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100-693: The chief reason behind its creation was that in Poland and Lithuania , the Jesuits ran an extensive system of educational institutions. Although the Jesuit schools were fairly efficient and provided the Polish youth with a good education, they were also very conservative . In addition, in 1773 the Pope decided to close down the Jesuit order ( Dominus ac Redemptor ). This threatened a complete breakdown of education in

200-887: A high income , advanced economy , ranking 37th in the Human Development Index (HDI) and 19th in the World Happiness Report . Lithuania is a member of the European Union , the Council of Europe , the eurozone , the Nordic Investment Bank , the Schengen Agreement , NATO , and OECD . It also participates in the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) regional co-operation format. The first known record of

300-451: A 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 1.62/10, ranking it 162nd globally out of 172 countries. Lithuanian ecosystems include natural and semi-natural (forests, bogs , wetlands and meadows), and anthropogenic (agrarian and urban) ecosystems. Among natural ecosystems, forests are particularly important to Lithuania, covering 33% of the country's territory. Wetlands (raised bogs, fens , transitional mires, etc.) cover 7.9% of

400-422: A corresponding original word with no suffix. A likely candidate is Lietā . Because many Baltic ethnonyms originated from hydronyms , linguists have searched for its origin among local hydronyms. Usually, such names evolved through the following process: hydronym → toponym → ethnonym . Lietava , a small river not far from Kernavė , the core area of the early Lithuanian state and a possible first capital of

500-597: A country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe . It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea , bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and the Russian semi-exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest, with a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Lithuania covers an area of 65,300 km (25,200 sq mi), with

600-816: A decisive Polish–Lithuanian victory in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and by concluding the Treaty of Melno in 1422. In the 15th century the strengthened Grand Duchy of Moscow renewed the Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars for the Lithuanian-controlled Eastern Orthodox territories. Due to the unsuccessful beginning of the Livonian War , loss of land to the Tsardom of Russia , and pressure by monarch Sigismund II Augustus ,

700-510: A five-year term and serving a maximum of two terms. The president oversees foreign affairs and national security, and is the commander-in-chief of the military. The president also appoints the prime minister and, on the latter's nomination, the rest of the cabinet, as well as a number of other top civil servants and the judges for all courts except the Constitutional Court. The current Lithuanian head of state, Gitanas Nausėda

800-514: A fragmented multi-party system, with a number of small parties in which coalition governments are common. Ordinary elections to the Seimas take place on the second Sunday of October every four years. To be eligible for election, candidates must be at least 21 years old on the election day, not under allegiance to a foreign state and permanently reside in Lithuania. Persons serving or due to serve

900-537: A population of 2.88 million. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius . Other major cities are Kaunas , Klaipėda , Šiauliai and Panevėžys . Lithuanians belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Lithuanian . For millennia, the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes . In the 1230s, Lithuanian lands were united for the first time by Mindaugas , who formed

1000-661: A resolution, featuring the aspiration for the restoration of Lithuania's sovereignty and military alliance with Germany and elected the Council of Lithuania . In 1918, the short-lived Kingdom of Lithuania was proclaimed; however on 16 February 1918 the Council of Lithuania adopted the Act of Independence of Lithuania which restored Lithuania as democratic republic with its capital in Vilnius and separated that state from all state relations that existed with other nations. In 1918–1920

1100-429: A sentence imposed by the court 65 days before the election are not eligible. Also, judges, citizens performing military service, and servicemen of professional military service and officials of statutory institutions and establishments may not stand for election. Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats won the 2020 Lithuanian parliamentary elections and gained 50 of 141 seats in the parliament. In October 2020,

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1200-533: A small tower containing an astronomical observatory . Following the library's looting and closure, its original seat was used for flour storage after 1807, and was subsequently altered into a tenement house in 1821. The building was destroyed by the Germans during World War II . After the war, the original building was rebuilt under the Polish People's Republic . During the building's reconstruction,

1300-778: A supporter of a close Polish–Lithuanian union, the Lithuanian nobility agreed to conclude the Union of Lublin in 1569 with the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland , which created a new federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth with a joint monarch (holding both titles of the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania), but Lithuania remained a separate state from Poland with its own territory (~300 000 km2), coat of arms, management apparatus, laws, courts, seal, army, treasury, etc. After concluding

