Historyedit

The first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC: Kunda, Neman and Narva cultures. They were traveling hunters. In the 8th millennium BC, the climate became warmer, and forests developed. The inhabitants of what is now Lithuania travelled less and engaged in local hunting, gathering and fresh-water fishing. Agriculture did not emerge until the 3rd millennium BC due to a harsh climate and terrain and a lack of suitable tools to cultivate the land. Crafts and trade started to form. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population and formed various Baltic tribes.

The Baltic tribes did not maintain close cultural or political contacts with the Roman Empire, but they did maintain trade contacts (see Amber Road). Tacitus, in his study Germania, described the Aesti people, inhabitants of the south-eastern Baltic Sea shores who were probably Balts, around the year 97 AD. The Western Balts differentiated and became known to outside chroniclers first. Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD knew of the Galindians and Yotvingians, and early medieval chroniclers mentioned Old Prussians, Curonians and Semigallians.

The Lithuanian language is considered to be very conservative for its close connection to Indo-European roots. It is believed to have differentiated from the Latvian language, the most closely related existing language, around the 7th century. Traditional Lithuanian pagan customs and mythology, with many archaic elements, were long preserved. Rulers' bodies were cremated up until the conversion to Christianity: the descriptions of the cremation ceremonies of the grand dukes Algirdas and Kęstutis have survived.

Grand Duchy of Lithuaniaedit

From the 9th to the 11th centuries, coastal Balts were subjected to raids by the Vikings, and the kings of Denmark intermittently collected tribute. During the 10–11th centuries, Lithuanian territories were among the lands paying tribute to Kievan Rus', and Yaroslav the Wise was among the Ruthenian rulers who invaded Lithuania. From the mid-12th century, it was the Lithuanians who were invading Ruthenian territories. In 1183, Polotsk and Pskov were ravaged, and even the distant and powerful Novgorod Republic was threatened by the excursions from the emerging Lithuanian power toward the end of the 12th century.

From the late 12th century, an organized Lithuanian military force existed; it was used for external raids, plundering and gathering of slaves. Such military and pecuniary activities fostered social differentiation and triggered a struggle for power. This initiated the formation of early statehood, from which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania developed. Disparate Lithuanian tribes were united into the Lithuanian state by 1219. The only Lithuanian Roman Catholic king, Mindaugas, was baptised in 1251 and crowned as King of Lithuania in 1253. After Mindaugas' assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and Livonian Order. The siege of Pilėnai is noted for the Lithuanians' defense. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded, overtaking former Ruthenian principalities of Kievan Rus'.

On 22 September 1236, the Battle of Saulė between Samogitians and the Livonian Brothers of the Sword took place close to Šiauliai. The Livonian Brothers were defeated and their further conquest of the Balts lands stopped. The battle inspired rebellions among the Curonians, Semigallians, Selonians, Oeselians, tribes previously conquered by the Sword-Brothers. 30 years' worth of conquests on the left bank of Daugava were lost. In 2000, the Lithuanian and Latvian parliaments declared 22 September to be the Day of Baltic Unity.

According to the legend, Grand Duke Gediminas was once hunting near the Vilnia River; tired after the hunt, he settled in for the night and dreamed of a huge Iron Wolf standing on a hill and howling as loud as a hundred wolves. Krivis (pagan priest) Lizdeika interpreted the dream that the Iron Wolf represents Vilnius Castles. Gediminas, built the city and gave it the name Vilnius – from the stream of the Vilnia River.

In 1362 or 1363, Grand Duke Algirdas achieved a decisive victory in the Battle of Blue Waters against the Golden Horde. The victory brought Kyiv and a large part of present-day Ukraine, under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After taking Kyiv, Lithuania became a neighbor and rival of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

By the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between west and east determined the multicultural character of the Grand Duchy. The elite practised religious tolerance and the Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Poland's offer to become its king. Jogaila embarked on christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. Lithuania was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity.

After two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. Lithuania reached the peak of its territorial expansion, centralization of the state began, and the Lithuanian nobility became prominent in politics. In the Battle of the Vorskla River in 1399, the combined forces of Tokhtamysh and Vytautas were defeated by the Mongols. Thanks to close cooperation, the armies of Lithuania and Poland prevailed over the Teutonic Knights in 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald, one of the largest battles of medieval Europe.

