Vilnius Free City
From IBWiki
 
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| Conventional short name: | |
| Local: | Vilnius, Vilnia, Wilen, Vilna |
| English: | Vilnius |
| Languages: | |
| Official: | Lithuanian, Belarussian, Venedic, Russian |
| Others: | Yiddish, Ukrainian |
| Cities: | |
| Capital: | Vilnius |
| Other: | none |
| Marshal: | Georgy Zhukov |
| Burgermeister: | Antanas Merkys (never assumed full power) |
| Area: | |
| Population: | 850,000 inhabittants |
| Currency: | Ruble |
| Organizations: | |
Vilnius Free City (sometimes reffered to as Vilnius area) was an entity estabilished by the Russians in 1947 after they retook control of the city in the later part of the Second Great War. It consisted of the city of Vilnius. The reason for this was that Vilnius was seen as a major centre of their culture both by Lithuanians and Belarusians, who prior to this were both part of the same country (Lithuania), of which Vilnius was the capital. Lithuanians claimed that they had much more reasons to claim the city, however, Russia in general favoured a Slavic Belarusian nationality.
Vilnius became the capital city of both Lithuania and Belarus, and the Vilnius Free City was ruled as a condominium; in fact however, Russia itself had a large power over its affairs.
Four languages were declared official (Lithuanian, Belarusian, Venedic and Russian), while another language - Yiddish - was as well spoken by large numbers of people but it was not official. Russian army continued to stay in Vilnius and in that way Russia continued to have ability to excersize power over both Lithuanian and Belarusian governments stationed there.
Lithuanians saw the status of Vilnius as robbing them of their capital city. Belarussians in general saw Lithuanians and, to some extent, Veneds as former oppressors. Jews demanded that Yiddish be made an official language - the government was reluctant to give such a status. All these reasons created high inter-ethnic tensions in the Vilnius Free City.
In theory, the Free City was meant to be ruled by burgermeister and city council, who would be appointed by a joint decition of Lithuanian and Belarusian leaderships; however the governments did not agree on who would become a burgermeister, both suggesting different candidates, and thus in reality Russian marshal Georgy Zhukov ruled the city. Snorist governments of Lithaunia and Belarus both tolerated this de facto, as they both wanted the order to be kept and at least while war was going on they did not want to create internal disputes; as well, Russia told them not to. Thus the civilian rule of burgermeister although was planned never took power; instead, a "interim military rule" was estabilished and a Marshal (Georgy Zhukov) was appointed to estabilish order. Order however was not estabilished in throughout 1948 Vilnius Free City reminded a warzone, with people being murdered in streets and frequent battles between gangs of different ethnic groups, pogroms against Jews and each other. All sides blamed the other sides for starting these events; Lithuanians as well balmed Belarus for allegedly supporting Slavic immigration to Vilnius Free City aimed at increasing the portion of Slavic population. The city was almost under constant curfew, and Russian army, mostly people, who awere not allowed to go to front for some reason, tried to keep the order. The army was known for frequent violations of human rights however, allegedly murdering, raping, beating political and other opponents without any trials. Lithuanians, Veneds and Jews claimed that there was a racist feelings against them among the army; however official then as well snorist governments of Veneda and Lithuania turned a blind eye to this, not wanting to annoy Russia.
It is estimated that up to 25,000 people were killed in the riots or by the Russian army in Vilnius Free City in these two years. In late 1948, Vilnius as well became the major area of the militant actions by the Brotherhood of National Honour. Mass protests in Lithuanian cities required the immidiate handling of control of Vilnius Free City to Lithuania, however, snorist government of Lithuania dispersed these protests. Similar protests happened in Belarus, which demanded a quick end to the conflict.
With the talks in Visby about recreating the RTC, Belarussian government moved to Minsk; actually, it was done before the actual decition to recreate RTC was reached and most probably was influenced by the lack of order in the city as well.
When in 1949 the Republic of the Two Crowns was recreated as a neutral country, Vilnius became an integral part of Lithuania - one of two states inside the Republic - and as well continued to be Lithuanian capital city. Vilnius Free City as an entity ceased to exist.
This page was created by Abdul-aziz. |
