Vilnius between nations, 1795-2000

Abstract

nations, 1795-2000, by Theodore R. Weeks, DeKalb, North Illinois University Press, 2015, 366 pp., US$45.00 (pbk), ISBN 978-0-875-80730-0Vilnians and all others interested in histories of multi-ethnic urban places must surely be happy to receive this articulately written, well-argued, and thought-provoking history of Vilnius. The book will be of great interest also to those who study nationalism, ethnic identities, and painful and multidimensional interconnection state and society in our modern era.The main argument of book is coded in its very title with an emphasis on between nations. The author explains that he wanted to stress the distinct nature of [the city's] communities ... and struggle of different nations for (6). Thus Weeks openly rejects idea that belonged properly to any one of cultural-national-religious groups that lived in city (10). His intention seems to be to write a social history of as a negotiated or contested space various nations rather than a multicultural city where it was easy to tolerate diversity of various ethnic groups. In fact, author is openly critical of contemporary multiculturalism (5) and spends a lot of effort trying to show that Vilnius, despite fact that historically it was essentially a multi-ethnic city, in modern era became a venue for intense nationalization campaigns and efforts of symbolic appropriation (3).Weeks's intention to show 'the modern state's relentless impulse toward achieving ethnic homogeneity' (3), or at very least, to favour one ethnic group at expense of others, is well delivered. There is little doubt he managed to keep his critical distance from all major political camps - Poles, Lithuanians, Jews and Russians - that have claimed over last two centuries. Although he covers history of city from its earliest times, Weeks's main focus is on modern era, from fall of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 to year 2000. The narrative follows a chronological path of events focusing on emergence of as a centre of Polish and Jewish cultures from late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries; Russification that came after 1863; both world wars and their aftermaths; socialist normalcy in 1955-1985; and period after Gorbachev's perestroika.However, gist of author's argument is in chapters on most destructive period of Vilnius's history: Second World War and its aftermath. He suggests that major demographic shift in city's population - he eloquently calls it the Destruction of Multicultural Vilnius (155) - occurred as a result of Holocaust, expulsion of Poles in 1945-1946, and migration of Lithuanians and Russians into city after war. At end of book, Weeks refuses though to draw any lessons from stormy history of that can be easily applied to other urban centres. …