LITHUANIA

ROLCAM · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:20 am Post subject: LITHUANIA

Lithuania, is a European nation that regained its independence in 1991, after more than 50 years of forced annexation to the Soviet Union. Lithuania lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It had been independent from 1918 to 1940, when the Soviet Union occupied it and made it one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union.

Lithuania's economy depends heavily on manufacturing. Important products include chemicals and processed foods. Vilnius is the country's capital and largest city.

Government. Lithuania is a republic. The president is the highest government official and is elected by the people to a five-year term. The president appoints a prime minister with the approval of the parliament. A cabinet of ministers helps carry out the operations of government. Lithuania's parliament is called the Seimas. The 141 members of the Seimas are elected by the people to four-year terms. All citizens age 18 or older may vote. The Supreme Court is Lithuania's highest court. Other courts include the Court of Appeals and the Constitutional Court.

Under Soviet rule, the Communist Party was Lithuania's only political party. Since 1989, other parties have been allowed. The moderately conservative Homeland Union Party is the largest party. Other parties include the Christian Democratic Party and the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party, which was formerly the Communist Party.

People. About 80 percent of the people of Lithuania are Lithuanians, a nationality group that has its own customs and language. About 9 percent of the population are Russians, and a somewhat smaller number are Poles. Belarusians make up about 2 percent, and Ukrainians make up about 1 percent. Less than 1 percent of the people are Jews. Before World War II (1939-1945), about 8 percent of the population were Jews. But the Nazis killed most of the Jews during the war.

About 90 percent of the Lithuanians are Roman Catholics. Most other Lithuanians belong to the Lutheran Church or another Protestant denomination. Lithuania's culture developed under Roman Catholic influence, and Catholic traditions remain part of the people's lives.

Under Soviet rule, the government made the practice of many of the old Lithuanian customs very difficult. For example, Soviet laws forbade religious instruction, religious publications, and charity work. The Soviet government also discouraged church attendance. For example, people who attended church were kept from good educational and employment opportunities. In 1988, the Soviet restrictions on religion in Lithuania were ended.

Lithuania was a rural society until the Soviet conquest. About three-fourths of its people lived in rural villages. The Soviet government ended the traditional Lithuanian style of life by industrializing the country. The government took away private land and combined small farms into large state-owned farms. It built many factories, and large numbers of people moved from rural areas into cities to work in these factories. Today, most of the country's people live in urban areas.

Lithuanians wear clothing similar to that worn in Western countries. But they cherish their decorative national costumes and wear them on festive occasions.

For recreation, Lithuanians especially enjoy singing and sports, particularly basketball, boxing, rowing, and soccer. Choral singing is highly developed in Lithuania, and thousands of people sing and dance in annual festivals that attract huge crowds. Many ancient Lithuanian songs, called dainos, and folk tales have been handed down in spoken form for generations. Lithuania has 13 theaters where ballet, drama, and opera are performed.

Lithuanian children are required to attend school from the age of 6 to 16. Lithuania has 16 universities and colleges. The State University in Vilnius was established in 1579.

Land and climate. Most of Lithuania consists of flat or gently sloping land. The highest elevations are in the southeast. The land dips down to central lowlands and rises slightly in the west. White sand dunes along the seacoast provide a popular resort area. The dunes are especially attractive on a long strip of land that separates a lagoon from the Baltic Sea.

The country has about 3,000 small lakes and hundreds of rivers. The lakes cover about 11/2 percent of Lithuania. The longest and largest river is the Neman (called Nemunas in Lithuanian). It begins in Belarus and drains most of Lithuania during its course to the Baltic.

Lithuania has no large, important mineral deposits. Its natural resources include clays and sands, iron ore, gypsum, limestone, peat, dolomite, amber, and small amounts of oil. Forests cover about a fourth of the land. Small quantities of oil have been discovered in western Lithuania and offshore in the Baltic Sea.

In January, the coldest month in Lithuania, the temperature averages from about 27 °F (-3 °C) on the seacoast to 21 °F (-6 °C) in the east. In July, the hottest month, temperatures average 61 °F (16 °C) near the sea and 64 °F (18 °C) in the east. The average annual precipitation ranges from 21 inches (53 centimeters) to 34 inches (86 centimeters).

Economy. During the period of Soviet control, the government built many factories in Lithuania. In 1940, Lithuania had little industry. Today, about two-thirds of the economic product is industrial.

Lithuanian industry emphasizes chemical production, construction, electronics, food processing, machinery manufacture, metalworking, and oil refining. The country produces large numbers of metal-cutting lathes and electric motors used in appliances. Towns in southern and eastern Lithuania have many appliance factories. Most of Lithuania's food processing and chemical industries are in towns in central and northern Lithuania. Kaunas, Klaipeda, Vilnius, Siauliai, and Panevezys are Lithuania's major industrial centers. Klaipeda has large shipyards. Lithuania also has a large fishing fleet.

Lithuanian agriculture specializes in dairy and meat production. Agriculture accounts for about a fourth of the country's economic output.

Under Soviet rule, the government owned most businesses, factories, and farms. But in the late 1980's, it began to allow private businesses. In 1990, it also began to allow private ownership of farmland. By the mid-1990's, many businesses were privately owned and much farmland was under private control.

History. People lived in the region that is now Lithuania about 8000 B.C. Groups that were the ancestors of the Lithuanian people lived there at the time of Christ.

