Following end of the First World War on November 11, 1918, a political vacuum emerged in Vilnius, as the German Ober Ost project crumbled.
[1] The pro-communist Vilnius Soviet became one of the political forces seeking to govern the city competing with the Lithuanian Taryba and the Polish Samoobrona.
As such, new elections were organized after Vilnius was captured by the Red Army on January 5, 1919 during the Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919.
By allowing Red Army soldiers to vote, the communist reinforced their control of the Vilnius Soviet.
For example, the railway workers union organized a mass meeting, which elected forty delegates (communists and allies) to the Vilnius Soviet.
[19] The soviet attempted to organize militia to control the railway traffic, including German military trains.
Non-communist groups proposed a motion which refused to cede power to the newly proclaimed Provisional Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Government of Lithuania headed by Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas.
[24] Preparing for an armed confrontation with the Polish legionnaires, the Vilnius Soviet proceeded to organize a workers militia.
[26] The Communist Party presented a motion calling for a confrontation with the bourgeoisie, demanding the transfer of all institutions, resources, and government employees to the Vilnius Soviet, and for looters of food stuffs to be court-martialed.
The Bund rejected the communist motion, arguing that the struggle should be directed solely against the German occupation forces, not the local bourgeoisie.
[28] Around 11 pm the leader of the Polish forces, general Władysław Wejtko, issued an ultimatum to surrender which the soviet refused.
[35] After the shoot-out, the Polish Samoobrona captured dozens of Vilnius Soviet organizers and seized some 1,000 weapons that the revolutionaries had obtained from the retreating German troops.
[41] At its first meeting on February 7, 1919, the Vilnius Soviet of Workers and Red Army Deputies elected a 20-member Executive Committee which included 16 communists, 3 Bundists, and 1 Menshevik-Internationalist.