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Thehistory of Lithuania dates back to settlements founded about 10,000 years ago,[1][2] but the first written record of the name for the country dates back to 1009 AD.[3]Lithuanians, one of theBaltic peoples, later conquered neighboring lands and established theGrand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century (and also a short-livedKingdom of Lithuania). The Grand Duchy was a successful and lasting warrior state. It remained fiercely independent and was one of the last areas of Europe toadopt Christianity (beginning in the 14th century). A formidable power, it became the largest state inEurope in the 15th century spread from theBaltic Sea to theBlack Sea, through the conquest of large groups ofEast Slavs who resided inRuthenia.[4]
In 1385, the Grand Duchy formed adynastic union withPoland through theUnion of Krewo. Later, theUnion of Lublin (1569) created thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. During theSecond Northern War, the Grand Duchy sought protection under theSwedish Empire through theUnion of Kėdainiai in 1655. However, it soon returned to being a part of the Polish–Lithuanian state, which persisted until 1795 when the last of thePartitions of Poland erased both independent Lithuania and Poland from the political map. After thedissolution, Lithuanians lived under the rule of theRussian Empire until the 20th century, although there were several major rebellions, especially in1830–1831 and1863.
On 16 February 1918,Lithuania was re-established as a democratic state. It remained independent until the onset ofWorld War II, when it was occupied by theSoviet Union under the terms of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Following a brief occupation byNazi Germany after the Naziswaged war on the Soviet Union, Lithuania was againabsorbed into the Soviet Union for nearly 50 years. In 1990–1991, Lithuania restored its sovereignty with theAct of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. Lithuania joined theNATO alliance in 2004 and theEuropean Union as part ofits enlargement in 2004.
The first humans arrived on the territory of modern Lithuania in the second half of the 10th millennium BC after the glaciers receded at the end of thelast glacial period.[2] They were traveling hunters and did not form stable settlements. According to the historianMarija Gimbutas, these people came from two directions: theJutland Peninsula and from present-dayPoland. They brought two different cultures, as evidenced by the tools they used.[citation needed] The following centuries are characterised by the "BalticMagdalenian" and theSwiderian culture.[5] In the 8th millennium BC, the climate became much warmer, and forests developed. The inhabitants of what is now Lithuania then traveled less and engaged in local hunting, gathering and fresh-water fishing. This transition is often connected with the cultural transition fromPaleolithic toMesolithic.[6] During the 5th millennium BC, theNeolithic started and different forms of crafts and artistic production started to develop. Hunting, however, stayed the main form of food procurement; agriculture developed only slowly and did not emerge until the 3rd millennium BC.[7] During the Neolithic, first forms of interregional trade began, especially with amber.[8] The dwellings became more sophisticated in order to shelter larger families.
Speakers of North-WesternIndo-European might have arrived with theCorded Ware culture around 3200/3100 BC.[9]
The firstLithuanian people were a branch of an ancient group known as theBalts.[a] The main tribal divisions of the Balts were the West BalticOld Prussians andYotvingians, and the East BalticLithuanians andLatvians. The Balts spoke forms of theIndo-European languages.[11] Today, the only remaining Baltic nationalities are the Lithuanians and Latvians, but there were more Baltic groups or tribes in the past. Some of these merged into Lithuanians and Latvians (Samogitians,Selonians,Curonians,Semigallians), while others no longer existed after they were conquered and assimilated by theState of the Teutonic Order (Old Prussians, Yotvingians,Sambians,Skalvians, andGalindians).[12]
TheBaltic tribes did not maintain close cultural or political contacts with theRoman Empire, but they did maintain trade contacts (seeAmber Road).Tacitus, in his studyGermania, described theAesti people, inhabitants of the south-easternBaltic Sea shores who were probably Balts, around the year 97 AD.[13] The Western Balts differentiated and became known to outside chroniclers first.Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD knew of the Galindians and Yotvingians, andearly medieval chroniclers mentioned Prussians, Curonians and Semigallians.[14]
Lithuania, located along the lower and middleNeman River basin, comprised mainly the culturally different regions ofSamogitia (known for its early medieval skeletal burials), and further eastAukštaitija, or Lithuania proper (known for its early medieval cremation burials).[15] The area was remote and unattractive to outsiders, including traders, which accounts for its separate linguistic, cultural and religious identity and delayed integration into general European patterns and trends.[11]
TheLithuanian language is considered to be veryconservative for its close connection to Indo-European roots. It is believed to have differentiated from theLatvian language, the most closely related existing language, around the 7th century.[16] TraditionalLithuanian pagan customs and mythology, with many archaic elements, were long preserved. Rulers' bodies were cremated up until theChristianization of Lithuania: the descriptions of the cremation ceremonies of the grand dukesAlgirdas andKęstutis have survived.[17]
The Lithuanian tribe is thought to have developed more recognizably toward the end of the firstmillennium.[14] The first known reference to Lithuania as a nation ("Litua") comes from theAnnals of the Quedlinburg monastery, dated 9 March 1009.[18] In 1009, the missionaryBruno of Querfurt arrived in Lithuania and baptized the Lithuanian ruler "King Nethimer."[19]
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From the 9th to the 11th centuries, coastal Balts were subjected to raids by theVikings, and the kings ofDenmark collected tribute at times. During the 10–11th centuries, Lithuanian territories were among the lands paying tribute toKievan Rus', andYaroslav the Wise was among theRuthenian rulers who invaded Lithuania (from 1040). From the mid-12th century, it was the Lithuanians who were invading Ruthenian territories. In 1183,Polotsk andPskov were ravaged, and even the distant and powerfulNovgorod Republic was repeatedly threatened by the excursions from the emerging Lithuanian war machine toward the end of the 12th century.[20]
In the 12th century and afterwards, mutual raids involving Lithuanian and Polish forces took place sporadically, but the two countries were separated by the lands of theYotvingians. The late 12th century brought an eastern expansion of German settlers (theOstsiedlung) to the mouth of theDaugava River area. Military confrontations with Lithuanians followed at that time and at the turn of the century, but for the time being the Lithuanians had the upper hand.[21]
From the late 12th century, an organized Lithuanian military force existed; it was used for external raids, plundering and the gathering of slaves. Such military and pecuniary activities fostered social differentiation and triggered a struggle for power in Lithuania. This initiated the formation of early statehood, from which theGrand Duchy of Lithuania developed.[11] In 1231, theDanish Census Book mentions Baltic lands paying tribute to the Danes, including Lithuania (Littonia).[22]
From the early 13th century, frequent foreign military excursions became possible due to the increased cooperation and coordination among the Baltic tribes.[11] Forty such expeditions took place between 1201 and 1236 against Ruthenia, Poland, Latvia and Estonia, which were then being conquered by theLivonian Order.Pskov was pillaged and burned in 1213.[21] In 1219, twenty-one Lithuanian chiefs signed a peace treaty with the state ofGalicia–Volhynia. This event is widely accepted as the first proof that the Baltic tribes were uniting and consolidating.[23]
From the early 13th century, two German crusadingmilitary orders, theLivonian Brothers of the Sword and theTeutonic Knights, became established at the mouth of theDaugava River and inChełmno Land respectively. Under the pretense of converting the population to Christianity, they proceeded to conquer much of the area that is now Latvia andEstonia, in addition to parts of Lithuania.[11] In response, a number of small Baltic tribal groups united under the rule ofMindaugas. Mindaugas, originally akunigas or major chief, one of the fivesenior dukes listed in the treaty of 1219, is referred to as the ruler of all Lithuania as of 1236 in theLivonian Rhymed Chronicle.[24]
In 1236 the pope declared a crusade against the Lithuanians.[25] TheSamogitians, led byVykintas, Mindaugas' rival,[26] soundly defeated the Livonian Brothers and their allies in theBattle of Saule in 1236, which forced the Brothers to merge with the Teutonic Knights in 1237.[27] But Lithuania was trapped between the two branches of the Order.[25]
Around 1240, Mindaugas ruled over all ofAukštaitija. Afterwards, he conquered theBlack Ruthenia region (which consisted ofGrodno,Brest,Navahrudak and the surrounding territories).[11] Mindaugas was in process of extending his control to other areas, killing rivals or sending relatives and members of rival clans east to Ruthenia so they could conquer and settle there. They did that, but they also rebelled. The Ruthenian dukeDaniel of Galicia sensed an occasion to recover Black Ruthenia and in 1249–1250 organized a powerful anti-Mindaugas (and "anti-pagan") coalition that included Mindaugas' rivals, Yotvingians, Samogitians and theLivonian Teutonic Knights. Mindaugas, however, took advantage of the divergent interests in the coalition he faced.[28]
In 1250, Mindaugas entered into an agreement with the Teutonic Order; he consented to receive baptism (the act took place in 1251) and relinquish his claim over some lands in western Lithuania, for which he was to receive a royal crown in return.[29] Mindaugas was then able to withstand a military assault from the remaining coalition in 1251, and, supported by the Knights, emerge as a victor to confirm his rule over Lithuania.[30]
On 17 July 1251,Pope Innocent IV signed twopapal bulls that ordered the Bishop ofChełmno to crown Mindaugas asKing of Lithuania, appoint a bishop for Lithuania, and build a cathedral.[31] In 1253, Mindaugas was crowned and aKingdom of Lithuania was established for the first and only time in Lithuanian history.[32][33] Mindaugas "granted" parts of Yotvingia and Samogitia that he did not control to the Knights in 1253–1259. A peace with Daniel of Galicia in 1254 was cemented by a marriage deal involving Mindaugas' daughter and Daniel's sonShvarn. Mindaugas' nephewTautvilas returned to hisDuchy of Polotsk and Samogitia separated, soon to be ruled by another nephew,Treniota.[30]
In 1260, the Samogitians, victorious over the Teutonic Knights in theBattle of Durbe, agreed to submit themselves to Mindaugas' rule on the condition that he abandons the Christian religion; the king complied by terminating the emergent conversion of his country, renewed anti-Teutonic warfare (in the struggle for Samogitia)[34] and expanded further his Ruthenian holdings.[35] It is not clear whether this was accompanied by his personalapostasy.[11][34] Mindaugas thus established the basic tenets of medieval Lithuanian policy: defense against the German Order expansion from the west and north and conquest ofRuthenia in the south and east.[11]
Mindaugas was the principal founder of the Lithuanian state. He established for a while a Christian kingdom under the pope rather than theHoly Roman Empire, at a time when the remaining pagan peoples of Europe were no longer being converted peacefully, but conquered.[36]
Mindaugas was murdered in 1263 byDaumantas of Pskov andTreniota, an event that resulted in great unrest and civil war. Treniota, who took over the rule of the Lithuanian territories, murdered Tautvilas, but was killed himself in 1264. The rule of Mindaugas' sonVaišvilkas followed. He was the first Lithuanian duke known to become anOrthodox Christian and settle in Ruthenia, establishing a pattern to be followed by many others.[34] Vaišvilkas was killed in 1267. A power struggle between Shvarn andTraidenis resulted; it ended in a victory for the latter. Traidenis' reign (1269–1282) was the longest and most stable during the period of unrest. Tradenis reunified all Lithuanian lands, repeatedly raided Ruthenia and Poland with success, defeated the Teutonic Knights in Prussia and in Livonia at theBattle of Aizkraukle in 1279. He also became the ruler of Yotvingia, Semigalia and eastern Prussia. Friendly relations with Poland followed, and in 1279, Tradenis' daughterGaudemunda of Lithuania marriedBolesław II of Masovia, aPiast duke.[11][35]
Pagan Lithuania was a target ofnorthern Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and theLivonian Order.[37] In 1241, 1259 and 1275, Lithuania was also ravaged by raids from theGolden Horde, which earlier (1237–1240)debilitated Kievan Rus'.[35] After Traidenis' death, the German Knights finalized their conquests of Western Baltic tribes, and they could concentrate on Lithuania,[38] especially on Samogitia, to connect the two branches of the Order.[35] A particular opportunity opened in 1274 after the conclusion of theGreat Prussian Rebellion and the conquest of the Old Prussian tribe. The Teutonic Knights then proceeded to conquer other Baltic tribes: theNadruvians andSkalvians in 1274–1277 and theYotvingians in 1283. The Livonian Order completed its conquest of Semigalia, the last Baltic ally of Lithuania, in 1291.[27]
