Ask Lemmygrad

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/146135/annawhit_1.pdf#page=362

KGB reports from Lithuania, too, indicated widespread excitement. The assistant director at an institute of experimental medicine reportedly told his acquaintances, “These are very important questions. Now there will only be national cadres. And in the Ministry of Internal Affairs almost all have been replaced with Lithuanians. This is being done very well. It has been necessary to deal with this question for a long time. In truth, it is being done very cunningly so as to gradually send all the Russians out of here.”¹³⁹

Another noted that the release of political prisoners had contributed to an atmosphere of greater freedom and expressed excitement about changing language politics: “They are removing people who do not know Lithuanian from their posts and in their place Lithuanians are being appointed. Everyone who doesn’t know the Lithuanian language is supposed to leave our region.”¹⁴⁰

Lithuanians across the republic expressed hope that a revised nationalities policy would lead to a Lithuanian resurgence at the expense of Russians and Russian. The impact was severe enough to precipitate a reaction: Russians in western republics complained of discrimination in letters to the Central Committee. Some complained of unfair hiring preferences; one went so far as to declare there to be a “pogrom of Russian workers” in Belarus. Others worried that Russians had nowhere to go.¹⁴¹

Kind of weird to have a ‘Russification’ that involves dismissing Russians from ministries. I’m very curious to read how those two phenomena go together. And that only scratches the surface.