1400-413: A year later; meanwhile, its looted Polish predecessor was abolished and destined by the victorious three powers to be sent into oblivion along with its owner, the Polish state itself. Parts of the collections were damaged or destroyed as they were mishandled while being removed from the library and transported to Russia, and many were stolen. According to the historian Joachim Lelewel , the books from

1500-537: Is not farmed, and acts as an ecological niche for weeds and invasive plant species. Habitat deterioration is occurring in regions with very productive and expensive lands as crop areas are expanded. Currently, 18.9% of all plant species, including 1.87% of all known fungi species and 31% of all known species of lichens, are listed in the Lithuanian Red Data Book . The list also contains 8% of all fish species. The wildlife populations have rebounded as

1600-703: Is the largest, Tauragnas is the deepest and Asveja is the longest lake in Lithuania. After a re-estimation of the boundaries of the continent of Europe in 1989, Jean-George Affholder, a scientist at the Institut Géographique National (French National Geographic Institute), determined that the geographic centre of Europe was in Lithuania, at 54°54′N 25°19′E  /  54.900°N 25.317°E  / 54.900; 25.317  ( Purnuškės (centre of gravity) ) , 26 kilometres (16 mi) north of Lithuania's capital city of Vilnius . Affholder accomplished this by calculating

1700-592: The 2023 NATO summit was held in Vilnius. Lithuania is located in the Baltic region of Europe and covers an area of 65,300 km (25,200 sq mi). It lies between latitudes 53° and 57° N , and mostly between longitudes 21° and 27° E (part of the Curonian Spit lies west of 21°). It has around 99 kilometres (61.5 mi) of sandy coastline, only about 38 kilometres (24 mi) of which face

1800-743: The Austrian Partition . Soon afterwards Hugo Kołłątaj prepared a three-level-based education plan: Since all prior education in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was conducted mostly in Latin , the KEN faced the problem of an almost complete lack of books and manuals. To cope with the problem the Society of Elementary Books ( Towarzystwo Ksiąg Elementarnych ) was, therefore, established. The society sponsored competitions for creating

1900-581: The French invasion of Russia has established the puppet Lithuanian Provisional Governing Commission to support his war efforts, however after Napoleon's defeat the Russian rule was reinstated in Lithuania. During the November Uprising (1830–1831) the Lithuanians and Poles jointly attempted to restore their statehoods, however the Russian victory resulted in stricter Russification measures:

2000-714: The German soldiers deliberately destroyed the collection (held in the Krasiński Library at the time) during the planned destruction of Warsaw in October 1944, after collapse of the Warsaw Uprising. Only 1800 manuscripts and 30,000 printed materials from the original library survived the war. After the war, some of the items were successfully recovered and returned to the National Library of Poland ,

2100-639: The Kingdom of Lithuania on 6 July 1253. Subsequent expansion and consolidation resulted in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , which by the 14th century was the largest country in Europe. In 1386, the Grand Duchy entered into a de facto personal union with the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland . The two realms were united into the bi-confederal Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, forming one of

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2200-592: The Kościuszko Uprising (1794), Russian troops, acting on orders from Czarina Catherine II , seized the library's holdings and transported them to her personal collection at Saint Petersburg , where a year later it formed the cornerstone of the newly founded Imperial Public Library . In the 1920s the government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic returned some of the former Załuski Library holdings to

2300-484: The Lithuanian Gediminids dynasty began ruling Lithuania, who consolidated a hereditary monarchy and the status of Vilnius as permanent capital city , christianized Lithuania and by incorporating East Slavs ' territories (e.g. principalities of Minsk , Kyiv , Polotsk , Vitebsk , Smolensk , etc.) significantly expanded the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 's territory, which reached ~650,000 km2 in

2400-534: The Nemunas River basin occupying 74% of the territory of the country. Due to the construction of dams, approximately 70% of spawning sites of potential catadromous fish species have disappeared. In some cases, river and lake ecosystems continue to be impacted by anthropogenic eutrophication . Agricultural land comprises 54% of Lithuania's territory (roughly 70% of that is arable land and 30% meadows and pastures), approximately 400,000 ha of agricultural land

2500-453: The OECD . Dalia Grybauskaitė was the first female President of Lithuania (2009–2019) and the first to be re-elected for a second consecutive term. On 24 February 2022, Lithuania declared a state of emergency in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . Together with seven other NATO member states, it invoked NATO Article 4 to hold consultations on security. On 11–12 July 2023,

2600-566: The Partitions of Poland – heavy Russification and Germanisation notwithstanding. Members of Commission of National Education were: Lithuania This is an accepted version of this page – in Europe  (green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (green)  –  [ Legend ] Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania , is

