Eastern Europeans (Ukrainians, Belarusians and others)

Eastern Europeans, sometimes called "Russophones", are a group of people who migrated from the areas of the former Soviet Union, besides Russians. They include Ukrainians, Belarusians, Moldovans, Central Asians, and people from the Caucasus.

These communities are all rooted in the controversial Soviet settlers - people who were sent to Lithuania from other parts of the Soviet Union between the 1940s and 1980s in order to dilute the Lithuanian population there.

After Lithuania became independent (1990) and its economy improved (~2010s), the Soviet settlers who remained were joined by new migrants from the same now-formerly Soviet countries. Nowadays, they leave their homelands because of poverty, dictatorships, or wars (e.g. Ukraine) and they choose Lithuania in particular because of its advanced economy, knowledge of Russian, common history, and (often) relatives who already live there from the Soviet occupation era. By 2022, these new migrants have surpassed the Soviet settlers and their descendants in numbers, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to a massive refugee flow towards Lithuania.

Neither of these Eastern European ethnicities (with the exception of Belarussians) existed in Lithuania prior to 1940 in numbers larger than 50 individuals. People from all of them share certain similar traits. Despite different origins, many are using the Russian language at home and they likely speak Russian better than Lithuanian or (at least those born before ~1975 or recent immigrants) speak no Lithuanian at all. Due to this reason, they are often grouped together with Russians under the term "Russophone", although this has been increasingly controversial.

The "Old Eastern Europeans" (Soviet settlers and their descendants) typically identify the Soviet Union positively and are more likely to be atheists than most other ethnicities.

The above traits are more pronounced in some ethnicities (Ukrainians, Belarussians, interethnic Russophone families) and are less pronounced in some others (Georgians for instance). 55% of the Belarusian community speak Russian natively (only 35% speak Belarusian). The same is true for 66% Jews, 56% pre-refugee-era Ukrainians, 47% Tatars, 38% Estonians, 36% Armenians, 36% Georgians, 31% Moldovans and 27% Azeris.

The "united and separate" Russophone community was partly created by the Soviet policies which did not establish any non-Russian Soviet language schools, theaters, or media outside of that language's titular homeland, forcing the increasing internal migrants (and some historical minorities) to use the wide network of Russian institutions instead.

Alexander Pushkin Russian language school in Pašilaičiai borough of Vilnius. Like most new Soviet schools it was build based on a typical project. Attendances of Russian language schools declined since 1990 but most are still open. ©Augustinas Žemaitis.

The offspring of Russophone families often considered themselves Russian (if at least a single parent would be a Russian) or, after the 1990 independence of Lithuania, Lithuanians (especially if one of the parents was Lithuanian). This assimilation of their youth into Russian and Lithuanian communities made the share of Eastern European ethnic minorities to decline rapidly: only ~5% of Lithuania's Belarusians and Ukrainians were younger than 19 according to 2011 census.

Moreover, soon after the 1990 independence, some third of Lithuania's Soviet settlers swiftly emigrated for their titular homelands or Russia, leading to a quick and sharp decline back then.

That said, due to a wide knowledge of the Russian language in Lithuania, people of the former Soviet Union (especially Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia) continue to immigrate. This trend became prevalent the first time ~2006-2008 when new Russophone immigrants would take jobs in construction, truck driving, and similar. While the 2009 economic downturn temporarily stopped such immigration, the numbers of new Russophones swelled again in the late 2010s. This time, Russophones would fill in the gaps left by emigrants in service jobs as well. Therefore, controversially, the main cities of Lithuania returned to the dreaded Soviet-era situation where some services would only be provided in Russian, as a restaurant chef, a salesman or a taxi driver would speak no Lithuanian. This trend peaked in 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine meant some 70 000 Ukrainians came to Lithuania as refugees, more than doubling the Eastern European population in a matter of months.

However, new immigrants from ex-Soviet countries are often less Russified than the Soviet-era settlers, many of them are actually even anti-Russian due to the Russian aggression against their homelands (e.g. Ukraine or Georgia). Still, even these immigrants often use the Russian language to communicate in Lithuania as they don't speak Lithuanian, while the people of Lithuania don't speak their native languages (Ukrainian, Georgian, etc.). Some of these "new Eastern Europeans of Lithuania", however, prefer to speak English over Russian (if they speak English) and much more of them than ever before seek to integrate by learning at least some Lithuanian.

Today, thus, the community is divided, although not so much along ethnic lines as the invisible line that separates the more Russified Eastern Europeans (primarily of Soviet settler origins but also some economic migrants) and those strongly anti-Russian who blame Russia for the reasons they had to leave their home countries in the first place (dictatorships, wars, etc.). Still other Eastern Europeans (or possibly the majority in some ethnicities) are somewhere in between the two value poles.

Lithuanian views towards Eastern Europeans typically depend on their stance. The more Russified ones are often regarded as Russians, however, the other ones that seek to defend their cultures from Russification often get the sympathy of Lithuanians. Using the terms "Russophones" or "ex-Soviets" when speaking about them is increasingly controversial, as many of them would not want being associated with Soviets or Russians. That's why this article now uses "Eastern Europeans" as the main term, even though this term has its drawbacks as the article is only about some particular Eastern European ethnic groups.

Around 2% of Lithuania’s population was from one of these ethnicities (excluding the ethnic Russians) in 2011, likely about 5% today.