In the A.D. 100's, the Roman historian Tacitus made the first historical mention of the people who lived near the Baltic Sea. He reported that they sold amber to the Romans. Near the end of the 1100's, the Lithuanian peoples united into a single nation. The first great ruler of Lithuania was Mindaugas, who became king in 1251. Mindaugas was assassinated by nobles in 1263.

In the 1200's, the people fought a group of German crusaders called the Teutonic Knights, who tried to conquer Lithuania (see TEUTONIC KNIGHTS). Lithuania expanded its boundaries in the 1300's. In time, it extended nearly to Moscow in the east and to the Black Sea in the south. In 1386, Grand Duke Jagiello (Jogaila in Lithuanian) united Lithuania with Poland. At first, this union was a confederation of two states ruled mostly by the same king. They were made a single state in 1569.

The Lithuanian-Polish government collapsed in the 1700's, and in 1795, Lithuania came under the rule of the czar of Russia. The people rebelled against Russian rule in 1831 and 1863 but failed to win independence. The czar tried to increase Russian influence in Lithuania. He prohibited books printed in Lithuanian and closed Lithuanian schools. But the people continued to educate their children and kept the national culture alive as well. Many Lithuanians emigrated to the United States during this period and also during later periods.

The movement for an independent Lithuania became organized in the 1880's. In 1905, a conference of elected representatives of Lithuania demanded self-government for their people within the Russian state. The Russians rejected this demand. During World War I (1914-1918), German troops occupied Lithuania. On Feb. 16, 1918, Lithuania became the first of the Baltic States to declare its independence from Russia and Germany (see BALTIC STATES). Lithuania established a democratic system of government in which the parliament had power over the president. A land-reform program broke up large estates and distributed land among the poor. The government also set up an educational system.

Fighting continued in Lithuania after World War I ended. Russia attempted to take over the country. The Lithuanians defeated Russia, and a peace treaty was signed in 1920. Poland occupied Vilnius from 1920 to 1939. In 1926, a group of military officers and civilian politicians seized power. Antanas Smetona became president. He gradually took over more of the authority that the president had shared with parliament.

In March 1939, Germany seized part of Lithuania. A combination of Lithuanian political parties tried to restore democracy, but failed. Later in 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to divide much of eastern Europe between them. (The Soviet Union had been formed in 1922 under Russia's leadership.) The agreements gave the Soviet Union control of the Baltic region. The Soviets then built some military bases in Lithuania.

In 1940, during World War II, the Soviet Union occupied all of Lithuania and made it a Soviet republic with a Communist government. After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Lithuanians revolted against their Soviet rulers and established their own government. But the Germans suppressed the government. They conquered the country and occupied it until 1944, when the Soviet Union again took over Lithuania. From 1944 to 1952, Lithuanian guerrillas fought the Soviet Union. Thousands of the guerrillas were killed in the fighting. The Soviet government also sent about 350,000 Lithuanians to labor camps in Siberia for their political beliefs or as punishment for resisting Soviet rule.

In 1972, many Lithuanian students and young workers demonstrated against the Soviet government, and several people burned themselves to death in protest. Lithuanians continued to express opposition to Soviet rule, particularly after the mid-1980's, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began calling for more openness in Soviet society. In 1988, Lithuanian intellectuals set up the Sajudis, a non-Communist movement to give Lithuania complete control of its economy, citizenship requirements, education, and cultural development. It sought to clean up rivers, lakes, and the Baltic Sea shores, all of which had been severely damaged by industrial pollution. Most members of this and similar movements sought total independence and separation from the Soviet Union. Lithuanians supported these goals by staging public demonstrations. They also elected representatives who supported their movement to the Soviet parliament that was created in 1989.

In 1989, Lithuania's parliament expressed a commitment to full independence. It declared that laws adopted by the Soviet parliament were invalid in Lithuania unless approved by the Lithuanian parliament. The government declared Lithuanian the official language. It also allowed freedom of religion and the press.

On Dec. 7, 1989, the Lithuanian parliament abolished the monopoly of power that the Communist Party had held since 1940. It established a multiparty political system. Parliamentary elections were held in February 1990. A proindependence coalition led by Sajudis won over 90 percent of the parliamentary seats. On March 11, the new parliament declared an immediate restoration of Lithuania's independence as a nation. The Soviet Union demanded a recall of the declaration. But the Lithuanians refused. In response, the Soviet Union applied economic pressure. It cut off all of its shipments of oil, medical supplies, and many other goods. In June--under pressure from Western nations--the Soviet Union and Lithuania held talks that led to an agreement. Under the agreement, the Soviets restored shipments of raw materials and other goods to Lithuania. In turn, the Lithuanians agreed to suspend their declaration of independence temporarily if negotiations with the Soviets took place. But in January 1991, Soviet forces moved into Lithuania to crack down on the freely elected government and the independence movement. The forces killed 14 people and injured 700 others.

After an unsuccessful revolt against Gorbachev in August 1991, Lithuania pressed for recognition of its independence. In September, the Soviet government recognized its independence. In 1992, economic problems helped cause the Sajudis coalition to lose control of parliament. That year, the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party--formerly the Communist Party--won a majority of the seats. In 1996, the moderately conservative Homeland Union Party won the largest number of seats.
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Roland Camilleri

Moderator

Sydney , Australia.