2700-661: The RSFSR 's government. which served as the cornerstone of the National Library of Poland re-established in 1928 . The latter has therefore always regarded itself as the direct continuation of the Załuski Library with its service to be considered merely "interrupted" by the Partitioning Powers for 133 years, and has continued to officially state the year 1747 as its date of foundation, as well as to number and celebrate its anniversaries accordingly. In World War II ,

2800-547: The Red Army was expelled from its territory, however in a few days Lithuania was occupied by Nazi Germany . In 1944 Lithuania was re-occupied by the Soviet Union and Soviet political repressions along with Soviet deportations from Lithuania resumed. Thousands of Lithuanian partisans and their supporters attempted to militarily restore independent Lithuania, but their resistance was eventually suppressed in 1953 by

2900-545: The Russian language has been introduced in all government institutions, Vilnius University was closed in 1832, and theories that Lithuania was a "Western Russian" state since its establishment were propagated. Subsequently, the Lithuanians once again tried to restore statehood by participating in the January Uprising (1863–1864), but yet another Russian victory resulted in even stronger Russification policies with

3000-523: The Soviet authorities and their collaborators . Jonas Žemaitis , the chairman of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters , was captured and executed in 1954, his successor as chairman Adolfas Ramanauskas was brutally tortured and executed in 1957. Since the late 1980s Sąjūdis movement sought for the restoration of independent Lithuania and in 1989 the Baltic Way was held. On 11 March 1990,

3100-545: The Supreme Council announced the restoration of Lithuania's independence. Lithuania became the first Soviet-occupied state to announce the restitution of independence. On 20 April 1990, the Soviets imposed an economic blockade by ceasing to deliver supplies of raw materials to Lithuania. Not only domestic industry, but also the population started feeling the lack of fuel, essential goods, and even hot water. Although

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3200-515: The Swedish Deluge . The building's reconstruction in rococo style was accomplished by Francesco Antonio Melana and his brother in 1745, thus enabling the Załuski brothers to officially establish the Załuski Library ( Biblioteka Załuskich ) two years later. The establishment had two stories, with a large and lavishly decorated reading room located on the second floor, and was topped with

3300-735: The World War II concluded the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty . In 1940 Lithuania has accepted the Soviet ultimatum and recovered the control of historical capital Vilnius, however the acceptance resulted in the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and its transformation into the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic . In 1941 during the June Uprising in Lithuania it was attempted to restore independent Lithuania and

3400-574: The centre of gravity of the geometrical figure of Europe. Lithuania has a temperate climate with both maritime and continental influences. It is defined as humid continental (Dfb) under the Köppen climate classification (but is close to oceanic in a narrow coastal zone). Average temperatures on the coast are −2.5 °C (27.5 °F) in January and 16 °C (61 °F) in July. In Vilnius,

3500-478: The new constitution . There were intense debates concerning the constitution, particularly the role of the president. A separate referendum was held on 23 May 1992 to gauge public opinion on the matter, and 41% of voters supported the restoration of the President of Lithuania . Through compromise, a semi-presidential system was agreed on. The Lithuanian head of state is the president, directly elected for

3600-583: The real union Lithuania and Poland jointly managed to reach military successes during the Livonian War, occupation of Moscow (1610), war with Sweden (1600–1611) , Smolensk war with Russia (1632–1634) , etc. In 1588, Sigismund III Vasa personally confirmed the Third Statute of Lithuania where it was stated that Lithuania and Poland have equal rights within the Commonwealth and ensured

3700-406: The renewable energy sources. In 2016, Lithuania introduced especially effective container deposit legislation , which resulted in collecting 92% of all packagings in 2017. Lithuania does not have high mountains and its landscape is dominated by blooming meadows, dense forests and fertile fields of cereals. However, it stands out by the abundance of hillforts , which previously had castles where

3800-636: The separation of powers . The real union strongly intensified the Polonization of Lithuania and Lithuanian nobility. The mid-17th century was marked with disastrous military loses for Lithuania as during the Deluge most of the territory of Lithuania was annexed by the Tsardom of Russia and even Lithuania's capital Vilnius was fully captured for the first time by a foreign army and ravaged. In 1655, Lithuania unilaterally seceded from Poland, declared

