Lithuania (Lithuanian Lietuva), republic in northeastern Europe, bounded on the north by Latvia; on the east and south by Belarus; on the southeast by Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia; and on the west by the Baltic Sea. Lithuania has an area of about 65,200 sq km (about 25,175 sq mi). The estimated population in 1992 was 3,761,400. Vilnius, the capital and largest city of Lithuania, is in the southeast portion of the country. With Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania is one of the Baltic republics.

Land and Resources
Lithuania consists of a low-lying plain broken by low hills in the west and south. Almost the entire territory of the country is less than 200 m (about 655 ft) in elevation. Lithuania contains many lakes and rivers, 22 of which have a total length of 100 km (about 60 mi) or more. The most extensive of these is the Nemunas, (Neman), a major river that supplies the country with hydroelectric power. Marshes and swamps are prevalent, especially in the north and west, although half of all original wetlands have been drained. The climate is dominated by marine influences, but conditions are more variable in the eastern portion of the republic. In the west summers are cooler, and winters are milder. Average annual precipitation ranges from less than 600 mm (about 20 in) per year in the center of the country to more than 850 mm (about 35 in) per year in the west. Forests, which occupy about one-fourth of total land area, support an extensive array of wildlife, including deer, wolves, foxes, and wild boar. Minor oil and gas deposits have been found near the coast, and offshore areas may contain much larger deposits.

Population
Lithuanians constitute more than 80 percent of the country's population. They speak a Baltic language related to Latvian. The proportion of Lithuanians increased in the first years after the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991, as Lithuanians immigrated from other parts of the USSR and abroad, and ethnic minorities, especially Slavs, left Lithuania in large numbers. According to 1992 official estimates, Russians accounted for 8.9 percent of the population, and Poles, 7 percent. Other minorities include Ukrainians, Jews, and Belarusians. Catholicism is the religion of the Lithuanians. Other forms of Christianity are also practiced in the country.
Lithuania is highly urbanized, with about 58 percent of the population living in urban areas. In contrast to most other republics of the former USSR, Lithuania is not dominated by a single urban center. Although Vilnius, the capital, is the largest city (1992 estimated population, 597,000), the country contains other medium to large cities, such as Kaunas (434,000) and the seaport Klaipeda (208,000).

Economy
Although agriculture dominated the Lithuanian economy before Soviet annexation in 1940, industry has become the leading sector of the economy. Industry accounts for about 40 percent of gross domestic production (GDP) and nearly 30 percent of total employment. Food processing, shipbuilding, and the manufacture of electrical machinery are the most important industries. Other manufactures include cement, textiles, televisions, and paper.
Agriculture accounts for about 18 percent of employment. Livestock breeding and dairy farming are the dominant agricultural activities. The principal crops are grain, potatoes, sugar beets, and flax. Mineral resources are limited; they include gypsum, peat, and clay.
Although domestic energy production can meet a large proportion of the country's needs, the economy has suffered greatly from Russian demands that fossil-fuel shipments be paid for at world prices. The two Chernobyl'-style nuclear power reactors at the Ignalina plant in Lithuania, the only civilian nuclear power facility in the Baltic republics, can fill roughly half of the country's energy needs. Technical difficulties, however, have forced officials to close the plant briefly on more than one occasion since independence. Minor oil deposits were discovered in the area of Klaipêda, which should help keep the Mazeikiai refinery operational. The only oil refinery in the Baltic republics, the Mazeikiai plant was forced to close down for a period due to lack of oil. It serves the Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia, which has prompted Russian officials to resume regular deliveries of oil. Disruption of economic ties with the former Soviet republics has devastated the economy; GDP dropped by about 25 percent in 1992.
After gaining independence, Lithuania began making plans to introduce its own currency, the litas, to replace the Russian ruble in circulation. Lithuanian officials decided to first introduce coupons to supplement rubles, which were in short supply. The talonas (Lithuanian for “coupon”) was issued freely, since it was assumed that a wide circulation of the coupons would aid Lithuanian consumers, with minimal negative economic consequences. But with energy price shocks and a policy of indexing wages and pensions, inflation became rampant, and the value of the talonas dropped steadily. The litas was introduced as the sole legal tender in 1993, after which the supply of litas fluctuated greatly. In March 1994 the parliament passed legislation that fixed the litas to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 4 litas per U.S.$1.

Government
According to the new constitution, which was ratified in October 1992, the president is the head of state of the republic of Lithuania. The highest legislative authority is the Seimas, or parliament, a unicameral body composed of 141 members elected to four-year terms. Seventy-one seats in the Seimas are determined by direct popular vote, while the remaining seats are allocated on a proportional basis to each party that receives 4 percent or more of the total vote. Parties representing ethnic minorities, such as the Union of Poles, are exempt from the minimum vote requirement. The president appoints the prime minister, subject to approval by the Seimas. The country is not a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which is comprised of former Soviet republics.

History
Some scholars believe that Lithuanians inhabited the Baltic area as early as 2500 BC; others believe they migrated to the Baltic area about the beginning of the 1st century AD. The first reference to them by name was in AD 1009 in a medieval Prussian manuscript, the Quedlinburg Chronicle.