Since the 14th–15th centuries patrilineal members of the Lithuanian ruling Gediminids dynasty ruled not only Lithuania, but Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, and Moldavia. In January 1429, at the Congress of Lutsk Vytautas received the title of King of Lithuania with the backing of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, but the envoys who were transporting the crown were stopped by Polish magnates in autumn of 1430. Another crown was sent, but Vytautas died in the Trakai Island Castle several days before it reached Lithuania. After the deaths of Jogaila and Vytautas, the Lithuanian nobility attempted to break the union between Poland and Lithuania, independently selecting Grand Dukes from the Jagiellon dynasty. But, at the end of the 15th century, Lithuania was forced into a closer alliance with Poland when the growing power of the Grand Duchy of Moscow threatened Lithuania's Russian principalities and sparked the Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars and Livonian War.

In 1514, the Battle of Orsha between Lithuanians, commanded by the Grand Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski, and Muscovites was fought. The much smaller army of Poland–Lithuania (under 30,000 men) defeated a force of 80,000 Muscovite soldiers, capturing their camp and commander. The battle destroyed a military alliance against Lithuania and Poland. Thousands of Muscovites were captured and used as labourers in the Lithuanian manors. The Livonian War ceased for ten years with the Truce of Yam-Zapolsky signed in 1582 according to which the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth recovered Livonia, Polotsk and Velizh. The truce was extended for twenty years in 1600, when a diplomatic mission to Moscow led concluded negotiations with Tsar Boris Godunov. The truce was broken when the Poles invaded Muscovy in 1605.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealthedit

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was created in 1569 by the Union of Lublin. As a member of the Commonwealth, Lithuania retained its institutions, including separate army, currency, and statutory laws – the Statute of Lithuania. Eventually Polonization affected all aspects of Lithuanian life: politics, language, culture, and national identity. From the mid-16th to the mid-17th centuries, culture, arts, and education flourished, fueled by the Renaissance and Protestant Reformation. From 1573, the Kings of Poland and Grand Dukes of Lithuania were elected by the nobility, who were granted ever-increasing Golden Liberties. These liberties, especially the liberum veto, led to anarchy and eventual dissolution of the state.

The Commonwealth reached its Golden Age in the early 17th century. Its powerful parliament was dominated by nobles reluctant to get involved in the Thirty Years' War; this neutrality spared the country from the ravages of a political-religious conflict that devastated most of Europe. The Commonwealth held its own against Sweden, the Tsardom of Russia, and vassals of the Ottoman Empire, and even launched successful expansionist offensives against its neighbours. In several invasions during the Time of Troubles, Commonwealth troops entered Russia, took Moscow and held it from September 1610 to November 1612, when they were driven out after a siege.

In 1655, after a battle, for the first time in history Vilnius was taken by a foreign army. The Russian army looted the city, churches and manors. Between 8,000 and 10,000 citizens were killed; the city burned for 17 days. The Russian occupation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania lasted to 1661. Many artefacts and cultural heritage were either lost or looted, significant parts of the state archive – Lithuanian Metrica, collected since the 13th century, were lost and the rest was moved out of the country. During the Northern Wars (1655–61), the Lithuanian territory and economy were devastated by the Swedish army. Almost all territory of the Grand Duchy was occupied by Swedish and Russian armies. This period is known as Tvanas (The Deluge).

Before it could fully recover, Lithuania was ravaged during the Great Northern War (1700–21). The war, a plague, and a famine caused the deaths of approximately 40% of the population. Foreign powers, especially Russia, became dominant in the domestic politics of the Commonwealth. Fractions among the nobility used the Golden Liberties to prevent reform.

The Constitution of 3 May 1791 was adopted by the Great Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth trying to save the state. The legislation was designed to redress political defects due to the system of Golden Liberties, also known as the "Nobles' Democracy," which had conferred disproportionate rights on the nobility and had corrupted politics. The constitution sought to supplant the prevailing anarchy fostered by magnates with a more democratic constitutional monarchy. It introduced elements of political equality between townspeople and nobility, and placed the peasants under protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. It banned parliamentary institutions such as the liberum veto, which had put the Sejm at the mercy of any deputy who could revoke all legislation that had been passed. It was drafted in relation to a copy of the United States Constitution. It is regarded as the world's second-oldest codified national government constitution after the 1787 U.S. Constitution.

Russian Empireedit

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Emilia Plater, often nicknamed as a Lithuanian Joan of Arc, leading peasant scythemen during the 1831 uprising

Bishop Motiejus Valančius resisted Russification. He urged protest against closing of Catholic churches and organised book printing in Lithuania Minor.