Thefamily of Gediminas, whose members were about to form Lithuania'sgreat native dynasty,[39] took over the rule of the Grand Duchy in 1285 underButigeidis.Vytenis (r. 1295–1315) andGediminas (r. 1315–1341), after whom theGediminid dynasty is named, had to deal with constant raids and incursions from the Teutonic orders that were costly to repulse. Vytenis fought them effectively around 1298 and at about the same time was able to ally Lithuania with the German burghers ofRiga. For their part, the Prussian Knights instigated a rebellion in Samogitia against the Lithuanian ruler in 1299–1300, followed by twenty incursions there in 1300–15.[35] Gediminas also fought the Teutonic Knights, and besides that made shrewd diplomatic moves by cooperating with the government of Riga in 1322–23 and taking advantage of the conflict between the Knights and ArchbishopFriedrich von Pernstein of Riga.[40]
Gediminas expanded Lithuania's international connections by conducting correspondence with PopeJohn XXII as well as with rulers and other centers of power in Western Europe, and he invited German colonists to settle in Lithuania.[41] Responding to Gediminas' complaints about the aggression from the Teutonic Order, the pope forced the Knights to observe a four-year peace with Lithuania in 1324–1327.[40] Opportunities for the Christianization of Lithuania were investigated by the pope's legates, but they met with no success.[40] From the time of Mindaugas, the country's rulers attempted to break Lithuania's cultural isolation, joinWestern Christendom and thus be protected from the Knights, but the Knights and other interests had been able to block the process.[42] In the 14th century, Gediminas' attempts to become baptized (1323–1324) and establish Catholic Christianity in his country were thwarted by the Samogitians and Gediminas' Orthodox courtiers.[41] In 1325,Casimir, the son of the Polish kingWładysław I, married Gediminas' daughterAldona, who became queen of Poland when Casimir ascended the Polish throne in 1333. The marriage confirmed the prestige of the Lithuanian state under Gediminas, and a defensive alliance with Poland was concluded the same year. Yearly incursions of the Knights resumed in 1328–1340, to which the Lithuanians responded with raids into Prussia and Latvia.[11][40]
The reign of Grand Duke Gediminas constituted the first period in Lithuanian history in which the country was recognized as a great power, mainly due to the extent of its territorial expansion into Ruthenia.[11][43] Lithuania was unique in Europe as a pagan-ruled "kingdom" and fast-growing military power suspended between the worlds ofByzantine andLatin Christianity. To be able to afford the extremely costly defense against the Teutonic Knights, it had to expand to the east. Gediminas accomplished Lithuania's eastern expansion by challenging theMongols, who from the 1230s sponsored aMongol invasion of Rus'.[44] The collapse of the political structure ofKievan Rus' created a partial regional power vacuum that Lithuania was able to exploit.[42] Through alliances and conquest, in competition with thePrincipality of Moscow,[40] the Lithuanians eventually gained control of vast expanses of the western and southern portions of the former Kievan Rus'.[11][43] Gediminas' conquests included the westernSmolensk region, southernPolesia and (temporarily)Kyiv, which was ruled around 1330 by Gediminas' brotherFiodor.[40] The Lithuanian-controlled area of Ruthenia grew to include most of modernBelarus andUkraine (theDnieper River basin) and comprised a massive state that stretched from theBaltic Sea to theBlack Sea in the 14th and 15th centuries.[42][43]
In the 14th century, many Lithuanian princes installed to govern the Ruthenia lands acceptedEastern Christianity and assumed Ruthenian custom and names in order to appeal to the culture of their subjects. Through this means, integration into the Lithuanian state structure was accomplished without disturbing local ways of life.[11] The Ruthenian territories acquired were vastly larger, more densely populated and more highly developed in terms of church organization and literacy than the territories of core Lithuania. Thus the Lithuanian state was able to function because of the contributions of theRuthenian culture representatives.[42] Historical territories of the former Ruthenian dukedoms were preserved under the Lithuanian rule, and the further they were from Vilnius, the more autonomous the localities tended to be.[45] Lithuanian soldiers and Ruthenians together defended Ruthenian strongholds, at times paying tribute to theGolden Horde for some of the outlying localities.[40] Ruthenian lands may have been ruled jointly by Lithuania and the Golden Horde ascondominiums until the time ofVytautas, who stopped paying tribute.[46] Gediminas' state provided a counterbalance against the influence of Moscow and enjoyed good relations with the Ruthenian principalities ofPskov,Veliky Novgorod andTver. Direct military confrontations with the Principality of Moscow underIvan I occurred around 1335.[40]
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Around 1318, Gediminas' elder sonAlgirdas marriedMaria of Vitebsk, the daughter of Prince Yaroslav ofVitebsk, and settled inVitebsk to rule the principality.[40] Of Gediminas' seven sons, four remained pagan and three converted to Orthodox Christianity.[11] Upon his death, Gediminas divided his domains among the seven sons, but Lithuania's precarious military situation, especially on the Teutonic frontier, forced the brothers to keep the country together.[47] From 1345, Algirdas took over as the Grand Duke of Lithuania. In practice, he ruled over Lithuanian Ruthenia only, whereasLithuania proper was the domain of his equally able brotherKęstutis. Algirdas fought the Golden Horde Tatars and the Principality of Moscow; Kęstutis took upon himself the demanding struggle with the Teutonic Order.[11]
The warfare with the Teutonic Order continued from 1345, and in 1348, the Knights defeated the Lithuanians at theBattle of Strėva. Kęstutis requested KingCasimir of Poland to mediate with the pope in hopes of converting Lithuania to Christianity, but the result was negative, and Poland took from Lithuania in 1349 theHalych area and some Ruthenian lands further north. Lithuania's situation improved from 1350, when Algirdas formed an alliance with thePrincipality of Tver. Halych was ceded by Lithuania, which brought peace with Poland in 1352. Secured by those alliances, Algirdas and Kęstutis embarked on the implementation of policies to expand Lithuania's territories further.[47]
Bryansk was taken in 1359, and in 1362, Algirdas captured Kyiv after defeating the Mongols at theBattle of Blue Waters.[43][44][47]Volhynia,Podolia andleft-bank Ukraine were also incorporated. Kęstutis heroically fought for the survival of ethnic Lithuanians by attempting to repel about thirty incursions by the Teutonic Knights and their European guest fighters.[11] Kęstutis also attacked the Teutonic possessions in Prussia on numerous occasions, but the Knights tookKaunas in 1362.[48] The dispute with Poland renewed itself and was settled by the peace of 1366, when Lithuania gave up a part of Volhynia includingVolodymyr. A peace with the Livonian Knights was also accomplished in 1367. In 1368, 1370 and 1372, Algirdas invaded theGrand Duchy of Moscow and each time approachedMoscow itself. An "eternal" peace (theTreaty of Lyubutsk) was concluded after the last attempt, and it was much needed by Lithuania due to its involvement in heavy fighting with the Knights again in 1373–1377.[48]
The two brothers and Gediminas' other offspring left many ambitious sons with inherited territory. Their rivalry weakened the country in the face of the Teutonic expansion and the newly assertive Grand Duchy of Moscow, buoyed by the 1380 victory over the Golden Horde at theBattle of Kulikovo and intent on the unification of all Rus' lands under its rule.[11]
Algirdas died in 1377, and his sonJogaila became grand duke while Kęstutis was still alive. The Teutonic pressure was at its peak, and Jogaila was inclined to cease defending Samogitia in order to concentrate on preserving the Ruthenian empire of Lithuania. The Knights exploited the differences between Jogaila and Kęstutis and procured a separate armistice with the older duke in 1379. Jogaila then made overtures to the Teutonic Order and concluded the secretTreaty of Dovydiškės with them in 1380, contrary to Kęstutis' principles and interests. Kęstutis felt he could no longer support his nephew and in 1381, when Jogaila's forces were preoccupied with quenching a rebellion inPolotsk, he entered Vilnius in order to remove Jogaila from the throne. ALithuanian civil war ensued. Kęstutis' two raids against Teutonic possessions in 1382 brought back the tradition of his past exploits, but Jogaila retook Vilnius during his uncle's absence. Kęstutis was captured and died in Jogaila's custody. Kęstutis' sonVytautas escaped.[11][44][49]
Jogaila agreed to theTreaty of Dubysa with the Order in 1382, an indication of his weakness. A four-year truce stipulated Jogaila's conversion to Catholicism and the cession of half of Samogitia to the Teutonic Knights. Vytautas went to Prussia in seek of the support of the Knights for his claims, including theDuchy of Trakai, which he considered inherited from his father. Jogaila's refusal to submit to the demands of his cousin and the Knights resulted in their joint invasion of Lithuania in 1383. Vytautas, however, having failed to gain the entire duchy, established contacts with the grand duke. Upon receiving from him the areas ofGrodno,Podlasie andBrest, Vytautas switched sides in 1384 and destroyed the border strongholds entrusted to him by the Order. In 1384, the two Lithuanian dukes, acting together, waged a successful expedition against the lands ruled by the Order.[11]
By that time, for the sake of its long-term survival, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had initiated the processes leading to its imminent acceptance of EuropeanChristendom.[11] The Teutonic Knights aimed at a territorial unification of their Prussian and Livonian branches by conquering Samogitia and all of Lithuania proper, following the earlier subordination of the Prussian and Latvian tribes. To dominate the neighboring Baltic and Slavic people and expand into a great Baltic power, the Knights used German and other volunteer fighters. They unleashed 96 onslaughts in Lithuania during the period 1345–1382, against which the Lithuanians were able to respond with only 42 retributive raids of their own. Lithuania's Ruthenian empire in the east was also threatened by both the unification of Rus' ambitions of Moscow and the centrifugal activities pursued by the rulers of some of the more distant provinces.[50]
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The Lithuanian state of the later 14th century was primarily binational, Lithuanian and Ruthenian (in territories that correspond to the modern Belarus and Ukraine). Of its 800,000 square kilometers total area, 10% comprised ethnic Lithuania, probably populated by no more than 300,000 inhabitants. Lithuania was dependent for its survival on the human and material resources of the Ruthenian lands.[51]
The increasingly differentiated Lithuanian society was led by princes of theGediminid andRurik dynasties and the descendants of formerkunigas chiefs from families such as theGiedraitis,Olshanski and Svirski. Below them in rank was the regularLithuanian nobility (orboyars), in Lithuania proper strictly subjected to the princes and generally living on modest family farms, each tended by a few feudal subjects or, more often, slave workers if the boyar could afford them. For their military and administrative services, Lithuanian boyars were compensated by exemptions from public contributions, payments, and Ruthenian land grants. The majority of the ordinary rural workers were free. They were obligated to provide crafts and numerous contributions and services; for not paying these types of debts (or for other offences), one could be forced into slavery.[11][52]
The Ruthenian princes were Orthodox, and many Lithuanian princes also converted toEastern Orthodoxy, even some who resided in Lithuania proper, or at least their wives. The masonry Ruthenian churches and monasteries housed learned monks, their writings (includingGospel translations such as theOstromir Gospels) and collections of religious art. A Ruthenian quarter populated by Lithuania's Orthodox subjects, and containing their church, existed in Vilnius from the 14th century. The grand dukes' chancery in Vilnius was staffed by Orthodox churchmen, who, trained in theChurch Slavonic language, developedChancery Slavonic, a Ruthenian written language useful for official record keeping. The most important of the Grand Duchy's documents, theLithuanian Metrica, theLithuanian Chronicles and theStatutes of Lithuania, were all written in that language.[53]
German,Jewish andArmenian settlers were invited to live in Lithuania; the last two groups established their own denominational communities directly under the ruling dukes. The Tatars andCrimean Karaites were entrusted as soldiers for the dukes' personal guard.[53]
Towns developed to a much lesser degree than in nearby Prussia orLivonia. Outside of Ruthenia, the only cities wereVilnius (Gediminas' capital from 1323), the old capital ofTrakai andKaunas.[11][13][33]Kernavė andKreva were the other old political centers.[40] Vilnius in the 14th century was a major social, cultural and trading center. It linked economically central and eastern Europe with theBaltic area. Vilnius merchants enjoyed privileges that allowed them to trade over most of the territories of the Lithuanian state. Of the passing Ruthenian, Polish and German merchants (many from Riga), many settled in Vilnius and some built masonry residencies. The city was ruled by a governor named by the grand duke and its system of fortifications included three castles. Foreign currencies and Lithuanian currency (from the 13th century) were widely used.[11][54]
The Lithuanian state maintained apatrimonial power structure. Gediminid rule was hereditary, but the ruler would choose the son he considered most able to be his successor. Councils existed, but could only advise the duke. The huge state was divided into a hierarchy of territorial units administered by designated officials who were also empowered in judicial and military matters.[11]