The Medieval Jagiellon Empire
With the rise of the medieval lords in adjacent Prussia and Russia, Lithuania was constantly subject to invasion and attempted conquest. As a result, a loose federation of Lithuanian tribes was formed in the early Middle Ages. In the 13th century AD, when the Teutonic Knights, a German militaristic religious order, were establishing their power, the Lithuanians resisted; in about 1260 they defeated the order. About a century later a dynasty of grand dukes called the Jagiellons established, through conquest, a Lithuanian empire reaching from the Baltic to the Black seas. The Lithuanian Prince Gedimin occupied Belarus and western Ukraine; his son, Grand Duke Olgierd, added the territory between Ukraine and the Black Sea. Jagiello, the son of Olgierd, succeeded his father in 1377. In 1386 he married Jadwiga, queen of Poland, and, after accepting Christianity, was crowned Wladyslaw II Jagiello, king of Poland.
Jagiello's cousin, Witold, revolted against him in 1390, and two years later Jagiello recognized him as vice regent. Witold made the grand duchy into a prestigious state, and in 1401 Jagiello created him a duke; together, the reconciled cousins decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights in 1410. In 1447, under Casimir IV, the son of Jagiello, Lithuania and Poland were permanently allied. From 1501, with the accession of Casimir's son, Alexander I, the countries had one ruler, and in 1569 they agreed to have a common legislature and an elective king. The political union was induced by the threat of Russian conquest, but provided little protection. As a result of the partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, Lithuania became a part of Russia, except for a small section awarded to Prussia. Lithuanians became a completely subject people, but they staged large-scale nationalist insurrections in 1812, 1831, 1863, and 1905.

Short-Lived Independence
During World War I (1914-1918) the German army occupied Lithuania, but at the end of the war nationalists established the country's independence. In August 1922 the Lithuanian constituent assembly, in session since May 1920, approved a constitution that proclaimed the country a democratic republic.
Conservative and liberal factions in the Seimas collided during the next two years. On December 17, 1926, the army and nationalists, led by the conservative statesman Antanas Smetona, engineered a coup d'état. All liberals and leftists were expelled from the Seimas, which then elected Smetona president, with Augustinas Voldemaras as premier.
Following the rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany, Lithuanian-German friction over the city of Memel (now Klaipeda) increased steadily. With the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945) and the partition of Poland by Germany and the USSR, the Lithuanian and Soviet governments concluded a mutual-assistance treaty in October 1939. A pro-Soviet government assumed power in Lithuania the following June. Shortly thereafter the Communist Working People's Bloc, the only political party allowed to function, campaigned for inclusion of Lithuania in the USSR. Political dissidents were rounded up, and the electorate voted, on July 14-15, 1940, in a single-slate parliamentary election. The new parliament unanimously approved a resolution requesting incorporation of Lithuania in the USSR. The Soviet government granted the request on August 3. The United States and other democratic powers, however, refused to recognize the legality of the Soviet annexation.

Soviet Republic
Large-scale anti-Soviet uprisings in Lithuania followed the German invasion, on June 22, 1941, of the USSR. Unable to contend with both the revolt and the German onslaught, the Soviet forces withdrew. The Germans systematically pillaged Lithuanian resources and, as a national resistance movement developed, killed more than 200,000 people.
In the summer of 1944 the Soviets reoccupied Lithuania, which was reestablished as a Soviet republic. The Soviets executed an estimated 2000 people for collaborating with the Germans and deported many anti-Communists to Siberia. In 1949 the Communist regime closed most churches, deported many priests, and prosecuted people possessing religious images. Additional deportations and a great influx of Russians and Poles into Vilnius were noted in 1956. Subsequently, Lithuania settled into comparative calm, and most nations tacitly accepted its status as a Soviet republic, although the United States never recognized its incorporation into the USSR.

Independence Renewed
In the late 1980s, rapid political changes in Eastern Europe and the USSR sparked a resurgence of Lithuanian nationalism. Independence was declared in March 1990, but the USSR used economic, political, and military pressure to keep Lithuania within the union. After Soviet Communism collapsed in August 1991, however, the central government granted independence to Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia on September 6, and all three Baltic republics were admitted to the United Nations later that month.
As in several other former Soviet republics, such as Azerbaijan and Georgia, former communists in Lithuania staged a political comeback in the post-USSR period. Although the anti-Soviet, pro-independence Sajudis coalition (the Lithuanian Movement for Reconstruction) won the country's first open parliamentary elections in February 1990 and successfully led the struggle for Lithuanian independence, the coalition could not maintain political leadership. Their popularity dropped as a result of political infighting in the coalition, a severe economic crisis caused by the disruption of trade ties with the former Soviet republics, and a worsening of international relations with neighboring countries. As a result, the Democratic Labor party (DLP; the former Communist party of Lithuania) won a majority of seats in the Seimas in February 1992, and in November 1992 Algirdas Brazauskas, the DLP leader, was elected president with 60 percent of the vote. Popular support for the new government soon declined, however, as the DLP leadership also failed to quickly solve the country's economic problems. In 1993 Lithuania became the first of the three Baltic states to be free of a Russian military presence. The last unit of Russian troops left the country on August 31 of that year.

Background: Independent between the two World Wars, Lithuania was annexed by the USSR in 1940. In March of 1990, Lithuania became the first of the Soviet republics to declare its independence, but this proclamation was not generally recognized until September of 1991 (following the abortive coup in Moscow). The last Russian troops withdrew in 1993. Lithuania subsequently has restructured its economy for eventual integration into Western European institutions.