Eventually, the Commonwealth was partitioned in 1772, 1793, and 1795 by the Russian Empire, Prussia, and the Habsburg monarchy. The largest area of Lithuanian territory became part of the Russian Empire. After the unsuccessful uprisings in 1831 and 1863, the Tsarist authorities implemented Russification policies. In 1840 the Third Statute of Lithuania was abolished. They banned the Lithuanian press, closed cultural and educational institutions and made Lithuania part of a new administrative region called Northwestern Krai. These policies and ensuing lack of economic opportunities lead to up to 25% of population migrating from the country by 1914.

The Russification failed, owing to an extensive network of Lithuanian book smugglers and secret homeschooling. Simonas Daukantas promoted a return to Lithuania's pre-Commonwealth traditions, which he depicted as a Golden Age of Lithuania and a renewal of the native culture, based on the Lithuanian language and customs. He wrote in 1822 a history of Lithuania in Lithuanian – The Deeds of Ancient Lithuanians and Samogitians, though it was not published at that time. Teodor Narbutt wrote in Polish a voluminous Ancient History of the Lithuanian Nation (1835–1841), where he expanded further on the concept of historic Lithuania, whose days of glory had ended with the Union of Lublin in 1569. Narbutt, invoking German scholarship, pointed out the relationship between the Lithuanian and Sanskrit languages. A Lithuanian National Revival, inspired by Lithuanian history, language and culture, laid the foundations of the modern Lithuanian nation and independent Lithuania.

After the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), the Russian Emperor Alexander II approved the military's recommendation to build the largest "first-class" defensive structure in the entire empire – the 65 km (25 sq mi) Kaunas Fortress, along with the resumption of construction of fortresses alongside the border with the German Empire.

20th and 21st centuriesedit

1918–1939edit

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As a result of the Great Retreat during World War I, Germany occupied the entire territory of Lithuania and Courland by the end of 1915. A new administrative entity, Ober Ost, was established. Lithuanians lost political rights they had gained: personal freedom was restricted, and the Lithuanian press was banned. However, the Lithuanian intelligentsia tried to take advantage of the existing geopolitical situation and began to look for opportunities to restore Lithuania's independence. On 18–22 September 1917, the Vilnius Conference elected the 20-member Council of Lithuania. The council adopted the Act of Independence of Lithuania on 16 February 1918 which proclaimed the restoration of independent Lithuania governed by democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital. The state of Lithuania which had been built within the framework of the Act lasted from 1918 until 1940.

Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, the first Provisional Constitution of Lithuania was adopted and the first government of Prime Minister Augustinas Voldemaras organized. The army and other state institutions began to be organized. Lithuania fought three wars of independence: against the Bolsheviks who proclaimed the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, against the Bermontians, and against Poland. As a result of the staged Żeligowski's Mutiny in October 1920, Poland took control of the Vilnius Region and annexed it as Wilno Voivodeship in 1922. Lithuania continued to claim Vilnius as its de jure capital (the de facto, provisional capital being Kaunas). Relations with Poland remained tense and hostile for the interwar period. In January 1923, Lithuania staged the Klaipėda Revolt and captured Klaipėda Region which was detached from East Prussia by the Treaty of Versailles. The region became an autonomous region of Lithuania.

On 15 May 1920, the first meeting of the democratically elected constituent assembly took place. The subsequently adopted constitutions of 1920 and 1922, strove to regulate the life of the new state. Land, finance, and educational reforms started to be implemented. The Lithuanian litas currency was introduced and the University of Lithuania was opened. Major public institutions had been established. As Lithuania began to gain stability, foreign countries started to recognize it. In 1921 Lithuania was admitted to the League of Nations.

In December 1926, a military coup took place, resulting in the replacement of the democratically elected government with a conservative authoritarian government led by Antanas Smetona. Augustinas Voldemaras was appointed to form a government. The so-called authoritarian phase had begun strengthening the influence of one party, the Lithuanian Nationalist Union. In 1927, the Seimas was dissolved. A new constitution was adopted in 1928, which consolidated presidential powers. Opposition parties were banned, censorship was tightened, and the rights of minorities narrowed. The only democratically elected body that continued was a Parliament of the Klaipėda Region.

On 15 July 1933, Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas, Lithuanian pilots, emigrants to the US, made a significant flight in the history of world aviation. They flew across the Atlantic Ocean, covering a distance of 6,411 km (3,984 mi) without landing, in 37 hours and 11 minutes (172.4 km/h (107.1 mph)). As far as the distance of non-stop flights was concerned, their result ranked second only to that of Russell Boardman and John Polando.