The Lithuanians spoke in a number of Aukštaitian and Samogitian (West-Baltic) dialects. But the tribal peculiarities were disappearing and the increasing use of the nameLietuva was a testimony to the developing Lithuanian sense of separate identity. The forming Lithuanianfeudal system preserved many aspects of the earlier societal organization, such as the family clan structure, free peasantry and some slavery. The land belonged now to the ruler and the nobility. Patterns imported primarily from Ruthenia were used for the organization of the state and its structure of power.[55]
Following the establishment ofWestern Christianity at the end of the 14th century, the occurrence of pagancremation burial ceremonies markedly decreased.[56]
As the power of the Lithuanian warlord dukes expanded to the south and east, the cultivatedEast Slavic Ruthenians exerted influence on the Lithuanian ruling class.[57] They brought with them theChurch Slavonicliturgy of theEastern Orthodox Christian religion, a written language (Chancery Slavonic) that was developed to serve the Lithuanian court's document-producing needs for a few centuries, and a system of laws. By these means, Ruthenians transformedVilnius into a major center of Kievan Rus' civilization.[57] By the time of Jogaila's acceptance of Catholicism at theUnion of Krewo in 1385, many institutions in his realm and members of his family had been to a large extent assimilated already into the Orthodox Christianity and became Russified (in part a result of the deliberate policy of the Gediminid ruling house).[57][58]
Catholic influence and contacts, including those derived from German settlers, traders and missionaries from Riga,[59] had been increasing for some time around the northwest region of the empire, known as Lithuania proper. TheFranciscan andDominican friar orders existed in Vilnius from the time ofGediminas.Kęstutis in 1349 andAlgirdas in 1358 negotiated Christianization with the pope, theHoly Roman Empire and the Polish king. TheChristianization of Lithuania thus involved both Catholic and Orthodox aspects. Conversion by force as practiced by theTeutonic Knights had actually been an impediment that delayed the progress of Western Christianity in the grand duchy.[11]
Jogaila, a grand duke since 1377, was himself still a pagan at the start of his reign. In 1386, agreed to the offer of the Polish crown by leading Polish nobles, who were eager to take advantage of Lithuania's expansion, if he become a Catholic and married the 13-year-old crowned king (not queen)Jadwiga.[60] For the near future, Poland gave Lithuania a valuable ally against increasing threats from the Teutonic Knights and theGrand Duchy of Moscow. Lithuania, in which Ruthenians outnumbered ethnic Lithuanians by several times, could ally with either the Grand Duchy of Moscow or Poland. A Russian deal was also negotiated withDmitry Donskoy in 1383–1384, but Moscow was too distant to be able to assist with the problems posed by the Teutonic orders and presented a difficulty as a center competing for the loyalty of the Orthodox Lithuanian Ruthenians.[11][58]
Jogaila was baptized, given the baptismal name Władysław, married Queen Jadwiga, and was crownedKing of Poland in February 1386.[61][62]
Jogaila's baptism and crowning were followed by the final and officialChristianization of Lithuania.[63] In the fall of 1386, the king returned to Lithuania and the next spring and summer participated in mass conversion and baptism ceremonies for the general population.[64] The establishment of a bishopric in Vilnius in 1387 was accompanied by Jogaila's extraordinarily generous endowment of land and peasants to the Church and exemption from state obligations and control. This instantly transformed the Lithuanian Church into the most powerful institution in the country (and future grand dukes lavished even more wealth on it). Lithuanian boyars who accepted baptism were rewarded with a more limited privilege improving their legal rights.[65][66] Vilnius' townspeople were granted self-government. The Church proceeded with its civilizing mission of literacy and education, and theestates of the realm started to emerge with their own separate identities.[56]
Jogaila's orders for his court and followers to convert to Catholicism were meant to deprive the Teutonic Knights of the justification for their practice of forced conversion through military onslaughts. In 1403 the pope prohibited the Order from conducting warfare against Lithuania, and its threat to Lithuania's existence (which had endured for two centuries) was indeed neutralized. In the short term, Jogaila needed Polish support in his struggle with his cousin Vytautas.[56][58]
TheLithuanian Civil War of 1389–1392 involved the Teutonic Knights, the Poles, and the competing factions loyal to Jogaila andVytautas in Lithuania. Amid ruthless warfare, the grand duchy was ravaged and threatened with collapse. Jogaila decided that the way out was to make amends and recognize the rights of Vytautas, whose original goal, now largely accomplished, was to recover the lands he considered his inheritance. After negotiations, Vytautas ended up gaining far more than that; from 1392 he became practically the ruler of Lithuania, a self-styled "Duke of Lithuania," under a compromise with Jogaila known as theOstrów Agreement. Technically, he was merely Jogaila's regent with extended authority. Jogaila realized that cooperating with his able cousin was preferable to attempting to govern (and defend) Lithuania directly from Kraków.[66][67]
Vytautas had been frustrated by Jogaila's Polish arrangements and rejected the prospect of Lithuania's subordination to Poland.[68] Under Vytautas, a considerable centralization of the state took place, and the CatholicizedLithuanian nobility became increasingly prominent in state politics.[69] The centralization efforts began in 1393–1395, when Vytautas appropriated their provinces from several powerful regional dukes in Ruthenia.[70] Several invasions of Lithuania by the Teutonic Knights occurred between 1392 and 1394, but they were repelled with the help of Polish forces. Afterwards, the Knights abandoned their goal of conquest of Lithuania proper and concentrated on subjugating and keeping Samogitia. In 1395,Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, the Order's formal superior, prohibited the Knights from raiding Lithuania.[71]
In 1395, Vytautas conqueredSmolensk, and in 1397, he conducted a victorious expedition against a branch of the Golden Horde. Now he felt he could afford independence from Poland and in 1398 refused to pay the tribute due to Queen Jadwiga. Seeking freedom to pursue his internal and Ruthenian goals, Vytautas had to grant the Teutonic Order a large portion of Samogitia in theTreaty of Salynas of 1398. The conquest of Samogitia by the Teutonic Order greatly improved its military position as well as that of the associatedLivonian Brothers of the Sword. Vytautas soon pursued attempts to retake the territory, an undertaking for which needed the help of the Polish king.[71][72]
During Vytautas' reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its territorial expansion, but his ambitious plans to subjugate all of Ruthenia were thwarted by his disastrous defeat in 1399 at theBattle of the Vorskla River, inflicted by the Golden Horde. Vytautas survived by fleeing the battlefield with a small unit and realized the necessity of a permanent alliance with Poland.[71][72]
The original Union of Krewo of 1385 was renewed and redefined on several occasions, but each time with little clarity due to the competing Polish and Lithuanian interests. Fresh arrangements were agreed to in the "unions" ofVilnius (1401),Horodło (1413),Grodno (1432) andVilnius (1499).[73] In the Union of Vilnius, Jogaila granted Vytautas a lifetime rule over the grand duchy. In return, Jogaila preserved his formal supremacy, and Vytautas promised to "stand faithfully with the Crown and the King." Warfare with the Order resumed. In 1403,Pope Boniface IX banned the Knights from attacking Lithuania, but in the same year Lithuania had to agree to thePeace of Raciąż, which mandated the same conditions as in the Treaty of Salynas.[74]
Secure in the west, Vytautas turned his attention to the east once again. The campaigns fought between 1401 and 1408 involved Smolensk,Pskov, Moscow andVeliky Novgorod. Smolensk was retained, Pskov and Veliki Novgorod ended up as Lithuanian dependencies, and a lasting territorial division between the Grand Duchy and Moscow was agreed in 1408 in the treaty ofUgra, where a great battle failed to materialize.[74][75]
The decisive war with the Teutonic Knights (theGreat War) was preceded in 1409 with aSamogitian uprising supported by Vytautas. Ultimately the Lithuanian–Polish alliance was able to defeat the Knights at theBattle of Grunwald on 15 July 1410, but the allied armies failed to takeMarienburg, the Knights' fortress-capital. Nevertheless, the unprecedented total battlefield victory against the Knights permanently removed the threat that they had posed to Lithuania's existence for centuries. ThePeace of Thorn (1411) allowed Lithuania to recover Samogotia, but only until the deaths of Jogaila and Vytautas, and the Knights had to pay a large monetary reparation.[76][77][78]
TheUnion of Horodło (1413) incorporated Lithuania into Poland again, but only as a formality. In practical terms, Lithuania became an equal partner with Poland, because each country was obliged to choose its future ruler only with the consent of the other, and the Union was declared to continue even under a new dynasty. Catholic Lithuanian boyars were to enjoy the same privileges as Polish nobles (szlachta). 47 top Lithuanian clans were colligated with 47 Polish noble families to initiate a future brotherhood and facilitate the expected full unity. Two administrative divisions (Vilnius and Trakai) were established in Lithuania, patterned after the existing Polish models.[79][80]
Vytautas practiced religious toleration and his grandiose plans also included attempts to influence the Eastern Orthodox Church, which he wanted to use as a tool to control Moscow and other parts of Ruthenia. In 1416, he elevatedGregory Tsamblak as his chosen Orthodox patriarch for all of Ruthenia (the established OrthodoxMetropolitan bishop remained in Vilnius to the end of the 18th century).[70][81] These efforts were also intended to serve the goal of global unification of the Eastern and Western churches. Tsamblak led an Orthodox delegation to theCouncil of Constance in 1418.[82] The Orthodox synod, however, would not recognize Tsamblak.[81] The grand duke also established new Catholic bishoprics in Samogitia (1417)[82] and in Lithuanian Ruthenia (Lutsk and Kyiv).[81]
TheGollub War with the Teutonic Knights followed and in 1422, in theTreaty of Melno, the grand duchy permanently recovered Samogitia, which terminated its involvement in the wars with the Order.[83] Vytautas' shifting policies and reluctance to pursue the Order made the survival of GermanEast Prussia possible for centuries to come.[84] Samogitia was the last region of Europe to be Christianized (from 1413).[82][85] Later, different foreign policies were prosecuted by Lithuania and Poland, accompanied by conflicts overPodolia andVolhynia, the grand duchy's territories in the southeast.[86]
Vytautas' greatest successes and recognition occurred at the end of his life, when theCrimean Khanate and theVolga Tatars came under his influence. PrinceVasily I of Moscow died in 1425, and Vytautas then administered the Grand Duchy of Moscow together with his daughter, Vasily's widowSophia of Lithuania. In 1426–1428 Vytautas triumphantly toured the eastern reaches of his empire and collected huge tributes from the local princes.[84] Pskov and Veliki Novgorod were incorporated to the grand duchy in 1426 and 1428.[82] At theCongress of Lutsk in 1429, Vytautas negotiated the issue of his crowning as the King of Lithuania with Holy Roman EmperorSigismund and Jogaila. That ambition was close to being fulfilled, but in the end was thwarted by last-minute intrigues and Vytautas' death. Vytautas' cult and legend originated during his later years and have continued until today.[84]
Thedynastic link to Poland resulted inreligious, political and cultural ties and increase ofWestern influence among the native Lithuanian nobility, and to a lesser extent among theRuthenianboyars fromthe East, Lithuanian subjects.[68] Catholics were granted preferential treatment and access to offices because of the policies of Vytautas, officially pronounced in 1413 at the Union of Horodło, and even more so of his successors, aimed at asserting the rule of the Catholic Lithuanian elite over the Ruthenian territories.[69] Such policies increased the pressure on the nobility to convert to Catholicism. Ethnic Lithuania proper made up 10% of the area and 20% of the population of the Grand Duchy. Of the Ruthenian provinces,Volhynia was most closely integrated with Lithuania proper. Branches of theGediminid family as well as other Lithuanian and Ruthenianmagnate clans eventually became established there.[70]
During the period, a stratum of wealthy landowners, important also as a military force, was coming into being,[87] accompanied by the emerging class offeudal serfs assigned to them.[70] The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was for the time being largely preserved as a separate state with separate institutions, but efforts, originating mainly in Poland, were made to bring the Polish and Lithuanian elites and systems closer together.[79][80] Vilnius and other cities were granted the German system of laws (Magdeburg rights). Crafts and trade were developing quickly. Under Vytautas a network of chanceries functioned, first schools were established andannals written. He opened Lithuania for the influence of theEuropean culture and integrated his country with EuropeanWestern Christianity.[82][87]
The Jagiellonian dynasty founded by Jogaila (a member of one of the branches of the Gediminids) ruled Poland and Lithuania continuously between 1386 and 1572.