3900-531: The Żeligowski's Mutiny the Polish forces captured Vilnius Region and established a puppet state of the Republic of Central Lithuania , which in 1922 was incorporated into Poland. Consequently, Kaunas became the temporary capital of Lithuania where the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania was held and other primary Lithuanian institutions operated until 1940. In 1923, the Klaipėda Revolt

4000-407: The 1730s the brothers planned the creation of a public library . The Załuski Library was considered the first Polish public library and one of the largest libraries in the contemporary world. In all of Europe there were only two or three libraries that could boast such holdings. The library initially held some 200,000 items, which grew to some 400,000 printed items, maps and manuscripts by

4100-463: The 1960s. A warming trend has persisted since then. Lithuania experienced a drought in 2002, causing forest and peat bog fires. After the restoration of Lithuania's independence in 1990, the Aplinkos apsaugos įstatymas (Environmental Protection Act) was adopted already in 1992. The law provided the foundations for regulating social relations in the field of environmental protection, established

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4200-620: The 19th century, from Adam Mickiewicz to Bolesław Prus and from the Lwów School of Mathematics to the Lwów–Warsaw School of History . The Guidebook to Chemistry , by Jędrzej Śniadecki , remained in use in the Polish schools well beyond the 1930s. It is often argued, with quite some force, that because of the efforts of the Commission of National Education, the Polish language and culture did not disappear into oblivion, during

4300-607: The Belarusian border in what became known as the Medininkai Massacre . On 17 September 1991, Lithuania was admitted to the United Nations . On 25 October 1992, citizens voted in a referendum to adopt the current constitution . On 14 February 1993, during the direct general elections, Algirdas Brazauskas became the first president after the restoration of independence. On 31 August 1993 the last units of

4400-431: The Commonwealth. One of the first items on the parliamentary agenda of the Partition Sejm (1773–1775), which acceded to the First Partition of Poland , was the assessment in how to best use the former Jesuit property and declaration of a firm intention to the continuity of the education system. The commission was formally created on October 14, 1773. It was one of the newly set-up "Grand Commissions"; organisations with

4500-427: The KEN lost control over most of the schools in the Commonwealth and many of its members were banished or had to defect abroad. This included Hugo Kołłątaj himself, who had to escape to Dresden . The process of dissolving the Commonwealth was completed in 1795, with its territory being ceded to Russia, Prussia and Austria. Although the commission had only functioned for around 20 years, it managed to completely change

4600-422: The KEN was Prince Bishop Michał Jerzy Poniatowski . Although the other members were mostly magnate politicians, the main founders of the body were the prominent writers and scientists of the epoch: Franciszek Bieliński , Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz , Feliks Oraczewski , Andrzej Gawroński , Dawid Pilchowski , Hieronim Stroynowski and Grzegorz Piramowicz . They were joined by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours ,

4700-421: The Lithuanians defended the statehood of Lithuania during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence with Bolsheviks , Bermontians and Poles . The aims of the newly restored Lithuania clashed with Józef Piłsudski 's plans to create a federation ( Intermarium ) in territories previously ruled by the Jagiellonians . The Lithuanian authorities prevented the 1919 Polish coup attempt in Lithuania and in 1920 during

4800-431: The Polish Sejm gradually started to lose their influence. Similarly, the KEN was deprived of many of its former privileges. During the Sejm Wielki the Reformers had to sacrifice many of those privileges to gain support for the strongly reformist Constitution of May the 3rd which aimed to strengthen the country against further partition in 1791. Ultimately, after the victory of the Confederation of Targowica , in 1794,

4900-410: The Seimas, and the Chairman of the Supreme Court,. The unicameral Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas , has 141 members who are elected to four-year terms. 71 of the members of its members are elected in single-member constituencies, and the others in a nationwide vote by proportional representation . A party must receive at least 5% of the national vote to be eligible for any of the 70 national seats in

5000-442: The Seimas. Lithuania was one of the first countries in the world to grant women a right to vote in the elections. Lithuanian women were allowed to vote by the 1918 Constitution of Lithuania and used their newly granted right for the first time in 1919. By doing so, Lithuania allowed it earlier than such democratic countries as the United States (1920), France (1945), Greece (1952), Switzerland (1971). Lithuania exhibits

5100-415: The Soviet Union , then by Nazi Germany , before being reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944. Lithuanian armed resistance to the Soviet occupation lasted until the early 1950s. On 11 March 1990, a year before the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union , Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to break away when it proclaimed the restoration of its independence . Lithuania is a developed country with

