 A Soviet military base was established in the current "Šiaurės miestelis" section of Žirmūnai during the 1950s.The heavily wooded northernmost part of the elderate was thinly populated until the 1960s.During the 1960s, Žirmūnai attracted the attention of urban planners; it became the first city district in the Lithuanian SSR to be constructed applying urban planning concepts established in the USSR at that time.