For many ordinary Lithuanians, the euro represents an unsettling change in a country that has had more than its share of upheaval in the last century. Juozas Ruzgys, a 36-year-old Vilnius resident who works in public relations, said he was in favor of the euro, but that his wife’s parents — farmers near the border with Latvia — were nervous about giving up a currency they trust. “For them it’s important that the value doesn’t change,” Mr. Ruzgys said, speaking at a local pub.

In Vilnius, covered with a frosting of snow this week, there was little sense that a momentous change was about to take place. Stores displayed signs in the old and new currencies. At the National Museum Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Tadas Balza was one of three guides on staff at an exhibition on the new currency. He said that Lithuanian visitors were often reassured to learn that there will be euro coins imprinted with the Lithuanian national symbol, a knight on a horse.

The changeover to euro bills and coins will be a subdued affair. On Thursday, just after midnight, Mr. Vasiliauskas and other top officials will withdraw the first euro bills from an A.T.M. on Vilnius’s main thoroughfare.

In the Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament, a large majority supported membership in the eurozone. A right-wing party, Order and Justice, has tried to exploit anti-euro sentiment, but has attracted limited support.

Lithuanians who are in favor of the euro equate it with easier travel and commerce, the surveys show. They do not equate it with national security. But Marius Laurinavicius, a senior analyst at the Eastern Europe Studies Center in Vilnius, said he thought that Lithuanians underestimate how much joining the euro will protect them from aggressive moves by Russia, which has recently staged military drills over the border that Lithuania shares with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

“Joining the core of the European Union would make Lithuania much safer from Russian influence and even Russian aggression,” Mr. Laurinavicius said. He added, “We have no other choice.”