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5200-523: The Swedish King Charles X Gustav as the Grand Duke of Lithuania and fell under the protection of the Swedish Empire . However, by 1657 Lithuania was once again a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth following the Lithuanian revolt against the Swedes. Vilnius was recaptured from the Russians in 1661. In the second half of the 18th century the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was three times partitioned by three neighboring countries which completely dissoluted both independent Lithuania and Poland from

5300-420: The Zaluskis' collection "could be bought at Grodno by the basket". The collection was later dispersed among several Russian libraries. Some parts of the Zaluski collection returned to Congress Poland on two separate dates in the nineteenth century: 1842 and 1863. In the 1920s, in the aftermath of the Polish-Soviet War and the Treaty of Riga around 50,000 collection items were repatriated to Poland by

5400-457: The ancient Lithuanians burned altars for pagan gods. Lithuania is a particularly watered region with more than 3,000 lakes, mostly in the northeast. The country is also drained by numerous rivers, most notably the longest Nemunas . Lithuania is home to two terrestrial ecoregions: Central European mixed forests and Sarmatic mixed forests . Forest has long been one of the most important natural resources in Lithuania. Forests occupy one-third of

5500-486: The average temperatures are −6 °C (21 °F) in January and 17 °C (63 °F) in July. During the summer, 20 °C (68 °F) is common during the day, while 14 °C (57 °F) is common at night; in the past, temperatures have reached as high as 30 or 35 °C (86 or 95 °F). Some winters can be very cold. −20 °C (−4 °F) occurs almost every winter. Winter extremes are −34 °C (−29 °F) in coastal areas and −43 °C (−45 °F) in

5600-405: The basic rights and obligations of legal and natural persons in preserving the biodiversity inherent in Lithuania, ecological systems and the landscape. Lithuania agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 20% of 1990 levels by 2020 and by at least 40% by 2030, together with all European Union members. Also, by 2020 at least 20% (27% by 2030) of the country's total energy consumption should be from

5700-496: The best textbooks. The scientists—working on the new Polish language textbooks—had, at times, to come up with the necessary vocabulary entries. Much of the vocabulary they invented (in relation to chemistry, physics, mathematics or grammar) is still in use up to this day. The commission also devised several documents, outlining the whole educational process. However, several of the new principles were considered too novel for that age, and were often ignored. These included, inter alia,

5800-417: The blockade lasted for 74 days, Lithuania did not renounce the declaration of independence. Gradually, economic relations were restored. However, tensions peaked again in January 1991. Attempts were made to carry out a coup using the Soviet Armed Forces , the Internal Army of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the USSR Committee for State Security ( KGB ). Because of the poor economic situation in Lithuania,

5900-463: The books outside the library, as the book theft became a growing problem, to an extent that the bishop patrons decided to ask the pope for help. Responding to their request, in 1752 pope Benedict XIV issued a papal bull that threatened to excommunication individuals taking the books from this library; even that did not eliminate the problem completely. After the brothers' deaths, the newly formed Commission for National Education took charge of

6000-498: The collapse of the Warsaw Uprising . The Załuski brothers' greatest passion was book collecting , including collecting historical manuscripts and incunabula . Józef Andrzej Załuski and his brother Andrzej Stanisław Załuski acquired the collections of earlier Polish bibliophiles such as Jakub Zadzik , Krzysztof Opaliński , Tomasz Ujejski, Janusz Wiśniowiecki , Jerzy Mniszech and Jan III Sobieski (the latter, from his granddaughter, Maria Karolina Sobieska ). Beginning from

6100-408: The country's territory and timber-related industrial production accounts for almost 11% of industrial production in the country. Lithuania has five national parks , 30 regional parks , 402 nature reserves , 668 state-protected natural heritage objects. In 2018 Lithuania was ranked fifth, second to Sweden (first 3 places were not granted) in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). It had

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6200-412: The country, with 70% of wetlands having been lost due to drainage and peat extraction between 1960 and 1980. Changes in wetland plant communities resulted in the replacement of moss and grass communities by trees and shrubs, and fens not directly affected by land reclamation have become drier as a result of a drop in the water table. There are 29,000 rivers with a total length of 64,000 km in Lithuania,

6300-422: The east of Lithuania. The average annual precipitation is 800 mm (31.5 in) on the coast, 900 mm (35.4 in) in the Samogitia highlands, and 600 mm (23.6 in) in the eastern part of the country. Snow occurs every year, and it can snow from October to April. In some years, sleet can fall in September or May. The growing season lasts 202 days in the western part of the country and 169 days in

