centre (see the Ponary massacre). Vilnius' situation in 1944 was tenuous. As the Eastern Front neared Lithuania, the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (LTDF) under general Plechavičius was founded in mid-February to fight the Red Army and Soviet partisans, both only within Lithuanian borders, but it was soon brutally disbanded in mid-April by the Germans due to German-Lithuanian friction. As Armia Krajowa (AK) operated within the borders of interwar Poland, which overlapped with the Lithuanian lands, this caused clashes between both organisations. In early July, Operation Ostra Brama was a failed attempt of the AK to take the city from the Wehrmacht before the approaching Red Army. As the Polish army did not take over the city, the speed of the Soviet Vilnius offensive led to a joint Polish-Soviet effort to seize Vilnius. After the battle, the Polish army was dispersed, some of it incorporated into the Soviet-loyal Polish People's Army, while the officers were arrested and imprisoned. In the Lithuanian SSR (Soviet Union) In July 1944, Vilnius was once more occupied by Soviet Army with the Vilnius offensive, during which it defeated the German garrison. The town was once more the Lithuanian SSR's capital. The NKVD began repressions against Lithuanians and Poles. Sovietization began in earnest. The war had irreversibly altered the city – between 1939 and 1949, Vilnius lost almost 90% of its population, through murder, deportation or exile, many buildings were destroyed. The Jewish population had been exterminated in the Holocaust, while most of the remaining ones were compelled to move to Communist Poland by 1946. Some partisans and members of the intelligentsia hiding in the forest were now targeted and deported to Siberia after the war. From the late 1940s on Vilnius began to grow again, following an influx of Lithuanians, Poles and Belarusians from neighbouring regions and throughout Lithuania as well as neighbouring region of Grodno and from other more remote areas of the Soviet Union (particularly Russia, Belarus and Ukraine). Most of these new residents moved to Vilnius, due to repressions or poor living conditions caused by, e.g. collectivisation, in areas, where they lived previously. On the previously rural outskirts as well as in the very vicinity of the Old Town (industrial zones in Paupys, Markučiai, Naujamiestis), industrial areas were (re)designed and large Soviet plants were built, following a program of industrialization. In November 1980, the number of inhabitants of Vilnius exceeded 500,000. Because of