Lithuania » History

On February 4, 1991, Iceland became the first country to recognize Lithuanian independence. Sweden was the first to open an embassy in the country. The United States of America never recognized the Soviet claim to Lithuania or to the other two Baltic republics. Lithuania joined the United Nations on September 17, 1991. On May 31, 2001, Lithuania became the 141st member of the World Trade Organization. Since 1988, Lithuania has sought closer ties with the West, and so on January 4, 1994; it became the first of the Baltic States to apply for NATO membership. On March 29, 2004, it became a full and equal NATO member and on May 1, 2004, Lithuania joined the European Union.

 

Longer Historical Perspective

Lithuania entered into the annals of European history when it was first mentioned in a medieval German manuscript, the Quedlinburg Chronicle, on February 14, 1009. The Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas in 1235, and neighboring countries referred to it as "the state of Lithuania". The official coronation of Mindaugas as King of Lithuania, on July 6, 1253, marked its recognition by Christendom, and the official recognition of Lithuanian statehood as the Kingdom of Lithuania.

During the early period of the Gediminids (1316-1430), the state occupied the territories of present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. By the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania stretched across a substantial part of Europe, from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Lithuanian nobility, city dwellers and peasants accepted Christianity in 1385, following Poland's offer of its crown to Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Grand Duke Jogaila was crowned King of Poland on February 2, 1386. Lithuania and Poland were joined into a personal union, as both countries were ruled by the same Jagiellon dynasty.

On February 16, 1918, Lithuania re-established its independence. In 1940, at the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Lithuania in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It later came under German occupation, during which around 190,000 or 91% of the Lithuanian Jews were killed, resulting in one of the worst death rates of the Holocaust. After the retreat of the German army, Lithuania was re-occupied by the Soviet Union in 1944. Fifty years of communist rule ended with the advent of perestroika and glasnost in the late 1980s.

Lithuania, led by Sajudis, an anti-communist and anti-Soviet independence movement, proclaimed its renewed independence on March 11, 1990. Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to do so, though Soviet forces unsuccessfully tried to suppress this secession. The Soviets attacked the Vilnius TV Tower on the night of January 13, 1991, an act that resulted in the death of 13 Lithuanian civilians. The last Russian troops left Lithuania on August 31, 1993 — even earlier than they departed East Germany.