6400-424: The eastern part. Severe storms are rare in the eastern part of Lithuania but common in the coastal areas. The longest records of measured temperature in the Baltic area cover about 250 years. The data show warm periods during the latter half of the 18th century, and that the 19th century was a relatively cool period. An early 20th-century warming culminated in the 1930s, followed by a smaller cooling that lasted until

6500-413: The edge of the North European Plain . Its landscape was smoothed by the glaciers of the last ice age , and is a combination of moderate lowlands and highlands. Its highest point is Aukštojas Hill at 294 metres (965 ft) in the eastern part of the country. The terrain features numerous lakes ( Lake Vištytis , for example) and wetlands, and a mixed forest zone covers over 33% of the country. Drūkšiai

6600-404: The election day and reside in Lithuania for at least three years, in addition to satisfying the eligibility criteria for a member of the parliament. Same President may serve for not more than two terms. Gitanas Nausėda was elected as an independent candidate in 2019 and re-elected in 2024 . Each municipality in Lithuania is governed by a municipal council and a mayor , who is a member of

6700-401: The end of the 1780s. It also accumulated a collection of art, scientific instruments, and plant and animal specimens. This library, open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., asked patrons to be quiet and to say a prayer in the intention of the Załuski brothers. The library initially lended out its collection items, but soon reversed this policy by prohibiting to take

6800-421: The eventual Grand Duchy of Lithuania , is usually credited as the source of the name. However, the river is very small and some find it improbable that such a small and local object could have lent its name to an entire nation. On the other hand, such naming is not unprecedented in world history. Artūras Dubonis proposed another hypothesis, that Lietuva relates to the word leičiai (plural of leitis ). From

6900-460: The first half of the 14th century. At the end of the 14th century Lithuania was the largest country in Europe . In 1385, Lithuania formed a dynastic union with Poland through the Union of Krewo . Furthermore, in the late 14th–15th centuries patrilineal members of the Lithuanian ruling Gediminids dynasty ruled not only Lithuania and Poland, but Hungary , Croatia , Bohemia , and Moldavia . The German attacks on Lithuania were ceased with

7000-460: The forces in Moscow thought the coup d'état would receive strong public support. People flooded to Vilnius to defend the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania and independence. The coup ended with a few casualties and material loss. The Soviet Army killed 14 people and injured hundreds. A large part of the Lithuanian population participated in the January Events . On 31 July 1991, Soviet paramilitaries killed 7 Lithuanian border guards on

7100-440: The former Soviet Army left Lithuania. On 31 May 2001, Lithuania joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since March 2004, Lithuania has been part of NATO . On 1 May 2004, it became a full member of the European Union , and a member of the Schengen Agreement in December 2007. On 1 January 2015, Lithuania joined the eurozone and adopted the European Union's single currency. On 4 July 2018, Lithuania officially joined

7200-442: The hunting became more restricted and urbanization allowed replanting forests (forests already tripled in size since their lows). Currently, Lithuania has approximately 250,000 larger wild animals or 5 per each square kilometre. The most prolific large wild animal in every part of Lithuania is the roe deer , with 120,000 of them. They are followed by boars (55,000). Other ungulates are the deer (~22,000), fallow-deer (~21,000) and

7300-562: The introduction of the Lithuanian press ban , pressure of the Catholic Church in Lithuania and Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky 's repressions. The Lithuanians resisted Russification through an extensive network of Lithuanian book smugglers , secret Lithuanian publishing and homeschooling. Moreover, the Lithuanian National Revival , inspired by Lithuanian history, language and culture, laid the foundations for

7400-473: The largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighbouring countries gradually dismantled it between 1772 and 1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania's territory. Towards the end of World War I , Lithuania declared Independence in 1918, founding the modern Republic of Lithuania. In World War II , Lithuania was occupied by

7500-637: The largest one: moose (~7,000). Among the Lithuanian predators, foxes are the most common (~27,000). Wolves are, however, more ingrained into the mythology as there are just 800 in Lithuania. Even rarer are the lynxes (~200). The large animals mentioned above exclude the rabbit , ~200,000 of which may live in the Lithuanian forests. Since Lithuania declared the restoration of its independence on 11 March 1990, it has maintained strong democratic traditions. It held its first independent general elections on 25 October 1992, in which 56.75% of voters supported