Following the death of Vytautas in 1430,another civil war ensued, and Lithuania was ruled by rival successors. Afterwards, the Lithuanian nobility on two occasions technically broke the union between Poland and Lithuania by selecting grand dukes unilaterally from theJagiellonian dynasty. In 1440, the Lithuanian great lords elevatedCasimir, Jogaila's second son, to the rule of the grand duchy. This issue was resolved by Casimir's election as king by the Poles in 1446. In 1492, Jogaila's grandsonJohn Albert became the king of Poland, whereas his grandsonAlexander became the grand duke of Lithuania. In 1501 Alexander succeeded John as king of Poland, which resolved the difficulty in the same manner as before.[72] A lasting connection between the two states was beneficial to Poles, Lithuanians, and Ruthenians, Catholic and Orthodox, as well as the Jagiellonian rulers themselves, whose hereditary succession rights in Lithuania practically guaranteed their election as kings in accordance with the customs surrounding theroyal elections in Poland.[73]
On the Teutonic front, Poland continued its struggle, which in 1466 led to thePeace of Thorn and the recovery of much of thePiast dynasty territorial losses. A secularDuchy of Prussia was established in 1525. Its presence would greatly impact the futures of both Lithuania and Poland.[88]
TheTatarCrimean Khanate recognized the suzerainty of theOttoman Empire from 1475. Seeking slaves and booty, the Tatars raided vast portions of the grand duchy of Lithuania, burningKyiv in 1482 and approaching Vilnius in 1505. Their activity resulted in Lithuania's loss of its distant territories on theBlack Sea shores in the 1480s and 1490s. The last two Jagiellon kings wereSigismund I andSigismund II Augustus, during whose reign the intensity of Tatar raids diminished due to the appearance of the military caste ofCossacks at the southeastern territories and the growing power of theGrand Duchy of Moscow.[89]
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Lithuania needed a close alliance with Poland when, at the end of the 15th century, the increasingly assertive Grand Duchy of Moscow threatened some of Lithuania's Rus' principalities with the goal of "recovering" the formerly Orthodox-ruled lands. In 1492,Ivan III of Russia unleashed what turned out to be a series ofMuscovite–Lithuanian Wars andLivonian Wars.[90]
In 1492, the border of Lithuania's loosely controlled eastern Ruthenian territory ran less than one hundredmiles fromMoscow. But as a result of the warfare, a third of the grand duchy's land area was ceded to the Russian state in 1503. Then the loss ofSmolensk in July 1514 was particularly disastrous, even though it was followed by the successfulBattle of Orsha in September, as the Polish interests were reluctantly recognizing the necessity of their own involvement in Lithuania's defense. The peace of 1537 leftGomel as the grand duchy's eastern edge.[90]
In the north, the Livonian War took place over the strategically and economically crucial region of Livonia, the traditional territory of the Livonian Order. TheLivonian Confederation formed an alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian side in 1557 with theTreaty of Pozvol. Desired by both Lithuania and Poland, Livonia was then incorporated into the Polish Crown by Sigismund II. These developments causedIvan the Terrible of Russia to launch attacks in Livonia beginning in 1558, and later on Lithuania. The grand duchy's fortress ofPolotsk fell in 1563. This was followed by a Lithuanian victory at theBattle of Ula in 1564, but not a recovery of Polotsk. Russian, Swedish and Polish-Lithuanian occupations subdivided Livonia.[91]
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The Polish ruling establishment had been aiming at the incorporation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into Poland since before the Union of Krewo.[92] The Lithuanians were able to fend off this threat in the 14th and 15th centuries, but the dynamics of power changed in the 16th century. In 1508, the PolishSejm voted funding for Lithuania's defense against Muscovy for the first time, and an army was fielded. The Polish nobility'sexecutionist movement called for full incorporation of the Grand Duchy because of its increasing reliance on the support of the Polish Crown against Moscow's encroachments. This problem only grew more acute during the reign ofSigismund II Augustus, the last Jagiellonian king and grand duke of Lithuania, who had no heir who would inherit and continue thepersonal union between Poland and Lithuania. The preservation of the Polish-Lithuanian power arrangement appeared to require the monarch to force a decisive solution during his lifetime. The resistance to a closer and more permanent union was coming from Lithuania's ruling families, increasinglyPolonized in cultural terms, but attached to the Lithuanian heritage and their patrimonial rule.[93][94]
Legal evolution had lately been taking place in Lithuania nevertheless. In thePrivilege of Vilnius of 1563, Sigismund restored full political rights to the Grand Duchy's Orthodoxboyars, which had been restricted up to that time byVytautas and his successors; all members of the nobility were from then officially equal. Elective courts were established in 1565–66, and the SecondLithuanian Statute of 1566 created a hierarchy of local offices patterned on the Polish system. The Lithuanian legislative assembly assumed the same formal powers as the Polish Sejm.[93][94]
The Polish Sejm of January 1569, deliberating inLublin, was attended by the Lithuanian lords at Sigismund's insistence. Most left town on 1 March, unhappy with the proposals of the Poles to establish rights to acquire property in Lithuania and other issues. Sigismund reacted by announcing the incorporation of the Grand Duchy'sVolhynia andPodlasievoivodeships into the Polish Crown. Soon the largeKiev Voivodeship andBratslav Voivodeship were also annexed. Ruthenian boyars in the formerly southeastern Grand Duchy mostly approved the territorial transfers, since it meant that they would become members of the privileged Polish nobility. But the king also pressured many obstinate deputies to agree on compromises important to the Lithuanian side. The arm twisting, combined with reciprocal guarantees for Lithuanian nobles' rights, resulted in the "voluntary" passage of theUnion of Lublin on July 1. The combined polity would be ruled by a common Sejm, but the separate hierarchies of major state offices were to be retained. Many in the Lithuanian establishment found this objectionable, but in the end they were prudent to comply. For the time being, Sigismund managed to preserve the Polish-Lithuanian state as great power. Reforms necessary to protect its long-term success and survival were not undertaken.[93][94]
From the 16th to the mid-17th century, culture, arts, and education flourished in Lithuania, fueled by theRenaissance and theProtestant Reformation. The Lutheran ideas of the Reformation entered theLivonian Confederation by the 1520s, and Lutheranism soon became the prevailing religion in the urban areas of the region, while Lithuania remained Catholic.[95][96]
An influential book dealer was the humanist and bibliophileFrancysk Skaryna (c. 1485—1540), who was the founding father ofBelarusian letters. He wrote in his nativeRuthenian (Chancery Slavonic) language,[97] as was typical forliterati in the earlier phase of the Renaissance in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the middle of the 16th century,Polish predominated in literary productions.[98] Many educated Lithuanians came back from studies abroad to help build the active cultural life that distinguished 16th-century Lithuania, sometimes referred to as Lithuanian Renaissance (not to be confused withLithuanian National Revival in the 19th century).
At this time, Italian architecture was introduced in Lithuanian cities, andLithuanian literature written in Latin flourished. Also at this time, the first printed texts in theLithuanian language emerged, and the formation of written Lithuanian language began. The process was led by Lithuanian scholarsAbraomas Kulvietis,Stanislovas Rapalionis,Martynas Mažvydas andMikalojus Daukša.
With theUnion of Lublin of 1569, Poland and Lithuania formed a new state referred to as the Republic of Both Nations, but commonly known as Poland-Lithuania or thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth, which officially consisted of theCrown of the Kingdom of Poland and theGrand Duchy of Lithuania, was ruled by Polish and Lithuanian nobility, together withnobility-elected kings. The Union was designed to have a common foreign policy, customs and currency. Separate Polish and Lithuanian armies were retained, but parallel ministerial and central offices were established according to a practice developed by the Crown.[94] TheLithuanian Tribunal, a high court for the affairs of the nobility, was created in 1581.[99]
Following the death of Sigismund II Augustus in 1572, a joint Polish–Lithuanian monarch was to be elected as agreed in theUnion of Lublin. According to the treaty, the title "Grand Duke of Lithuania" would be received by a jointly elected monarch in theElection sejm on his accession to the throne, thus losing its former institutional significance. However, the treaty guaranteed that the institution and the title "Grand Duke of Lithuania" will be preserved.[100][101]
On 20 April 1576 the congress of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's nobles was held inGrodno which adopted anUniversal. It was signed by the participating Lithuanian nobles who announced that if the delegates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania will feel pressure from the Poles in theElection sejm, the Lithuanians will not be obliged by an oath of theUnion of Lublin and will have the right to select a separate monarch.[102] On 29 May 1580 a ceremony was held in theVilnius Cathedral during which bishopMerkelis Giedraitis presentedStephen Báthory (King of Poland since 1 May 1576) a luxuriously decorated sword and a cap adorned withpearls (both were sanctified byPope Gregory XIII himself). Such ceremony manifested the sovereignty of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and had the meaning ofelevation of the new Grand Duke of Lithuania, thus ignoring the stipulations of the Union of Lublin.[103][104]
TheLithuanian language fell into disuse in the circles of the grand ducal court in the second half of the 15th century in favor of Polish.[105] A century later, Polish was commonly used even by the ordinary Lithuanian nobility.[105] Following the Union of Lublin,Polonization increasingly affected all aspects of Lithuanian public life, but it took well over a century for the process to be completed. The 1588Statutes of Lithuania were still written in the Ruthenian Chancery Slavonic language, just as earlier legal codifications were.[106] From about 1700, Polish was used in the Grand Duchy's official documents as a replacement for Ruthenian andLatin use.[107][108] TheLithuanian nobility became linguistically and culturally Polonized, while retaining a sense of Lithuanian identity.[109] The integrating process of the Commonwealth nobility was not regarded as Polonization in the sense of modern nationality, but rather as participation in theSarmatism cultural-ideological current, erroneously understood to imply also a common (Sarmatian) ancestry of all members of the noble class.[108] The Lithuanian language survived, however, in spite of encroachments by the Ruthenian, Polish,Russian,Belarusian andGerman languages, as a peasant vernacular, and from 1547 in written religious use.[110]
Western Lithuania had an important role in the preservation of the Lithuanian language and its culture. In Samogitia, many nobles never ceased to speak Lithuanian natively. Northeastern East Prussia, sometimes referred to asLithuania Minor, was populated mainly by Lithuanians[111] and predominantlyLutheran. The Lutherans promoted publishing of religious books in local languages, which is why theCatechism ofMartynas Mažvydas was printed in 1547 in East PrussianKönigsberg.[112]
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The predominantlyEast Slavic population of the Grand Duchy was mostlyEastern Orthodox, and much of the Lithuanian state's nobility also remained Orthodox. Unlike the common people of the Lithuanian realm, at about the time of theUnion of Lublin in 1569 large portions of the nobility converted toWestern Christianity. Following theProtestant Reformation movement, many noble families converted toCalvinism in the 1550s and 1560s, and typically a generation later, conforming to theCounter-Reformation trends in the Commonwealth, toRoman Catholicism.[113] The Protestant and Orthodox presence must have been very strong, because according to an undoubtedly exaggerated early 17th-century source, "merely one in a thousand remained a Catholic" in Lithuania at that time.[114][b] In the early Commonwealth,religious toleration was the norm and was officially enacted by theWarsaw Confederation in 1573.[115]
By 1750, nominal Catholics comprised about 80% of the Commonwealth's population, the vast majority of the noble citizenry, and the entire legislature. In the east, there were also the Eastern Orthodox Church adherents. However, Catholics in the Grand Duchy itself were split. Under half wereLatin Church with strong allegiance to Rome, worshiping according to theRoman Rite. The others (mostly non-noble Ruthenians) followed theByzantine Rite. They were the so-calledUniates, whose church was established at theUnion of Brest in 1596, and they acknowledged only nominal obedience to Rome. At first the advantage went to the advancing Catholic Church pushing back a retreating Eastern Orthodox Church. However, after the first partition of the Commonwealth in 1772, the Orthodox had the support of the government and gained the upper hand. TheRussian Orthodox Church paid special attention to the Uniates (who had once been Orthodox), and tried to bring them back. The contest was political and spiritual, utilizing missionaries, schools, and pressure exerted by powerful nobles and landlords. By 1800, over 2 million of the Uniates had become Orthodox, and another 1.6 million by 1839.[116][117]
The Union of Lublin and the integration of the two countries notwithstanding, Lithuania continued to exist as a grand duchy within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth for over two centuries. It retained separate laws as well as an army and a treasury.[118] At the time of Union of Lublin, KingSigismund II Augustus removed Ukraine and other territories from Lithuania and incorporated them directly into the Polish Crown. The grand duchy was left with today'sBelarus and parts ofEuropean Russia, in addition to the core ethnic Lithuanian lands.[119] From 1573, the kings of Poland and the grand dukes of Lithuania were always the same person and were elected by the nobility, who were granted ever increasing privileges in a unique aristocratic political system known as theGolden Liberty. These privileges, especially theliberum veto, led to political anarchy and the eventual dissolution of the state.
