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Europe
Lithuania |
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(Lietuvos Respublika)
Last reviewed: 11 August 2009 |
Country information
HISTORY
Recent History
Lithuania's history goes back to its emergence as a state in the mid-13th Century. It was annexed in the late 18th Century by Russia until 1918, when it became independent. In 1940 it was occupied by the Soviet Union under provision of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Occupation by German forces and persecution of Lithuania's Jews followed from 1941 to 1944, when the Red Army drove back the German Army. In 1944 the Red Army drove back the Germans and Lithuania was forcibly incorporated into the USSR. Society and industry were modelled along Soviet lines and absolute power rested with a Communist Government subservient to Moscow. The UK did not recognise de jure the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union.
The more tolerant political atmosphere in the Soviet Union under Gorbachev in the late 1980s allowed pro-independence and reform groups to come to the fore. Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union on 11 March 1990. But it was only after the Moscow coup of August 1991 that Lithuania's restored independence was recognised by the international community (by the European Community on 27 August 1991) and by the Soviet authorities. On 17 September 1991 Lithuania joined the United Nations. In 2004 it joined both NATO and the EU.