7600-536: The library, renaming it the Załuski Library of the Republic. Twenty years later in 1794, in the aftermath of the second Partition of Poland and Kościuszko Uprising , Russian troops, on orders from Russian Czarina Catherine II , emptied the library and dispatched the whole collection to Saint Petersburg . The looted books formed the foundations of the Imperial Public Library on its formation

7700-546: The local population and formed various Baltic tribes . The Baltic tribes did not maintain close cultural or political contacts with the Roman Empire , but they did maintain trade contacts via the amber road . From the 9th to the 11th centuries, coastal Balts were subjected to raids by the Vikings . The first written record of the name for the country dates back to 1009 AD. Facing the German threat , Mindaugas in

7800-530: The mayor is elected directly by the majority of residents of the municipality. Social Democratic Party of Lithuania won most of the positions in the 2015 elections (372 municipal councils seats and 16 mayors). Za%C5%82uski Library The Załuski Library ( Polish : Biblioteka Załuskich , Latin : Bibliotheca Zalusciana ) established in Warsaw in 1747 by Józef Andrzej Załuski and his brother, Andrzej Stanisław Załuski , both Roman Catholic bishops,

7900-571: The middle of the 13th century united a large part of the Baltic tribes and founded the State of Lithuania, while in 1253 he was crowned as the Catholic King of Lithuania . Moreover by taking advantage of the weakened territory of the former Kievan Rus' due to the Mongol invasion , Mindaugas incorporated Black Ruthenia into Lithuania. After Mindaugas' assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania

8000-591: The middle of the 13th century, leičiai were a distinct warrior social group of the Lithuanian society subordinate to the Lithuanian ruler or the state itself. The word leičiai is used in 14–16th century historical sources as an ethnonym for Lithuanians (but not Samogitians ) and is still used, usually poetically or in historical contexts, in the Latvian language , which is closely related to Lithuanian. The history of Lithuania dates back to settlements founded about 10,000 years ago. The first people settled in

8100-450: The municipal council. The number of members, elected on a four-year term, in each municipal council depends on the size of the municipality and varies from 15 (in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 residents) to 51 (in municipalities with more than 500,000 residents). 1,524 municipal council members were elected in 2015. Members of the council, with the exception of the mayor, are elected using proportional representation. Starting with 2015,

8200-490: The name of Lithuania ( Lithuanian : Lietuva ) is in a 9 March 1009 story of Saint Bruno in the Quedlinburg Chronicle . The Chronicle recorded a Latinized form of the name Lietuva: Litua (pronounced [litua] ). Due to lack of reliable evidence, the true meaning of the name is unknown and scholars still debate it. There are a few plausible versions. Since Lietuva has a suffix (- uva ), there should be

8300-566: The open Baltic Sea , less than the other two Baltic states. The rest of the coast is sheltered by the Curonian sand peninsula. Lithuania's major warm-water port , Klaipėda , lies at the narrow mouth of the Curonian Lagoon (Lithuanian: Kuršių marios ), a shallow lagoon extending south to Kaliningrad . The country's main and largest river, the Nemunas River , and some of its tributaries carry international shipping. Lithuania lies at

8400-594: The political map in 1795 after a failed Kościuszko Uprising and short-lived recapture of capital Vilnius in 1794. Most of Lithuania's territory was annexed by the Russian Empire , while Užnemunė  [ lt ] was annexed by Prussia . Following the annexation the Russian Tsarist authorities implemented Russification policies in Lithuania, which then made a part of a new administrative region Northwestern Krai . In 1812 Napoleon during

8500-466: The prime ministerial candidate of Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) Ingrida Šimonytė formed a centre-right coalition with two liberal parties. The President of Lithuania is the head of state of the country, elected to a five-year term in a majority vote. Elections take place on the last Sunday no more than two months before the end of current presidential term. To be eligible for election, candidates must be at least 40 years old on

8600-613: The principle of 'equality of both sexes' in education. In 1780, the Opposition refused to sign the Statute on Elementary Schools (which was drafted by Kołłątaj). In 1774 the commission took over the Załuski Library . After the formative period, during which the prerogatives of the commission were established, the KEN started to convert schools to the new model. The three universities in Warsaw , Vilnius and Kraków were granted

8700-493: The recently established Second Polish Republic following the Treaty of Riga , and they were later included in the National Library ( Biblioteka Narodowa ), founded in 1928 (hence, the latter considers itself the continuation of the Załuski Library). The majority of the original Załuski collection was, however, deliberately destroyed by the German troops during the planned destruction of Warsaw in October 1944, following