Within the Commonwealth, the grand duchy made important contributions to European economic, political and cultural life: Western Europe was supplied with grain, along theDanzig toAmsterdam sea route; the early Commonwealth's religious tolerance and democracy among the ruling noble class were unique in Europe; Vilnius was the only European capital located on the border of the worlds of the Western and Eastern Christianity and many religious faiths were practiced there; to theJews,[c] it was the "Jerusalem of the North" and the town of theVilna Gaon, their great religious leader;Vilnius University produced numerous illustrious alumni and was one of the most influential centers of learning in its part of Europe; the Vilnius school made significant contributions to European architecture inBaroque style; the Lithuanian legal tradition gave rise to the advanced legal codes known as theStatutes of Lithuania; at the end of the Commonwealth's existence, theConstitution of 3 May 1791 was the first comprehensive written constitution produced in Europe. After thePartitions of Poland, the Vilnius school ofRomanticism produced the two great poets:Adam Mickiewicz andJuliusz Słowacki.[121]
The Commonwealth was greatly weakened by a series of wars, beginning with theKhmelnytsky Uprising in Ukraine in 1648.[122] During theNorthern Wars of 1655–1661, the Lithuanian territory and economy were devastated by the Swedish army in an invasion known as theDeluge, and Vilnius was burned and looted by the Russian forces.[112] Before it could fully recover, Lithuania was again ravaged during theGreat Northern War of 1700–1721.
Besides war, the Commonwealth suffered theGreat Northern War plague outbreak and famine (the worst caused by theGreat Frost of 1709). These calamities resulted in the loss of approximately 40% of the country's inhabitants. Foreign powers, especially Russia, became dominant players in the domestic politics of the Commonwealth. Numerous factions among the nobility, controlled and manipulated by the powerfulMagnates of Poland and Lithuania, themselves often in conflict, used their "Golden Liberty" to prevent reforms. Some Lithuanian clans, such as theRadziwiłłs, counted among the most powerful of Commonwealth nobles.
TheConstitution of 3 May 1791 was a culmination of the belated reform process of the Commonwealth. It attempted to integrate Lithuania and Poland more closely, although the separation was preserved by the addedReciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations.Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, 1793 and 1795 terminated its existence and saw the Grand Duchy of Lithuania divided between theRussian Empire, which took over 90% of the Duchy's territory, and theKingdom of Prussia. TheThird Partition of 1795 took place after the failure of theKościuszko Uprising, the last war waged by Poles and Lithuanians to preserve their statehood. Lithuania ceased to exist as a distinct entity for more than a century.[33]
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Following thepartitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, theRussian Empire controlled the majority of Lithuania, includingVilnius, which was a part of theVilna Governorate. In 1803, TsarAlexander I revived and upgraded the oldJesuit academy as the imperialVilnius University, the largest in the Russian Empire. The university and the regional educational system was directed on behalf of the tsar by PrinceAdam Czartoryski.[123] In the early years of the 19th century, there were signs that Lithuania might be allowed some separate recognition by the Empire, however this never happened.
In 1812, the Lithuanians eagerly welcomedNapoleon Bonaparte'sGrande Armée as liberators, with many joining theFrench invasion of Russia. After the French army's defeat and withdrawal, Tsar Alexander I decided to keep the University of Vilnius open and the Polish-language poetAdam Mickiewicz, a resident of Vilnius in 1815–1824, was able to receive his education there.[124] The southwestern part of Lithuania that was taken over by Prussia in 1795, then incorporated into theDuchy of Warsaw (a French puppet state that existed between 1807 and 1815), became a part of the Russian-controlled Kingdom of Poland ("Congress Poland") in 1815. The rest of Lithuania continued to be administered as a Russian province.
The Poles and Lithuanians revolted against Russian rule twice, in 1830-31 (theNovember Uprising) and 1863–64 (theJanuary Uprising), but both attempts failed and resulted in increased repression by the Russian authorities. After the November Uprising, TsarNicholas I began an intensive program ofRussification and the University of Vilnius was closed.[125] Lithuania became part of a new administrative region called theNorthwestern Krai.[126] In spite of the repression, Polish language schooling and cultural life were largely able to continue in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the failure of theJanuary Uprising.[106] TheStatutes of Lithuania were annulled by the Russian Empire only in 1840, and serfdom was abolished as part of the generalEmancipation reform of 1861 that applied to the entire Russian Empire.[127] The Uniate Church, important in theBelarusian part of the former Grand Duchy, was incorporated into the Orthodox Church in 1839.[128]
The Polish poetry of Adam Mickiewicz, who was emotionally attached to the Lithuanian countryside and associated medieval legends, influenced ideological foundations of the emerging Lithuanian national movement.Simonas Daukantas, who studied with Mickiewicz at Vilnius University, promoted a return to Lithuania's pre-Commonwealth traditions and a renewal of the local culture, based on theLithuanian language. With those ideas in mind, he wrote already in 1822 a history of Lithuania in Lithuanian (though still not yet published at that time).Teodor Narbutt wrote in Polish a voluminousAncient History of the Lithuanian Nation (1835–1841), where he likewise expounded and expanded further on the concept of historic Lithuania, whose days of glory had ended with the Union of Lublin in 1569. Narbutt, invoking the German scholarship, pointed out the relationship between the Lithuanian andSanskrit languages. It indicated the closeness of Lithuanian to its ancientIndo-European roots and would later provide the "antiquity" argument for activists associated with theLithuanian National Revival. By the middle of the 19th century, the basic ideology of the future Lithuanian nationalist movement was defined with linguistic identity in mind; in order to establish a modern Lithuanian identity, it required a break with the traditional dependence on Polish culture and language.[129]
Around the time of the January Uprising, there was a generation of Lithuanian leaders of the transitional period between a political movement bound with Poland and the modern Lithuanian nationalist movement based on language.Jakób Gieysztor,Konstanty Kalinowski andAntanas Mackevičius wanted to form alliances with the local peasants, who, empowered and given land, would presumably help defeat the Russian Empire, acting in their own self-interest. This created new dilemmas that had to do with languages used for such inter-class communication and later led to the concept of a nation as the "sum of speakers of a vernacular tongue."[130]
The failure of theJanuary Uprising in 1864 made the connection with Poland seem outdated to many Lithuanians and at the same time led to the creation of a class of emancipated and often prosperous peasants who, unlike oftenPolonized urban residents, were effectively custodians of the Lithuanian language. Educational opportunities, now more widely available to young people of such common origins, were one of the crucial factors responsible for the Lithuanian national revival. As schools were being de-Polonized and Lithuanian university students sent toSaint Petersburg orMoscow rather thanWarsaw, a cultural void resulted, and it was not being successfully filled by the attemptedRussification policies.[131]
Russian nationalists regarded the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania as anEast Slavic realm that ought to be (and was being) "reunited" with Russia.[132] In the following decades however, a Lithuanian national movement emerged, composed of activists of different social backgrounds and persuasions, often primarily Polish-speaking, but united by their willingness to promote the Lithuanian culture and language as a strategy for building a modern nation.[131] The restoration of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania was no longer the objective of this movement, and the territorial ambitions of its leaders were limited to the lands they considered historically Lithuanian.[112]
In 1864, the Lithuanian language[citation needed] and theLatin alphabet were banned in junior schools. The prohibition on printing in the Lithuanian language reflected the Russian nationalist policy of "restoration" of the supposedly Russian beginnings of Lithuania. The tsarist authorities implemented a number of Russification policies, including aLithuanian press ban and the closing of cultural and educational institutions. Those were resisted by Lithuanians, led by BishopMotiejus Valančius, among others.[112] Lithuanians resisted by arranging printing abroad and smuggling of the books in from neighboringEast Prussia.
Lithuanian was not considered a prestigious language. There were even expectations that the language would become extinct, as more and more territories in the east were slavicized, and more people used Polish or Russian in daily life. The only place where Lithuanian was considered more prestigious and worthy of books and studying was in East Prussia, sometimes referred to by Lithuanian nationalists as "Lithuania Minor." At the time, northeastern East Prussia was home to numerous ethnic Lithuanians, but even thereGermanization pressure threatened their cultural identity.
