Russians in Lithuania numbered 176,913 people, according to the Lithuanian census of 2011, or 5.8% of the total population of Lithuania. First early settlements of Ruthenians in what is now Lithuania date back to late medieval ages when the first proto-Russian merchants and craftsmen began to permanently reside in several Lithuanian towns. In the late 17th century they were joined by many Russian Old Believers who settled in eastern Lithuania, escaping religious persecution in Russia.