‘I Cannot Find Any Work or Service ...’ The Unemployed in Vilnius in 1920–1939

Abstract

This article analyses a sphere of the social life of the population of Vilnius that has received little attention in historiography, the unemployment problem during the ‘Polish period’ (1920–1939). It discusses the efforts by the government of the time to reduce the number of unemployed in the city, and to mitigate the negative outcomes of unemployment. The author shows why the unemployed of Vilnius received less support than the unemployed in other regions in Poland, and illustrates aspects of their daily life.