The country had a Western standard of living with high salaries and low prices. Skilled workers were earning similar real wages to workers in Germany and France. The country had a surprisingly high natural increase in population of 9.7 and the industrial production of Lithuania increased by 160% from 1913 to 1940. The situation was changed by the Great Depression. The purchase price of agricultural products had declined significantly. In 1935, farmers began strikes; in addition to economic demands, political ones were made. The government cruelly suppressed the unrest: in the spring of 1936, four peasants were sentenced to death for starting the riots.

1939–1944edit

On 20 March 1939, after years of rising tensions, Lithuania was handed an ultimatum by Nazi Germany demanding it relinquish the Klaipėda Region. Two days later, the Lithuanian government accepted the ultimatum. When Nazi Germany and Soviet Union concluded the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Lithuania was initially assigned to the German sphere of influence. At the outbreak of World War II, Lithuania declared neutrality. Hitler's cabinet had urged the goverment to simultaneously invade Poland and retake Vilnius, but the insistence was rebuffed.

Afterwards, mainland Lithuania was transferred to the Soviet sphere. In October 1939, Lithuania was forced to sign the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty: five Soviet military bases with 18,000 troops were established in Lithuania, a reduction from the initial demand of 50,000, in exchange for the Vilnius Region, which the Soviets had captured from Poland. Delayed by the Winter War with Finland, the Soviets issued an ultimatum to Lithuania on 14 June 1940. They demanded the replacement of the Lithuanian government and that the Red Army be allowed into the country. The government decided that, with Soviet bases already in Lithuania, armed resistance was impossible and accepted the ultimatum. President Smetona left the country, hoping to form a government in exile, while more than 200,000 Soviet soldiers crossed the Belarus–Lithuania border. The next day, identical ultimatums were presented to Latvia and Estonia and the Baltic states were occupied.

The Soviets followed semi-constitutional procedures for transforming the independent countries into Soviet republics and incorporating them into the Soviet Union. Vladimir Dekanozov was sent to supervise the formation of the puppet People's Government and the rigged election to the People's Seimas. The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed on 21 July and on 3 August accepted into the Soviet Union. Lithuania was rapidly Sovietized: political parties and various organizations (except the Communist Party of Lithuania) were outlawed, some 12,000 people, were arrested and imprisoned in the Gulag as "enemies of the people", larger private property was nationalized, the litas was replaced by the Soviet rouble, farm taxes were increased by 50–200% and the Lithuanian Army was transformed into the 29th Rifle Corps of the Red Army. On 14–18 June 1941, less than a week before the Nazi invasion, some 17,000 Lithuanians were deported to Siberia, where many perished due to inhumane living conditions (see June deportation). The occupation was not recognized by Western powers and the Lithuanian Diplomatic Service, based on pre-war consulates and legations, continued to represent independent Lithuania until 1990.

When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Lithuanians began the anti-Soviet June Uprising. Lithuanians proclaimed independence and organized the Provisional Government of Lithuania. This government quickly self-disbanded. Lithuania became part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland, German civil administration.

By 1 December 1941, over 120,000 Lithuanian Jews, or 91–95% of Lithuania's pre-war Jewish community, had been killed. Nearly 100,000 Jews, Poles, Russians and Lithuanians were murdered at Paneriai. However, thousands of Lithuanian families risked their lives protecting Jews from the Holocaust. Israel has recognized 918 Lithuanians as Righteous Among the Nations for risking their lives to save Jews.

Approximately 13,000 men served in the Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalions. 10 of the 26 Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalions working with the Nazi Einsatzkommando, were involved in the mass killings. Rogue units organised by Algirdas Klimaitis and supervised by SS Brigadeführer Walter Stahlecker started the Kaunas pogrom in June 1941. In 1941, the Lithuanian Security Police, subordinate to Nazi Germany's Security Police and Criminal Police, was created. It targeted the communist underground.

During the occupation, nationalized assets were not returned to the residents. Some were forced to fight for Germany or taken to German territories as forced labourers. Jewish people were herded into ghettos and killed by shooting or sending them to concentration camps.

1944–1990edit

After the retreat of the German armed forces, the Soviets reestablished their control of Lithuania in July–October 1944. The massive deportations to Siberia were resumed and lasted until the death of Stalin in 1953. Antanas Sniečkus, leader of the Communist Party of Lithuania from 1940 to 1974, supervised the deportations. All Lithuanian national symbols were banned. Under the pretext of Lithuania's economic recovery, the Moscow authorities encouraged the migration of workers and other specialists to Lithuania with the intention to further integrate Lithuania into the Soviet Union and to develop the country's industry. Lithuanians were lured to work in the USSR by promising them the privileges of settling in a new place.