The language revival spread into more affluent strata, beginning with the release of the Lithuanian newspapersAušra andVarpas, then with the writing of poems and books in Lithuanian many of which glorified the historic Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The two most prominent figures in the revival movement,Jonas Basanavičius andVincas Kudirka, both originated from affluent Lithuanian peasantry and attended theMariampol Gymnasium (secondary school) in theSuwałki Governorate. The school was a Polish educational center, Russified after the January Uprising, with Lithuanian language classes introduced at that time.[133]
Basanavičius studied medicine at theMoscow State University, where he developed international connections, published (in Polish) on Lithuanian history and graduated in 1879. From there he went toBulgaria, and in 1882 moved toPrague. In Prague he met and became influenced by theCzech National Revival movement. In 1883, Basanavičius began working on a Lithuanian language review, which assumed the form of a newspaper namedAušra (The Dawn), published inRagnit, Prussia,Germany (nowNeman, Russia).Aušra was printed in Latin characters banned under Russian law, which mandated theCyrillic alphabet for printing Lithuanian. It was smuggled to Lithuania, together with other Lithuanian publications and books printed in East Prussia. The paper (forty issues in total), building on the work of the earlier writers, sought to demonstrate continuities with the medieval Grand Duchy and lionize the Lithuanian people.[134]
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Russian restrictions at Marijampolė secondary school were eased in 1872 and Kudirka learned Polish there. He went on to study at theUniversity of Warsaw, where he was influenced by Polishsocialists. In 1889, Kudirka returned to Lithuania and worked on incorporating the Lithuanian peasantry into mainstream politics as the main building block of a modern nation. In 1898, he wrote a poem inspired by the opening strophe of Mickiewicz's epic poemPan Tadeusz: "Lithuania, my fatherland! You are like health." The poem became thenational anthem of Lithuania,Tautiška giesmė: ("Lithuania, Our Homeland").[135]
As the revival grew, Russian policy became harsher. Attacks took place against Catholic churches while the ban forbidding the Lithuanian press continued. However, in the late 19th century, the ban on the use of the Latin alphabet for the Lithuanian language was lifted[33] and some 2,500 books were published in the Lithuanian Latin alphabet. The majority of these were published inTilsit,Kingdom of Prussia (now RussianSovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast), although some publications reached Lithuania from theUnited States. A largely standardized written language was achieved by 1900, based on historical andAukštaitijan (highland) usages.[136] The letters -č-, -š- and -v- were taken from the modern (redesigned)Czech orthography, to avoid the Polish usage for corresponding sounds.[137][138] The widely acceptedLithuanian Grammar, byJonas Jablonskis, appeared in 1901.[137]
Large numbers ofLithuanians had emigrated to the United States in 1867–1868 after afamine in Lithuania.[139] Between 1868 and 1914, approximately 635,000 people, almost 20 percent of the population, left Lithuania.[140] Lithuanian cities and towns were growing under the Russian rule, but the country remained underdeveloped by the European standards and job opportunities were limited; many Lithuanians left also for the industrial centers of the Russian Empire, such as Riga and Saint Petersburg. Many of Lithuania's cities were dominated by non-Lithuanian-speaking Jews and Poles.[112]
Lithuania's nationalist movement continued to grow. During the1905 Russian Revolution, a large congress of Lithuanian representatives in Vilnius known as theGreat Seimas of Vilnius demanded provincial autonomy for Lithuania (by which they meant the northwestern portion of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania)[141] on 5 December of that year. The tsarist regime made a number of concessions as the result of the 1905 uprising. TheBaltic states once again were permitted to use their native languages in schooling and public discourse, and Catholic churches were built in Lithuania.[112] Latin characters replaced the Cyrillic alphabet that had been forced upon Lithuanians for four decades. But not even Russian liberals were prepared to concede autonomy similar to that that had already existed in Estonia and Latvia, albeit underBaltic German hegemony. Many Baltic Germans looked toward aligning the Baltics (Lithuania andCourland in particular) with Germany.[142]
After theRussian entry into World War I, theGerman Empire occupied Lithuania and Courland in 1915. Vilnius fell to theImperial German Army on 19 September 1915. An alliance with Germany in opposition to both tsarist Russia and Lithuanian nationalism became for the Baltic Germans a real possibility.[142] Lithuania was incorporated intoOber Ost under a German government of occupation.[143] As open annexation could result in a public-relations backlash, the Germans planned to form a network of formally independent states that would in fact be dependent on Germany.[144]
The German occupation government permitted aVilnius Conference to convene between 18 and 22 September 1917, with the demand that Lithuanians declare loyalty to Germany and agree to an annexation. The intent of the conferees was to begin the process of establishing a Lithuanian state based on ethnic identity and language that would be independent of the Russian Empire, Poland, and the German Empire. The mechanism for this process was to be decided by a constituent assembly, but the German government would not permit elections. Furthermore, the publication of the conference's resolution calling for the creation of a Lithuanian state and elections for a constituent assembly was not allowed.[145] The Conference nonetheless elected a 20-memberCouncil of Lithuania (Taryba) and empowered it to act as the executive authority of the Lithuanian people.[144] The Council, led by Jonas Basanavičius, declared Lithuanian independence as a Germanprotectorate on 11 December 1917, and then adopted the outrightAct of Independence of Lithuania on 16 February 1918.[13] It proclaimed Lithuania as an independent republic, organized according to democratic principles.[146] The Germans, weakened by the losses on theWestern Front, but still present in the country,[112] did not support such a declaration and hindered attempts to establish actual independence. To prevent being incorporated into theGerman Empire, Lithuanians electedMonaco-born KingMindaugas II as the titular monarch of theKingdom of Lithuania in July 1918. Mindaugas II never assumed the throne, however.
In the meantime, an attempt to revive the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a socialist multi-national federal republic was also taking place under the German occupation. In March 1918,Anton Luckievich and hisBelarusian National Council proclaimed aBelarusian People's Republic that was to include Vilnius. Luckievich and the Council fled theRed Army approaching from Russia and leftMinsk before it was taken over by theBolsheviks in December 1918. Upon their arrival in Vilnius, they proposed a Belarusian-Lithuanian federation, which however generated no interest on the part of the Lithuanian leaders, who were in advanced stages of promoting national plans of their own. The Lithuanians were mostly interested only in a state "within ethnographic frontiers," as they perceived it.[147]
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Nevertheless, a Belarusian unit named1st Belarusian Regiment (1-asis baltgudžių pėstininkų pulkas), commanded by Alaksandar Ružancoŭ, was formed mainly fromGrodno's inhabitants in 1919 within theLithuanian Armed Forces, which later also participated in supporting the Independence of Lithuania during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence, therefore many members of this unit were awarded with the highest state award of Lithuania –Order of the Cross of Vytis.[148][149] Moreover, aLithuanian Ministry for Belarusian Affairs (Gudų reikalų ministerija) was established within the Government of Lithuania, which functioned in 1918–1924, and was led by the ethnic Belarusianministers such asJazep Varonka,Dominik Semashko.[148] The ethnic Belarusians were also included into the Council of Lithuania,[150] and the Belarusian political leaders initially requested for a politicalautonomy of the Belarusian lands with theBelarusian language as the official language in them within the restored Lithuania before losing all control over theBelarusian territories to the Poles and Soviets.[151]
In spite of its success in knocking Russia out of World War I by the terms of theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk early in 1918, Germany lost the war and signed theArmistice of Compiègne on 11 November 1918. Lithuanians quickly formed their first government, adopted a provisional constitution, and started organizing basic administrative structures. The prime minister of the new government wasAugustinas Voldemaras. As the German army was withdrawing from theEastern Front of World War I, it was followed bySoviet forces whose intention was to spread the globalproletarian revolution.[146] They created a number ofpuppet states, including theLithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic on 16 December 1918. By the end of December, the Red Army reached Lithuanian borders and started theLithuanian–Soviet War.
On 1 January 1919, the German occupying army withdrew from Vilnius and turned the city over to local Polish self-defense forces. The Lithuanian government evacuated Vilnius and moved west toKaunas, which became thetemporary capital of Lithuania. Vilnius was captured by the Soviet Red Army on 5 January 1919. As the Lithuanian army was in its infant stages, the Soviet forces moved largely unopposed and by mid-January 1919 controlled about two-thirds of Lithuanian territory. Vilnius was now the capital of the Lithuanian Soviet Republic, and soon of the combinedLithuanian–Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.[152]
From April 1919, the Lithuanian–Soviet War dragged on parallel with thePolish–Soviet War. Polish troops captured Vilnius from the Soviets on 21 April 1919.[153] Poland had territorial claims over Lithuania, especially theVilnius Region, and these tensions spilled over into thePolish–Lithuanian War.Józef Piłsudski of Poland,[d] seeking a Polish-Lithuanian federation, but unable to find common ground with Lithuanian politicians, in August 1919 made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Lithuanian government in Kaunas.[155] According to a 1924 publication of Lithuanian PresidentAntanas Smetona, following a successful recapture of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius from Poland, the Lithuanians planned to expand further into the Belarusian territories (the former lands of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania) and considered granting an autonomy to the Belarusian territories, as requested by the Belarusian side, therefore had kept the Lithuanian Ministry for Belarusian Affairs in force, moreover, Smetona noted that there were a lot of pro-Lithuanian sympathies among the Belarusians.[156][157]
The Belarusian unit of theLithuanian Armed Forces in Grodno was disbanded by the Poles following the annexation of it by thePolish Armed Forces in April 1919, while the soldiers of this unit were disarmed, looted, and publicly humiliated by the Polish soldiers, who even ripped off the Belarusianofficers insignias from their uniforms and trampled these symbols with their feet in public, as documented in the historical documents sent by the Belarusians to the temporary Lithuanian capital Kaunas because this unit refused to carry out the Polish orders and stayed loyal to Lithuania.[158][159] Following the annexation of Grodno, theLithuanian yellow–green–red,Belarusian white–red–white flags, and signs with theCoat of arms of Lithuania were torn off and the Polishgendarmes dragged them on the dusty streets for ridicule; instead of them, the Polish signs andflags were raised in their place everywhere in the city.[158][160] Soldiers andCatholic officers of the Belarusian regiment in Grodno were offered to join the Polish Army, while those who refused were offered to leave or were arrested, put into the concentration camps or deported from the native land by the Poles, part of the Belarusian soldiers and officers of this regiment evacuated to Kaunas and continued serving for Lithuania.[158][161][162]
The Lithuanian Army, commanded by GeneralSilvestras Žukauskas, withstood Red Army advance nearKėdainiai and in the spring of 1919 the Lithuanians recapturedŠiauliai,Radviliškis,Panevėžys,Ukmergė.[163] By the end of August 1919, the Soviets were pushed out of Lithuanian territory and the Lithuanian units reachedDaugava.[163] The Lithuanian Army was then deployed against the paramilitaryWest Russian Volunteer Army (Bermontians), who invaded northern Lithuania.[163] There were around 50,000 of Bermontians and they were well armed by Germany and supported German and Russian soldiers who sought to retain German control over the former Ober Ost.[163] West Russian Volunteers were defeated and pushed out by the end of 1919.[163] Thus the first phase of theLithuanian Wars of Independence was over and Lithuanians could direct attention to internal affairs.[163]
TheConstituent Assembly of Lithuania was elected in April 1920 and first met the following May. In June it adopted the third provisional constitution and on 12 July 1920, signed theSoviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty. In the treaty the Soviet Union recognized fully independent Lithuania and its claims to the disputedVilnius Region; Lithuania secretly allowed the Soviet forces passage through its territory as they moved against Poland.[164] On 14 July 1920, the advancing Soviet army captured Vilnius for a second time from Polish forces. The city was handed back to Lithuanians on 26 August 1920, following the defeat of the Soviet offensive. The victorious Polish army returned and the Soviet–Lithuanian Treaty increased hostilities between Poland and Lithuania. To prevent further fighting, theSuwałki Agreement was signed with Poland on 7 October 1920; it left Vilnius on the Lithuanian side of the armistice line.[165] It never went into effect, however, because Polish GeneralLucjan Żeligowski, acting onJózef Piłsudski's orders, staged theŻeligowski's Mutiny, a military action presented as a mutiny.[165] He invaded Lithuania on 8 October 1920, captured Vilnius the following day, and established a short-livedRepublic of Central Lithuania in eastern Lithuania on 12 October 1920. The republic was a part of Piłsudski's federalist scheme, which never materialized due to opposition from both Polish and Lithuanian nationalists.[165]
For 19 years, Kaunas was thetemporary capital of Lithuania while the Vilnius region remained under Polish administration. TheLeague of Nations attempted to mediate the dispute, andPaul Hymans proposed plans for a Polish–Lithuanian union, but negotiations broke down as neither side could agree to a compromise. Central Lithuania held ageneral election in 1922 that was boycotted by the Jews, Lithuanians and Belarusians, then was annexed into Poland on 24 March 1922.[166] TheConference of Ambassadors awarded Vilnius to Poland in March 1923.[167] Lithuania did not accept this decision and broke all relations with Poland. The two countries were officially at war over Vilnius, the historical capital of Lithuania, inhabited at that time largely by Polish-speaking and Jewish populations between 1920 and 1938.[168][169] The dispute continued to dominate Lithuanian domestic politics and foreign policy and doomed the relations with Poland for the entire interwar period.[169]
For administrative purposes, the de facto territory of the country was divided into 23 counties (lt:apskritis). A further 11 counties (including Vilnius) were allocated for the territory occupied by Poland (see alsoAdministrative divisions of Lithuania).
