Online Encyclopedia
History of Lithuania
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Early History
The first Lithuanians, or Liths, were a branch of an ancient group known as the Balts, whose members also included the original Prussian and Latvian people. Unlike the Prussians and Latvians, the Lithuanians have successfully built a nation that has endured for most of the past few centuries. The first known reference to Lithuania as a nation (Litua) comes from the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg dated February 14, 1009.
In the early 13th century, a pair of German religious orders, the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, conquered much of what is now Estonia and Latvia, in addition to parts of Lithuania. In response, a number of small Baltic tribal groups united under the rule of Mindaugas (or Mindowe), and soundly defeated the Livonians at Siauliai in 1236. In 1250 Mindaugas signed an agreement with the Teutonic Order and in 1251 was baptized in their presence by the bishop of Chelmno (in Chelmno Land.) On July 6, 1253, Mindaugas was crowned as King of Lithuania. However, Mindaugas was later murdered by his nephew, subsequently resulting in great unrest and a relapse into paganism.
In 1316, Gediminas, with the aid of colonists from Germany, began the restoration of the land. Many cities were founded with the German system of laws (Magdeburg Rights). The largest of these cities was Vilnius, which later became the capital city. The brothers Vytenis and Gediminas united the components into one Lithuania.
Gediminas extended Lithuania to the east by challenging the Mongols, who controlled Russia. Through alliances and conquest the Lithuanians gained control of significant territory of Rus. This area included most of modern Belarus and the Ukraine. These gains created a massive Lithuanian empire that stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.
When Gediminas was slain, his son Algirdas (Olgierd ) suppressed the monasteries. Algirdas's son Jogaila (Jagiello) again made overtures to the Teutonic Order and concluded a secret treaty with them. His uncle Kestutis took him prisoner and a civil war ensued. Kestutis was eventually captured, imprisoned and put to death. However, Kestutis's son Vytautas escaped.
Jadwiga of Poland was strongly urged by the Poles to marry Jogaila or Jagiello, who had become grand duke of Lithuania in 1377. For the good of Christianity, Jadwiga consented and married Jogaila three days after he was baptized. On February 2, 1386, Wladislaw Jagiello was elected King of Poland by Polish Parliament (Sejm). Lithuania and Poland now shared the same rulers, although Lithuania remained a separate country and continued to be ruled by grand dukes. (Often the grand duke of Lithuania was also the king of Poland, etc.) Lithuania attempted to remain separate, but the highest aristocratic strata in Lithuania more and more accepted Polish culture and language. This accepting was voluntary, but its reasons are not clear. Supposedly, position of Catholic church and situation of mixing ethnic Lithuanian and Belarussian aristocracies might have influence to it. .
Lublin Union
With the Lublin Union of 1569 Poland and Lithuania formed a new state: the Republic of Both Nations (commonly known as Kingdom of Poland, see Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Polonization of Lithuanian life, especially of state institutions, became stronger. Under the influence of Lithuanian upper classes and the church, both using mainly Polish language, lower levels of the nobility and gentry and inhabitants of two biggest towns, Vilnius and Grodna, became bilingual or even adopted the Polish language. In 1696 Polish language was set as an official state language, instead of previous Belarusian.
Despite this integration, for nearly two centuries Lithuania continued to exist as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, retaining separate laws as well as an army and a Treasury. It wasn't until the Constitution of May 3, 1771, when this division was abolished by the Sejm. However, partitions of Poland, (1772, 1793 and 1795), saw Lithuania divided between Russia and Prussia. Subsequent to the partitions, Lithuania ceased to exist as a distinct entity for more than a century.
Partitions
Following the third partition, the Russian Empire controlled the majority of Lithuania. This included Vilnius, which with 25,000 inhabitants was now one of the largest cities in the Empire. In the early years of the 19th century, there were signs that Lithuania might be allowed some separate recognition by the Empire. These hopes were soon to be dashed, particularly subsequent to 1812, when Lithuanians eagerly welcomed Napoleon's invading French army as liberators.
After the French army's withdrawal, Tsar Nicholas I began an intensive program of russification. The south-western part of Lithuania included in Prussia in 1795 and in the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 became a part of the Russian-controlled Kingdom of Poland in 1815, while the rest continued to be administered as a Russian province. The Lithuanians and Poles revolted twice, in 1831 and 1863, failing in both attempts. In 1864, the Lithuanian language and Latin alphabet were banned.
