[4] First early settlements of Ruthenians in Lithuania proper date back to late medieval ages when the first proto-Russian merchants and craftsmen began to permanently reside in several Lithuanian towns.
[citation needed] In the late 17th century they were joined by many Russian Old Believers who settled in eastern Lithuania, escaping religious persecution in Russia.
Many Russians, especially Communist party members who had arrived in the area with the initial annexation, retreated to Russia; those who fell into German hands were treated harshly, many were murdered.
The Russians, along with a smaller number of other Soviet ethnic groups, who migrated to the Baltic were mostly factory workers who settled in major urban areas, as well as military personnel stationed in the region in significant numbers due to the border location of the Baltic States within the Soviet Union.
[citation needed] The flow of immigrants did not stop entirely, and there were further waves of Russian workers who came to work on major construction projects, such as power plants.