8800-533: The reestablishment of an independent Lithuania. The Great Seimas of Vilnius was held in 1905 and its participants has adopted resolutions which demanded a wide autonomy for Lithuania. During World War I the German Empire annexed Lithuanian territories from the Russian Empire and they became a part of Ober Ost . In 1907, the Lithuanians organized the Vilnius Conference which adopted

8900-462: The right of curatorship over schools of lower degree. This included the schools which remained under the influence of the Roman Church. Gradually, the teachers, who were frequently former Jesuit priests, were exchanged for young lay teachers - graduates of the three academies. Thanks to this move, the opposition inside the local schools was finally broken. After 1789 the supporters of reforms in

9000-553: The schools created and supervised by the KEN, gave rise to the most prominent personalities of the Polish uprisings and of politics in Central Europe in the 19th century. In addition, the 27 elementary textbooks and manuals, published by the commission, laid the foundations for the Polish language terminology in chemistry, physics, logics, grammar and mathematics. They were used by all prominent Polish scientists and authors of

9100-497: The schools, and many palaces and Church-owned villages. Due to this fact, the commission had not only benefited from the necessary infrastructure, but also had its own profit-yielding farms. The commission supervised two universities ( Jagiellonian University in Kraków and Vilnius University in Vilnius ), 74 secondary schools and about 1600 parish schools. The third university in the Commonwealth, Lwów University , had been lost to

9200-623: The secretary of the king of Poland (and father of the founder of the DuPont company). Despite the fact that, initially, the KEN had to face a strong opposition in the Sejm , it was supported by both the monarch and the Familia party, which accorded it almost complete independence in management of its affairs. In 1773 the KEN was granted much of the former property of the Jesuit order, including all

9300-416: The shape of education in Poland. The Enlightenment -based school programmes and books influenced the whole generation of Poles. Also, although education was still far from being universal, it became accessible to a much wider group of people, including peasants. Thousands of teachers—trained in lay teachers' seminaries—became the backbone of Polish science during the Partitions and the generation, educated in

9400-496: The status of a ministry , albeit with a collegiate structure. Its main mastermind and chief figure was a Catholic priest, Hugo Kołłątaj ; other notable supporters included Ignacy Potocki and Adam K. Czartoryski . Initially, the governing body consisted of four senators and four members of the Sejm, half of them representing the eastern "counties" voivodships of the Commonwealth (from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ). The first head of

9500-536: The successor to the Załuski Library. In 2023, George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews , a member of the British Royal Family , personally handed over the 1523 L’histoire de Primaleon de Grece by Francisco Vázquez after he realized the provenance of this book in his collections. For the purpose of establishing the library, the brothers acquired the 17th-century Daniłowicz Palace in Warsaw , originally built for Mikołaj Daniłowicz of Żurów and ruined during

9600-430: The territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC : Kunda , Neman and Narva cultures . They were traveling hunters. In the 8th millennium BC, the climate became warmer, and forests developed. The inhabitants of what is now Lithuania travelled less and engaged in local hunting, gathering and fresh-water fishing. The Indo-Europeans , who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with

9700-603: Was elected on 26 May 2019 by unanimously winning in all municipalities of Lithuania in the second election round. He was re-elected in 2024, winning more than 74% of the run-off votes. The judges of the Constitutional Court ( Konstitucinis Teismas ) serve nine-year terms. The court is renewed by a third every three years. The judges are appointed by the Seimas, on the nomination of the President, Chairman of

9800-494: Was a public library nationalized and renamed upon its founders' death into the Załuski Library of the Republic ( Polish : Biblioteka Rzeczypospolitej Załuskich ) which existed until the final demise of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. The library was the first Polish public library, the largest library in Poland, and one of the earliest public libraries in Europe. After

9900-724: Was again a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and Livonian Order . Traidenis during his reign (1269–1282) reunified all Lithuanian lands and achieved military successes against the Crusaders, fighting alongside other Baltic tribes, but was unable to militarily assist the Old Prussians in their Great Uprising . Traidenis' main residence was in Kernavė . From the late 13th century members of

10000-517: Was organized which unified the Klaipėda Region with Lithuania. The 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état replaced the democratically elected government and president with an authoritarian regime led by Antanas Smetona . In the late 1930s Lithuania has accepted the 1938 Polish ultimatum , 1939 German ultimatum and transferred the Klaipėda Region to Nazi Germany and following the beginning of

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