Modern Times
Early 20th Century
Despite Russian attempts to integrate Lithuania, by the end of the 19th century Lithuania had developed a growing nationalist movement. During the Russia-wide revolutionary upsurge of 1905 a congress (Seimas) of Lithuanian representatives (December) demanded provincial autonomy. During World War I Lithuania's occupation by Germany (1915) and the subsequent collapse of the Russian imperial government led to the proclamation of an independent republic (February 16, 1918) under German control, and full independence upon Germany's surrender (November 1918).
The independence of both Lithuania and Poland produced a prolonged border dispute involving Vilnius (in Polish, Wilno), which Lithuania claimed as its historic capital, but which Polish irregular forces occupied during Polish-Soviet war in October 1920 (see Central Lithuania). Lithuania refused to accept Poland's annexation of the Vilnius district (March 1922), despite the fact that a large contingent of the population considered themselves Poles, and maintained a formal state of war until December 1927 and suspending relations with Poland until a Polish ultimatum (March 1938) forced their resumption.
Vilnius was not the only city whose possession was in dispute. Klaipeda (at the time called Memel) had been invaded by the Teutonic Knights 700 years earlier, but from 1446 to 1648 it was a part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Afterwards it became Prussian; much of the population were bilingual Lithuanian/German speakers and considered themselves members of the Prussian state. The Memelland district, including the city of Klaipeda, was made a separate territory under French occupation in 1920 as part of the Treaty of Versailles. Lithuania took advantage of the Ruhr crisis and seized the territory in January 1923, leading to its incorporation as an autonomous district of Lithuania in May 1924. Twice between 1924 and 1938, martial law was imposed to put down anti-Lithuanian movements in the German community. At the same time, the National Socialist Party, which was ideologically similar to the German Nazi Party, gained a larger voice in the city's politics. In the 1938 election, the National Socialists won the majority of seats and negotiated a settlement to hand over Klaipeda to Germany. A majority of the town's Jewish population, foreseeing this change in the cards, had already fled the area.
Following a succession of conservative governments, Lithuania's first elected government of the left (June 1926) was overthrown in a military coup in December 1926. Antanas Smetona, first president of Lithuania, resumed office as president, but with dictatorial powers; Augustinas Voldemaras of the far-right "Iron Wolf" movement originally served as his prime minister. After Voldemaras's fall in September 1929, Smetona continued to direct Lithuania's political affairs until 1940.
World War II
In August 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a secret agreement (the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact), assigning spheres of influence in the area of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania was initially assigned to the German sphere of influence, but when Lithuania refused to ally with Germany in the attack on Poland, it was transferred to the Soviets in another secret pact later that year. Shortly thereafter, the city of Vilnius was returned to Lithuania together with Vilnius County, and the Soviets established a military presence within the country.
In 1940, Lithuania was forced to proclaim itself a republic of the Soviet and join the USSR. In June of 1941, the USSR deported approximately 35,000 Lithuanians to Siberia and other parts of Russia. Additionally, positions of two ethnic groups, which had collaborated in creating of Lithuanian state, Lithuanians and Jews, separated. Lithuanians were frightened and astonished by inhuman deportations and watched for any possibility of liberation. Meanwhile Jewish population preferred Russian occupation to Nazi rule. This situation was used by Nazi propaganda a week later and may have influence on behavior of some Lithuanians during Nazi occupation.
On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Shortly thereafter, the German army took control of Lithuania. For a period of time, Lithuania was allowed limited self-governance. This was a bloody time for Lithuania; local tensions, no longer held back by the Red Army, exploded and led to the wholesale slaughter of many Jews and individuals seens as Russian collaborators; many Poles were also slaughtered by Lithuanian collaborators (see mass murder site in Ponary). The German army soon dissolved the local government, and began a rigorous program of deportation and extermination, mainly of Jewish citizens. Approximately 200,000 Jews were murdered, most of them shot or buried alive in mass-graves throughout the countryside, as wholesale death camps such as Auschwitz were not yet in operation.
Although many Lithuanians had welcomed the German invasion as liberation from Soviet oppression, they soon realized that the Nazis viewed the natives as second-class citizens. The Nazis and local collaborators deprived Lithuanian Jews of their civil rights and massacred about 200,000 of them. The importation of thousands of German farmers to work natives' lands, along with the dismissal of the Lithuanian government, soon produced a vigorous resistance movement. Together with Soviet partisans, supporters of independence put up a resistance movement to deflect Nazi recruitment of Lithuanians to the German army. Partisans moved through the woods and countryside, attacking German positions and supply lines. Partisans fought also amongst themselves and with people considered collaborators. In Central Lithuania, Armia Krajowa fought against Lithuanian police and forces of Povilas Plechavicius . AK forces committed at least one massacre of LIthuanian village Dubingiai (Dubinki), as answer to massacre of Polish village Glinciszki by Lithuanian police.
