" is an interesting example of organizational chaos in the multi-ethnic regions of Central and Eastern Europe during the final months of World War II. The actions taken by officials reflect not only the general administrative chaos in these territories, but also the longstanding Polish-Lithuanian antagonism, which could be seen in the actions of Lithuanian officials. The "evacuation" also indirectly highlights the specific policy of Soviet authorities, which often sought to maintain mutual animosity between some nationalities.

This presentation is based primarily on archival materials, including internal government correspondence from District Plenipotentiaries of the Polish Government and the Plenipotentiary of the Lithuanian SSR Government for Evacuation, as well as documents related to personal matters associated with the departure of Poles and their families from Soviet Lithuania. These materials, held in the Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw and the Lithuanian Central State Archives in Vilnius, constitute a large source base for analyzing this issue.