page_title: History of Vilnius
section_title: Russian Empire
hierarchical_section_title: History of Vilnius / Russian Empire
caption_attribution_description: The first issue of Vilniaus žinios
context_page_description: The city of Vilnius, the capital and largest city of Lithuania, has undergone a diverse history since it was first settled in the Stone Age. Originally the head of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, it changed hands between Imperial and Soviet Russia, Germany, Poland, and Lithuania multiple times. It was especially often the site of conflict after the end of World War I and during World War II. It officially became the capital of independent, modern-day Lithuania when the Soviet Union recognized the country's independence in August 1991.
context_section_description: After the Third Partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Vilnius was annexed by the Russian Empire and became the capital of Vilna Governorate, a part of the Northwestern Krai. In order to allow the city to expand, between 1799–1805 period, the city walls were pulled down, only the Dawn Gate (also known as Aušros vartai, Medininkų vartai or Ostra Brama, Вострая Брама) remained. In 1803 Alexander I re-established the Polish-language University. In 1812 the city was seized by Napoleon on his push towards Moscow. After the failure of the campaign, the Grande Armée retreated to the area where 80,000 of French soldiers died and were buried in the trenches they had built months earlier. After the November Uprising the Vilnius University was closed and repressions halted the further development of the city. Civil unrest in 1861 was suppressed by the Imperial Russian Army. During the January Uprising in 1863 heavy city fights occurred, but were brutally pacified by Mikhail Muravyov, nicknamed The Hanger by the population because of the number of executions he organized. After the uprising, Polish language was banned from public use. The Latin alphabet was prohibited in 1859 (Belarusian language) and in 1865 (Lithuanian language) - the ban was lifted in 1904.
  During the second half of 19th and the beginning of 20th century Vilnius also became one of the centers of Jewish, Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian national rebirths. According to the 1897 Russian census, by mother tongue, 40% of the population was Jewish, 31% Polish, 20% Russian, 4.2% Belarusian and 2.1% Lithuanian. Jewish culture and population was so dominant that some Jewish national revival leaders argued for a new Jewish state to be founded in a Vilnius region, with a city as its capital. These national revivals happened in Vilnius because it was one of the most tolerant, progressive and liberal places in a region, legacy of the tolerance deriving from the years of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. One of the most important Polish, Belarusian poets and writers published their works in Vilnius at that time. It was the place where the first short-lived Belarusian weekly Naša Niva was founded.
  Vilnius became an important place of act of the Lithuanian national revival on 4–5 December 1905, when the Great Seimas of Vilnius was held in the Palace of the present-day National Philharmonics, with over 2000 delegates from all regions of Lithuania as well as emigrees. It was decided to make a demand to establish an autonomous ethnic Lithuanian state within the Russian Empire with its parliament (Seimas) in Vilnius.
  Cultural life was revived after the 1905 Russian Revolution. Society of Friends of Science in Wilno was created in 1906 in order to practice science and literature in Polish language. The Emilia and Eustachy Wróblewski Library, the center of Polish culture, was established in 1912, around that time also Polish theater was revived. Polish cultural life was still repressed despite its revival. In 1907 bishop Eduard von der Ropp was expelled from Vilnius to Vitebsk.
caption: First legal newspaper Vilniaus Žinios, circulating in Vilnius after the ban on Lithuanian press printed in the Latin script was lifted
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