In summer of 1944, the Red Army reached eastern Lithuania, while the city of Wilno was liberated by the Home Army during the ill-fated Operation Ostra Brama. By January 1945, the Russians captured Klaipeda, on the Baltic coast. The USSR subsequently reclaimed Lithuania as a Soviet republic, with the agreement of the United States and Britain (see Yalta and Potsdam Agreements.)
Post World War II
The mass deportation campaigns of 1941-52 exiled 29,923 families to Siberia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union. Official statistics state that more than 120,000 people were deported from Lithuania during this period, while some sources estimate the number of political prisoners and deportees at 300,000. In response to these events, an estimated several tens of thousands of resistance fighters participated in unsuccessful guerilla warfare against the Soviet regime from 1944-53. Soviet authorities encouraged immigration of other Soviet workers, especially Russians, as a way of integrating Lithuania into the Soviet Union and to encourage industrial development. This period has a dedicated Grutas theme park.
Post Soviet Era
Until mid-1988, all political, economic, and cultural life was controlled by the Lithuanian Communist Party (LCP). Lithuanians as well as people in two other Baltic republics distrusted Soviet regime even more than people in other regions of the Soviet state, and gave their own specific and active support to Gorbachev's program of social and political reforms by Lithuanians. Under the leadership of intellectuals, the Lithuanian reform movement "Sąjūdis " was formed in mid-1988 and declared a program of democratic and national rights, winning nationwide popularity. Inspired by Sąjūdis, the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet passed constitutional amendments on the supremacy of Lithuanian laws over Soviet legislation, annulled the 1940 decisions on proclaiming Lithuania a part of the U.S.S.R., legalized a multi-party system, and adopted a number of other important decisions. A large number of LCP members also supported the ideas of Sąjūdis, and with Sąjūdis support, Algirdas Brazauskas was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the LCP in 1988. In December 1989, the Brazauskas-led LCP declared its independence from the Communist party of the Soviet Union and became a separate party, which after it renamed itself in 1990 the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party .
In 1990, Sąjūdis-backed candidates won the elections to the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet. On March 11, 1990, the Supreme Soviet (or, more precisely, the Supreme Council of Lithuania ) proclaimed the restitution of Lithuanian independence, becoming the first of the Soviet republics to declare national rights. The Supreme Council of Lithuania also appointed leaders of the state and adopted the Provisional Fundamental Law (temporary constitution) on this day. Vytautas Landsbergis became the head of the state and Kazimiera Prunskienė led the Cabinet of Ministers. On March 15 the U.S.S.R. demanded revocation of the act and began employing political and economic sanctions against Lithuania as well as demonstrating military force. Lithuanians, inspired by their government, protested against Soviet actions by using peaceful means and not trying to use some extreme or gun shifts. On January 10, 1991, U.S.S.R. authorities seized the main publishing house and other premises in Vilnius and attempted to suppress the elected government by sponsoring a so called National Salvation Committee . Three days later, the Soviets forcibly took over the TV tower, killing 14 unarmed civilians and injuring 700. The self-styled National Salvation Committee declared the Government overthrown, but capturing of houses of the Supreme Council and the Government never followed. Moscow failed to act further to crush the Lithianian independence movement, in light of widespread world criticism and a dearth of local popular support. The Lithuanian government continued to work. During the national plebiscite on February 9 more than 90% of those who took part in the voting (76% of all eligible voters) voted in favor of an independent, democratic Lithuania. Led by tenacious Landsbergis, Lithuanian leadership continued to labor for Western diplomatic recognition of its independence. Meanwhile, Soviet military and security forces continued forced conscription, occasional seizure of buildings, attacks on customs posts, and a few killings of customs and police officials.
During the August 19 coup against Gorbachev, Soviet military troops took over several communications and other government facilities in Vilnius and other cities, but returned to their barracks when the coup failed. The Lithuanian Government banned the Communist Party and ordered confiscation of its property.
Despite Lithuania's achievement of complete independence, sizable numbers of Russian forces in its territory. Withdrawal of those forces was one of Lithuania's top foreign policy priorities. Lithuania and Russia signed an agreement on September 8, 1992, calling for Russian troop withdrawals by August 31, 1993, which took place on time. Lithuania subsequently has restructured its economy for eventual integration into Western European institutions.
In October 2002, Lithuania was invited to join the European Union and one month later, to join NATO. It became a member of both in 2004.