Russians in Lithuania in July of 1944 to1953: Russian migrations and memory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Abstract

This paper aims to empirically investigate the different Russian outward migrations in July of 1944 to 1953 in the soviet Lithuania and their influence on Russian quantitative changes. Russian outward migrations has been analyzed on the ground of major modern theories of international migration. However, examining the specific political system in the past – the totalitarian regime of the USSR in the post-war Lithuania – these migration theories require some adaptation.
The investigation revealed that in 1944–1953 dominated two large migrations of Russians in Lithuania: the mass repatriation to the east and the massive immigration to Lithuania from other Soviet republics and regions. At the same time took place also the four smaller Russian migrations and population displacements.
In addition, this paper examines and shows the different groups of Russian post-war Lithuania memory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, applying the theory of cultural memory. Russians in the post-war Lithuania who came from other regions of the USSR could have not had an authentic memory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in that reason they more easily obeyed to the Soviet russocentric interpretation of history and the Soviet‘ memory culture.
Therefore, the Soviet politics of memory and the major quantitative change in the Russian community encouraged fragmentation, marginalization, and oblivion the image of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania among the majority of Russians (particularly immigrants) in the post-war Lithuania. At the same time communicative and cultural memory of the native-born Russians in the postwar Lithuania kept in their own way fragmented, tolerant and far more favorable to the Russians, in particular, the Old Believers, the image of late Grand Duchy of Lithuania.