Population Politics in Vilnius 1944-1947: A Case Study of Socialist-Sponsored Ethnic Cleansing

A historian examines a specific case of ethnic cleansing in the immediate aftermath of World War II: the "repatriation" of Poles from the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic between 1944 and 1947. Questions of how "repatriation" was carried out, the motivation on the Polish and Soviet sides, the differences in outcome of this policy in Vilnius and the countryside, and why "repatriation" presents a case of ethnic cleansing are considered on the basis on archival material as well as newspapers, memoirs, and historians' accounts of this case and in the context of the literature on genocide and ethnic cleansing.