The Constituent Assembly, which adjourned in October 1920 due to threats from Poland, gathered again and initiated many reforms needed in the new state. Lithuania obtained international recognition and membership in theLeague of Nations,[e] passed a law for land reform, introduced a national currency (thelitas), and adopted a final constitution in August 1922. Lithuania became a democratic state, withSeimas (parliament) elected by men and women for a three-year term. The Seimas elected the president. TheFirst Seimas of Lithuania was elected in October 1922, but could not form a government as the votes split equally 38–38, and it was forced to dissolve. Its only lasting achievement was theKlaipėda Revolt from 10 January to 15 January 1923. The revolt involved Lithuania Minor, a region traditionally sought by Lithuanian nationalists[126] that remained under German rule after World War I, except for theKlaipėda Region with its large Lithuanian minority.[170] (Various sources give the region's interwar ethnic composition as 41.9 percent German, 27.1 percentMemelländisch, and 26.6 percent Lithuanian.)[171][172]
Lithuania took advantage of theRuhr Crisis in western Europe and captured the Klaipėda Region, a territory detached fromEast Prussia by the terms of theTreaty of Versailles and placed under a French administration sponsored by the League of Nations. The region was incorporated as an autonomous district of Lithuania in May 1924. For Lithuania, it provided the country's only access to theBaltic Sea, and it was an important industrial center, but the region's numerous German inhabitants resisted Lithuanian rule during the 1930s. The Klaipėda Revolt was the last armed conflict in Lithuania before World War II.[112]
TheSecond Seimas of Lithuania, elected in May 1923, was the only Seimas in independent Lithuania that served its full term. The Seimas continued the land reform, introduced social support systems, and started repaying foreign debt. The firstLithuanian national census took place in 1923.
TheThird Seimas of Lithuania was elected in May 1926. For the first time, the bloc led by theLithuanian Christian Democratic Party lost their majority and went into opposition. It was sharply criticized for signing theSoviet–Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact (even though it affirmed Soviet recognition of Lithuanian claims to Poland-held Vilnius)[169] and was accused of "Bolshevizing" Lithuania. As a result of growing tensions, the government was deposed during the1926 Lithuanian coup d'état in December. The coup, organized by the military, was supported by theLithuanian Nationalists Union (tautininkai) and Lithuanian Christian Democrats. They installedAntanas Smetona as the president andAugustinas Voldemaras as the prime minister.[173] Smetona suppressed the opposition and remained as an authoritarian leader until June 1940.
The Seimas thought that the coup was just a temporary measure and that new elections would be called to return Lithuania to democracy. Instead, the legislative body was dissolved in May 1927. Later that year members of the Social Democrats and other leftist parties tried to organize an uprising against Smetona, but were quickly subdued. Voldemaras grew increasingly independent of Smetona and was forced to resign in 1929. Three times in 1930 and once in 1934, he unsuccessfully attempted to return to power. In May 1928, Smetona announced the fifth provisional constitution without consulting the Seimas. The constitution continued to claim that Lithuania was a democratic state while the powers of the president were vastly increased. Smetona's party, theLithuanian Nationalist Union, steadily grew in size and importance. He adopted the title "tautos vadas" (leader of the nation) and slowly started building acult of personality. Many prominent political figures married into Smetona's family (for example,Juozas Tūbelis andStasys Raštikis).
When theNazi Party came into power in Germany, German–Lithuanian relations worsened considerably as the Nazis did not want to accept the loss of theKlaipėda Region (German:Memelland). The Nazis sponsored anti-Lithuanian organizations in the region. In 1934, Lithuaniaput the activists on trial and sentenced about 100 people, including their leaders Ernst Neumann andTheodor von Sass, to prison terms. That prompted Germany, one of the main trade partners of Lithuania, to declare anembargo of Lithuanian products. In response, Lithuania shifted its exports to theUnited Kingdom. That measure did not go far enough to satisfy many groups, andpeasants in Suvalkija organized strikes, which were violently suppressed. Smetona's prestige was damaged, and in September 1936, he agreed to call the first elections for the Seimas since the coup of 1926. Before the elections, all political parties were eliminated except for the National Union. Thus 42 of the 49 members of theFourth Seimas of Lithuania were from the National Union. This assembly functioned as an advisory board to the president, and in February 1938, it adopted a new constitution that granted the president even greater powers.
As tensions were rising in Europe following the annexation of theFederal State of Austria byNazi Germany (theAnschluss), Poland presented the1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania in March of that year. Poland demanded the re-establishment of the normal diplomatic relations that were broken after the Żeligowski Mutiny in 1920 and threatened military actions in case of refusal. Lithuania, having a weaker military and unable to enlist international support for its cause, accepted the ultimatum.[169] In the event of Polish military action,Adolf Hitler ordered a German military takeover of southwest Lithuania up to theDubysa River, and his armed forces were being fully mobilized until the news of the Lithuanian acceptance. Relations between Poland and Lithuania became somewhat normalized after the acceptance of the ultimatum, and the parties concluded treaties regardingrailway transport, postal exchange, and other means of communication.[174]
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Lithuania offered diplomatic support to Germany and the Soviet Union in opposition to powers such asFrance andEstonia that backed Poland in the conflict over Vilnius, but both Germany and the Soviet Union saw fit to encroach on Lithuania's territory and independence anyway. Following the Nazi electoral success in Klaipėda in December 1938, Germany decided to take action to secure control of the entire region. On 20 March 1939, just a few days after theGerman occupation of Czechoslovakia of 15 March, Lithuania received the1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania from foreign ministerJoachim von Ribbentrop. It demanded the immediate cession of the Klaipėda Region to Germany. The Lithuanian government accepted the ultimatum to avoid an armed intervention. The Klaipėda Region was directly incorporated into theGau East Prussia of theGerman Reich.[175] This triggered a political crisis in Lithuania and forced Smetona to form a new government that included members of the opposition for the first time since 1926. The loss of Klaipėda was a major blow to theLithuanian economy and the country shifted into the sphere of German influence.
Adolf Hitler initially planned to transform Lithuania into asatellite state which would participate in its planned military conquests in exchange for territorial enlargements.[176] When Germany and the Soviet Union concluded theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939 and divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, Lithuania was assigned to Germany at first, but that changed after Smetona's refusal to participate in the German invasion of Poland.[112][177]Joseph Stalin agreed to cedePolish areas initially annexed by the Soviet Union to theGreater Germanic Reich in exchange for Lithuania entering the Soviet sphere of influence.[176]
The interwar period of independence gave birth to the development of Lithuanian press, literature, music, arts, and theater as well as a comprehensive system of education with Lithuanian as the language of instruction. The network of primary and secondary schools was expanded and institutions of higher learning were established in Kaunas.[33] Lithuanian society remained heavily agricultural with only 20% of the people living in cities. The influence of the Catholic Church was strong and birth rates high: the population increased by 22% to over three million during 1923–1939, despite emigration to South America and elsewhere.[112]In almost all cities and towns, traditionally dominated by Jews, Poles, Russians and Germans, ethnic Lithuanians became the majority. Lithuanians, for example, constituted 59% of the residents of Kaunas in 1923, as opposed to 7% in 1897.[178] The right-wing dictatorship of 1926–1940 had strangely stabilizing social effects, as it prevented the worst of antisemitic excesses as well as the rise of leftist and rightist political extremism.[178]
Secret protocols of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, adjusted by theGerman-Soviet Frontier Treaty, divided Eastern Europe into Soviet and Nazispheres of influence. The three Baltic states fell to the Soviet sphere.[177] During the subsequentinvasion of Poland, the Red Army captured Vilnius, regarded by Lithuanians as their capital. According to theSoviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Pact of 10 October 1939, Soviet Union transferred Vilnius and surrounding territory to Lithuania in exchange for the stationing of 20,000 Soviet troops within the country.[179] It was a virtual sacrifice of independence, as reflected in a known slogan "Vilnius – mūsų, Lietuva – rusų" (Vilnius is ours, but Lithuania is Russia's). Similar Mutual Assistance Pacts were signed withLatvia andEstonia. When Finland refused to sign its pact, theWinter War broke out.
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In spring 1940, once the Winter War in Finland was over, the Soviets heightened their diplomatic pressure on Lithuania and issued the1940 Soviet ultimatum to Lithuania on June 14.[179] The ultimatum demanded the formation of a new pro-Soviet government and admission of an unspecified number ofRed Army troops. With Soviet troops already stationed within the country, Lithuania could not resist and accepted the ultimatum. PresidentAntanas Smetona fled Lithuania as 150,000 Soviet troops crossed the Lithuanian border.[179][180] Soviet representativeVladimir Dekanozov formed the new pro-Soviet puppet government, known as thePeople's Government, headed byJustas Paleckis, and organizedshow elections for the so-calledPeople's Seimas. During its first session on July 21, the People's Seimas unanimously voted to convert Lithuania into theLithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and petitioned to join the Soviet Union. The application was approved by theSupreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on 3 August 1940, which completed the formalization of the annexation.[179]
Immediately following the occupation, Soviet authorities began rapidSovietization of Lithuania. All land wasnationalized. To gain support for the new regime among the poorer peasants, large farms were distributed to small landowners. However, in preparation for eventualcollectivization, agricultural taxes were dramatically increased in an attempt to bankrupt all farmers. Nationalization of banks, larger enterprises, and real estate resulted in disruptions in production that caused massive shortages of goods. TheLithuanian litas was artificially undervalued and withdrawn by spring 1941. Standards of living plummeted. All religious, cultural, and political organizations were banned, leaving only theCommunist Party of Lithuania and its youth branch. An estimated 12,000 "enemies of the people" were arrested. During theJune deportation campaign of 1941, some 12,600 people (mostly former military officers, policemen, political figures, intelligentsia and their families) were deported[181] toGulags in Siberia under the policy of elimination of national elites. Many deportees perished due to inhumane conditions; 3,600 were imprisoned and over 1,000 were killed.[33]
On 22 June 1941,Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union inOperation Barbarossa.[180] InFranz Walter Stahlecker's report of October 15 toHeinrich Himmler, Stahlecker wrote that he had succeeded in covering up actions of theVorkommando (German vanguard unit) and made it look like an initiative of the local population to carry out theKaunas pogrom.[182] The German forces moved rapidly and encountered only sporadic Soviet resistance. Vilnius was captured on 24 June 1941,[183] and Germany controlled all of Lithuania within a week. The retreating Soviet forces murdered between 1,000 and 1,500 people, mostly ethnic Lithuanians[178] (seeRainiai massacre). The Lithuanians generally greeted the Germans as liberators from the oppressive Soviet regime and hoped that Germany would restore some autonomy to their country.[184] TheLithuanian Activist Front organized an anti-Soviet revolt known as theJune Uprising in Lithuania, declared independence, and formed aProvisional Government of Lithuania withJuozas Ambrazevičius as prime minister. The Provisional Government was not forcibly dissolved; stripped by the Germans of any actual power, it resigned on 5 August 1941.[185] Germany established the civil administration known as theReichskommissariat Ostland.[112]
Initially, there was substantial cooperation and collaboration between the German forces and some Lithuanians. Lithuanians joined theTDA Battalions andAuxiliary police battalions in hopes that these police units would be later transformed into the regular army of independent Lithuania. Instead, some units were employed by the Germans as auxiliaries in perpetratingthe Holocaust.[184] However, soon Lithuanians became disillusioned with harsh German policies of collecting large war provisions, gathering people forforced labor in Germany, conscripting men into theWehrmacht, and the lack of true autonomy. These feelings naturally led to the creation of a resistance movement.[178] The most notable resistance organization, theSupreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania, was formed in 1943. Due to passive resistance, aWaffen-SS division was not established in Lithuania. As a compromise, the Lithuanian generalPovilas Plechavičius formed the short-livedLithuanian Territorial Defense Force (LTDF). Lithuanians did not organize armed resistance, still considering the Soviet Union their primary enemy. Armed resistance was conducted by pro-Soviet partisans (mainly Russians, Belarusians and Jews)[184] and PolishArmia Krajowa (AK) in eastern Lithuania.
Beforethe Holocaust, Lithuania was home to a disputed number of Jews: 210,000 according to one estimate,[186] 250,000 according to another.[187] About 90% or more of theLithuanian Jews were murdered,[184] one of the highest rates in Europe.The Holocaust in Lithuania can be divided into three stages: mass executions (June–December 1941), aghetto period (1942 – March 1943), and a final liquidation (April 1943 – July 1944). Unlike in other Nazi-occupied countries where the Holocaust was introduced gradually,Einsatzgruppe A started executions in Lithuania on the first days of the German occupation.[183] The executions were carried out by the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators[188] in three main areas: Kaunas (marked by theNinth Fort), in Vilnius (marked by thePonary massacre), and in the countryside (sponsored by theRollkommando Hamann). An estimated 80% of Lithuanian Jews were killed before 1942.[189] The surviving 43,000 Jews were concentrated in theVilnius Ghetto,Kaunas Ghetto,Šiauliai Ghetto, andŠvenčionys Ghetto and forced to work for the benefit of German military industry.[190] In 1943, the ghettos were either liquidated or turned intoconcentration camps. Only about 2,000–3,000 Lithuanian Jews were liberated from these camps.[191] More survived by withdrawing into the interior of Russia before the war broke out or by escaping the ghettos and joining theJewish partisans.
