Lithuania is a unitary parliamentary republic located in Northern Europe's Baltic region, bordering Russia's Kaliningrad and Poland to the southwest, Belarus to the east, and Latvia to the north. For much of its history it was in a commonwealth with Poland.
History[]
Location of Lithuania
Lithuanians first unified in 1253 under king Mindaugas. They quickly rose in strength and conquered many lands to the south and east of it, at its peak reaching the black sea. In 1569 Lithuania united with Poland to form the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This commonwealth lasted until 1795 when the Russian, German and Austrian Empires divided it up for themselves. Under Russian rule Lithuanians rebelled in 1795, 1831 and 1865. After the 1865 rebellion the Russians made it illegal to make Lithuanian literature, so Lithuanians resorted to printing the books in Eastern Prussia and smuggling them in to distribute to the people. Lithuania became a republic on 16 February 1918 as a puppet state of the German Empire, who took over the region from the Russian Empire during World War I. Lithuania's independence was not realized until 11 November 1918, when the World War I ceasefire forced the German troops to surrender. Lithuania was granted independence as a German satellite nation along with neighboring Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus, and Lithuania fought a wars of independence against the Soviet Union, Poland and the White Russian army. The Soviets attempted to reclaim all of the former lands of the Russian Empire. The Polish tried to annex Lithuania to "reform" the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but without Lithuania having sovereignty. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia remained independent in these wars, defeating the Red Army of the USSR through guerrilla warfare by 1921. In 1923, the Lithuanian Army occupied Memel from the French postwar government after a rebellion to join the Lithuanian Prussians with the motherland.
Lithuania remained an independent country until 15 June 1940, when 500,000 Red Army troops occupied the Baltic countries without much opposition. The Soviets were driven out a year and a week later, when Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and occupied eastern Europe up to the gates of Moscow. The Lithuanian Forest Brothers fought a guerrilla war against both the Germans and Soviets, but in July 1944 Lithuania was occupied by the Soviets once more. The Lithuanians continued to fight the Soviet Union with guerilla warfare until it ended (officially) in 1953.
Lithuania was a part of the USSR as the Lithuanian SSR until 11 March 1990, when Lithuania was granted independence from the Soviets after a revolution. The new government was a unitary parliamentary republic ruled democratically from the capital of Vilnius.
Culture[]
Lasinai pork underskin fat
Cepelinai, Lithuania's national dish
In 2014, Lithuania had a population of 2,944,459 people. In 2011, a census showed that 84.1% of the population were Lithuanians, 6.6% were Poles, 5.8% Russians, 1.2% Belarusians, .5% Ukrainians, .1% Jews, .1% Tatars, .1% Germans, .1% Romani, .1% Latvians, and 1.3% others. 77% were Roman Catholic, 4.8% Orthodox, .8% Protestant, 6% nonreligious, and 10% other, including Jews.