The second Soviet occupation was accompanied by the guerrilla warfare of the Lithuanian population, which took place in 1944–1953. It sought to restore an independent state, to consolidate democracy by destroying communism in the country, returning national values and the freedom of religion. About 50,000 Lithuanians took to the forests and fought Soviet occupiers. In the later stages of the partisan war, Lithuanians formed the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters and its leader Jonas Žemaitis (codename Vytautas) was posthumously recognized as the president of Lithuania. Despite the fact guerrilla warfare did not achieve its goal of liberating Lithuania and resulted in more than 20,000 deaths, armed resistance demonstrated that Lithuania did not voluntarily join the USSR and legitimized the will of the people of Lithuania to be independent. Lithuanian courts and the ECHR treat the Soviets' annihilation of the Lithuanian partisans as a genocide.

Even with the suppression of partisan resistance, the Soviet government failed to stop the movement for the independence of Lithuania. The underground dissident groups were active in publishing the underground press and Catholic literature. The Helsinki Group, which was founded in Lithuania after an international conference in Helsinki, where the post-WWII borders were acknowledged, announced a declaration for Lithuania's independence on a foreign radio station. The Helsinki Group informed the Western world about the situation in the Soviet Lithuania and violations of human rights.

With the beginning of the increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities (glasnost) in the Soviet Union, on 3 June 1988, the Sąjūdis was established in Lithuania. Very soon it began to seek the country's independence. Eventually, Vytautas Landsbergis became the movement's leader. The supporters of Sąjūdis joined movement groups all over Lithuania. On 23 August 1988 a large rally took place at the Vingis Park in Vilnius. It was attended by about 250,000 people. A year later, on 23 August 1989 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and aiming to draw the attention of the world to the occupation of the Baltic states, a political demonstration, the Baltic Way, was organized. The event, led by Sąjūdis, was a human chain spanning 600 kilometres (370 mi) across Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn, indicating the desire of the people of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to break from the Soviet Union.

1990–presentedit

On 11 March 1990, the Supreme Council announced the restoration of Lithuania's independence. The Act was the first such declaration in the USSR and served as an inspiration to other Soviet republics, and strongly influenced the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

On 11 March 1990, the Supreme Council announced the restoration of Lithuania's independence. Lithuania became the first Soviet-occupied state to announce the restitution of independence. On 20 April 1990, the Soviets imposed an economic blockade by ceasing to deliver supplies of raw materials to Lithuania. Not only domestic industry, but also the population started feeling the lack of fuel, essential goods, and even hot water. Although the blockade lasted for 74 days, Lithuania did not renounce the declaration of independence.

Gradually, economic relations were restored. However, tensions peaked again in January 1991. Attempts were made to carry out a coup using the Soviet Armed Forces, the Internal Army of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the USSR Committee for State Security (KGB). Because of the poor economic situation in Lithuania, the forces in Moscow thought the coup d'état would receive strong public support. People flooded to Vilnius to defend the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania and independence. The coup ended with a few casualties and material loss. The Soviet Army killed 14 people and injured hundreds. A large part of the Lithuanian population participated in the January Events. On 31 July 1991, Soviet paramilitaries killed 7 Lithuanian border guards on the Belarusian border in what became known as the Medininkai Massacre. On 17 September 1991, Lithuania was admitted to the United Nations.

On 25 October 1992, citizens voted in a referendum to adopt the current constitution. On 14 February 1993, during the direct general elections, Algirdas Brazauskas became the first president after the restoration of independence. On 31 August 1993 the last units of the former Soviet Army left Lithuania.

On 31 May 2001, Lithuania joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since March 2004, Lithuania has been part of NATO. On 1 May 2004, it became a full member of the European Union, and a member of the Schengen Agreement in December 2007. On 1 January 2015, Lithuania joined the eurozone and adopted the European Union's single currency. On 4 July 2018, Lithuania officially joined the OECD. Dalia Grybauskaitė was the first female President of Lithuania (2009–19) and the first to be re-elected for a second consecutive term.

On 24 February 2022, Lithuania declared a state of emergency in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Together with the eight other NATO member states, it invoked NATO Article 4 to hold consultations on security. On 11–12 July 2023, the 2023 NATO summit was held in Vilnius.