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In the summer of 1944, the Soviet Red Army reached eastern Lithuania.[180] By July 1944, the area around Vilnius came under control of thePolish Resistance fighters of theArmia Krajowa, who also attempted a takeover of the German-held city during the ill-fatedOperation Ostra Brama.[192] The Red Army captured Vilnius with Polish help on 13 July.[192] The Soviet Union re-occupied Lithuania andJoseph Stalin re-established theLithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1944 with its capital in Vilnius.[192] The Soviets secured the passive agreement of theUnited States andGreat Britain (seeYalta Conference andPotsdam Agreement) to this annexation. By January 1945, the Soviet forces capturedKlaipėda on the Baltic coast. The heaviest physical losses in Lithuania during World War II were suffered in 1944–1945, when the Red Army pushed out the Nazi invaders.[178] It is estimated that Lithuania lost 780,000 people between 1940 and 1954 under the Nazi and Soviet occupations.[33]
TheSoviet deportations from Lithuania between 1941 and 1952 resulted in the exile of thousands of families toforced settlements in the Soviet Union, especially inSiberia and other remote parts of the country. Between 1944 and 1953, nearly 120,000 people (5% of the population) were deported,[178] and thousands more became political prisoners. Many leading intellectual figures and most Catholic priests were among the deported; many returned to Lithuania after 1953. Approximately 20,000Lithuanian partisans participated in unsuccessful warfare against the Soviet regime in the 1940s and early 1950s. Most were killed or deported to Siberiangulags.[193][f] During the years following the German surrender at the end of World War II in 1945, between 40 and 60 thousand civilians and combatants perished in the context of the anti-Soviet insurgency. Considerably more ethnic Lithuanians died after World War II than during it.[178][195]
Lithuanian armed resistance lasted until 1953.Adolfas Ramanauskas (code name 'Vanagas', translated to English: thehawk), the last official commander of theUnion of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters, was arrested in October 1956 and executed in November 1957.
Soviet authorities encouraged the immigration of non-Lithuanian workers, especially Russians, as a way of integrating Lithuania into the Soviet Union and encouraging industrial development,[33] but in Lithuania this process did not assume the massive scale experienced by other EuropeanSoviet republics.[196]
To a great extent,Lithuanization rather thanRussification took place in postwar Vilnius and elements of a national revival characterize the period of Lithuania's existence as a Soviet republic.[180][g] Lithuania's boundaries and political integrity were determined by Joseph Stalin's decision to grant Vilnius to theLithuanian SSR again in 1944. Subsequently, most Poles were resettled from Vilnius (but only a minority from the countryside and other parts of the Lithuanian SSR)[h] by the implementation of Soviet and Lithuanian communist policies that mandated their partial replacement byRussian immigrants. Vilnius was then increasingly settled by Lithuanians and assimilated by Lithuanian culture, which fulfilled, albeit under the oppressive and limiting conditions of the Soviet rule, the long-held dream of Lithuanian nationalists.[199] The economy of Lithuania did well in comparison with other regions of the Soviet Union.[112]
The national developments in Lithuania followed tacit compromise agreements worked out by the Soviet communists, Lithuanian communists and the Lithuanianintelligentsia.Vilnius University was reopened after the war, operating in the Lithuanian language and with a largely Lithuanian student body. It became a center for Baltic studies. General schools in the Lithuanian SSR provided more instruction in Lithuanian than at any previous time in the country's history. The literary Lithuanian language was standardized and refined further as a language of scholarship andLithuanian literature. The price the Lithuanian intelligentsia ended up paying for the national privileges was their much increasedCommunist Party membership afterde-Stalinization.[200]
Between the death of Stalin in 1953 and theglasnost andperestroika reforms ofMikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s, Lithuania functioned as a Soviet society, with all its repressions and peculiarities. Agriculture remained collectivized, property nationalized, and criticism of the Soviet system was severely punished. The country remained largely isolated from the non-Soviet world because of travel restrictions, thepersecution of the Catholic Church continued and the nominallyegalitarian society was extensively corrupted by the practice of connections and privileges for those who served the system.[112]
The communist era is represented in the museum ofGrūtas Park.
Until mid-1988, all political, economic, and cultural life was controlled by theCommunist Party of Lithuania (CPL). Lithuanians as well as people in the other twoBaltic republics distrusted the Soviet regime even more than people in other regions of the Soviet state, and they gave their own specific and active support toMikhail Gorbachev's program of social and political reforms known asperestroika andglasnost. Under the leadership of intellectuals, the Reform Movement of LithuaniaSąjūdis was formed in mid-1988, and it declared a program of democratic and national rights, winning nationwide popularity. Inspired by Sąjūdis, theSupreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR passed constitutional amendments on the supremacy of Lithuanian laws over Soviet legislation, annulled the 1940 decisions on proclaiming Lithuania a part of the Soviet Union, legalized a multi-party system, and adopted a number of other important decisions, including the return of the national state symbols — theflag of Lithuania and thenational anthem. A large number of CPL members also supported the ideas of Sąjūdis, and with Sąjūdis support,Algirdas Brazauskas was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPL in 1988. On 23 August 1989, 50 years after theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians joined hands in a human chain that stretched 600 kilometres fromTallinn to Vilnius in order to draw the world's attention to the fate of the Baltic nations. The human chain was called theBaltic Way. In December 1989, the Brazauskas-led CPL declared its independence from theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union and became a separatesocial democratic party, renaming itself theDemocratic Labour Party of Lithuania in 1990.
In early 1990, candidates backed bySąjūdis won theLithuanian parliamentary elections.[201] On 11 March 1990, theSupreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR proclaimed theAct of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. The Baltic republics were in the forefront of the struggle for independence, and Lithuania was the first of the Soviet republics to declare independence.Vytautas Landsbergis, a leader of the Sąjūdis national movement,[202] became the head of state andKazimira Prunskienė led the Cabinet of Ministers. Provisional fundamental laws of the state were passed.[33]
On 15 March, the Soviet Union demanded revocation of the independence and began employing political and economic sanctions against Lithuania. On 18 April, Soviets imposedeconomic blockade of Lithuania which lasted until the end of June. The Soviet military was used to seize a few public buildings, but violence was largely contained until January 1991. During theJanuary Events in Lithuania, the Soviet authorities attempted to overthrow the elected government by sponsoring the so-called National Salvation Committee. The Soviets forcibly took over theVilnius TV Tower, killing 14 unarmed civilians and injuring 140.[203] During this assault, the only means of contact to the outside world available was an amateur radio station set up in the Lithuanian Parliament building by Tadas Vyšniauskas whose call sign was LY2BAW.[204] The initial cries for help were received by an American amateur radio operators with the call sign N9RD inIndiana and WB9Z inIllinois.[citation needed] N9RD, WB9Z and other radio operators from around the world were able to relay situational updates to relevant authorities until officialUnited States Department of State personnel were able to go on-air. Moscow failed to act further to crush the Lithuanian independence movement, and the Lithuanian government continued to function.
During the national referendum on 9 February 1991, more than 90% of those who took part in the voting (84.73% of all eligible voters) voted in favor of an independent, democratic Lithuania. During the1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt in August,Soviet Armed Forces 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 theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union and ordered confiscation of its property. Following the failed coup, Lithuania received widespread international recognition on 6 September 1991 and was admitted to theUnited Nations on 17 September.[33]
As in many countries of the former Soviet Union, the popularity of the independence movement (Sąjūdis in the case of Lithuania) diminished due to worsening economic situation (rising unemployment, inflation, etc.). The Communist Party of Lithuania renamed itself as theDemocratic Labour Party of Lithuania (LDDP) and gained a majority of seats against Sąjūdis in theLithuanian parliamentary elections of 1992.[205] LDDP continued building the independent democratic state and transitioning from a centrallyplanned economy to afree market economy. In theLithuanian parliamentary elections of 1996, the voters swung back to the rightistHomeland Union, led by the former Sąjūdis leaderVytautas Landsbergis.[206]
As part of the economic transition tocapitalism, Lithuania organized aprivatization campaign to sell government-owned residential real estate and commercial enterprises. The government issued investment vouchers to be used in privatization instead of actual currency. People cooperated in groups to collect larger amounts of vouchers for the public auctions and the privatization campaign. Lithuania, unlike Russia, did not create a small group of very wealthy and powerful people. The privatization started with small organizations, and large enterprises (such as telecommunication companies or airlines) were sold several years later for hard currency in a bid to attract foreign investors. Lithuania's monetary system was to be based on theLithuanian litas, the currency used during the interwar period. Due to high inflation and other delays, a temporary currency, theLithuanian talonas, was introduced (it was commonly referred to as theVagnorėlis orVagnorkė after Prime MinisterGediminas Vagnorius). Eventually the litas was issued in June 1993, and the decision was made to set it up with afixed exchange rate to theUnited States dollar in 1994 and to theEuro in 2002.
Despite Lithuania's achievement of complete independence, sizable numbers ofRussian Armed Forces troops remained in its territory. Withdrawal of those forces was one of Lithuania's top foreign policy priorities. Russian troop withdrawal was completed by 31 August 1993.[33] The first military of the reborn country were theLithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces, who first took an oath at the Supreme Council of Lithuania soon after the declaration of independence. TheLithuanian military built itself to the common standard with theLithuanian Air Force,Lithuanian Naval Force andLithuanian Land Force. Interwar paramilitary organisations such as theLithuanian Riflemen's Union,Young Riflemen, and theLithuanian Scouts were re-established.
On 27 April 1993, apartnership with the Pennsylvania National Guard was established as part of the State Partnership Program.[207]
Seeking closer ties with the West, Lithuania applied for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership in 1994. The country had to go through a difficult transition from planned to free market economy in order to satisfy the requirements forEuropean Union (EU) membership. In May 2001, Lithuania became the 141st member of the World Trade Organization. In October 2002, Lithuania was invited to join the European Union and one month later to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; it became a member of both in 2004.[33]
As a result of the broader2008 financial crisis andGreat Recession, the Lithuanian economy in 2009 experienced its worst recession since thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. After a boom in growth sparked byLithuania's 2004 accession to the European Union, theGross domestic product contracted by 15% in 2009.[33] Especially since Lithuania's admission into theEuropean Union, large numbers of Lithuanians (up to 20% of the population) have moved abroad in search of better economic opportunities to create a significant demographic problem for the small country.[112] On 1 January 2015, Lithuania joined theeurozone and adopted the European Union's single currency as the last of the Baltic states.[208] On 4 July 2018, Lithuania officially joinedOECD.[209]
Dalia Grybauskaitė was the first femalePresident of Lithuania (2009–2019) and the first president to bere-elected for a second consecutive term.[210] She was succeeded byGitanas Nausėda in 2019.[211] On 11–12 July 2023, theNATO summit was held in Vilnius, which was attended by heads of state or government members of NATO countries and its allies.[212]
Krapauskas (2010) identifies three main tendencies in the recent historiography. The "postmodern school" is heavily influenced by the FrenchAnnales School and presents an entirely new agenda of topics and interdisciplinary research methodologies. Their approach is methodologically controversial and focuses on social and cultural history. It is largely free from the traditional political debates and does not look back to the interwar Šapoka era. Secondly, the "critical-realists" are political revisionists. They focus on controversial political topics in the twentieth century, and reverse 180° the Soviet era interpretations of what was good and bad for Lithuania. They use traditional historical methodologies, with a strong focus on political history. They are often opposed by the third school, the "romantic-traditionalists." After severe constraints in the communist era, the romantic-traditionalists now are eager to emphasize the most positive version of the Lithuanian past and its cultural heritage. They pay less attention to the niceties of documentation and historiography, but they are not the puppets of political conservatives. Indeed, they include many of Lithuania's most respected historians.[213]
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