During World War I, about 150,000 residents fit for service from the territory of present-day Lithuania were conscripted into the Tsarist Russian army. More than 800,000 people—a third of the entire population within the territory of present-day Lithuania at the time—fled or were forced to relocate further east into Tsarist Russian territory. Residents of frontline villages were forcibly evicted by the Germans, and their property was requisitioned for war needs. This same fate befell Paliesius Manor.
