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History and Government
History: Present-day Lithuanians, along with Latvians and ancient Prussians, are descendants of the Balts, an Indo-European ethnic group that settled on the Baltic coast 4000 years ago. The name of Lithuania was first mentioned in the Quedlinburg Annals in 1009. Under Grand Duke Gediminas, who is recognised as the founder of Lithuania, and under the rule of Grand Duke Mindaugas, the territory was extended during the 14th century southwards to take in Minsk and later as far as the Black Sea. This power enabled Lithuania to withstand the advance of the Teutonic Knights and to reach, together with Poland, the decisive victory at the Zalgiris (Tannenberg) battle in 1410.
At the Union of Lublin in 1569, a full-scale merger between Lithuania and Poland took place, creating ‘The Joint Republic of the Polish Kingdom and Lithuanian Grand Duchy’. However, the ensuing centuries showed that this was insufficient to protect Lithuania from the territorial ambitions of other regional powers. At the end of the 18th century, the Joint Republic was carved up and occupied in successive partitions. Russia took possession of part of Lithuania in 1795 (the western region was claimed by Prussia) and held on to it until the early 20th century. The Russians were driven out by the German army during World War I and, after the Bolshevik revolution brought an end to Russian involvement in World War I, the Lithuanian Council declared independence in February 1918. In 1921, Lithuania joined the League of Nations. Although the Lithuanians had settled their differences with the Russians, temporarily at least, the Poles continued to occupy Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, in defiance of Allied demarcation which had awarded the city to the Lithuanians.
The capital of the new state was therefore established at Kaunas. The Lithuanian constitution promulgated in 1922 declared Lithuania to be a parliamentary republic with the Seimas as the legislative organ. However, a military coup in December 1926 brought Antanas Smetona to power at the head of an authoritarian regime backed by the nationalist Tautininku movement. The status of Lithuania was again altered following the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, whose secret protocols allowed for a Soviet takeover of all three Baltic Republics. Lithuania was occupied by the German Army in 1941 until its re-annexation by the Soviets three years later. The republic underwent some industrialisation and the immigration of ethnic Russians between the 1950s and the mid-1980s, though not on the scale experienced by Estonia or Latvia.
When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Kremlin in 1985, the population still comprised 80-90 per cent ethnic Lithuanians. Taking advantage of the less repressive political climate, pressure for political and economic reform in Lithuania grew. This was spearheaded by the Sajudis, the Lithuanian Reform Movement, which put forward a programme of democratic and national rights coupled with support for an independent Lithuania. The Lithuanian Communist Party was split between Sajudis supporters – who won a majority on the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet at elections in February/March 1990 – and those who backed the Moscow position asserting the supremacy of the centre. Moscow responded initially with selective economic sanctions, and then military deployments to deter the pro-independence elements.
Despite occupying radio, TV and other key installations, the Soviet forces were forced to back down in the face of a mass popular mobilisation called by Landsbergis, compounded by a referendum on independence which won 90 per cent support. This decisive period in recent Lithuanian history finished with the failed coup against Gorbachev in August 1991 and the effective end to Soviet Government. Lithuanian independence followed immediately, unopposed and by default. The country was internationally recognised and rapidly gained admission to the United Nations, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
An attempt to implement price rises at the beginning of 1991 had already led to the resignation of Lithuania’s first Prime Minister, the charismatic Kazimiera Prunskiene, replaced by the new Sajudis leader Gediminas Vagnorius. The transition to a full market economy now began; by 1995 it had been more or less completed. Lithuania was able to deal fairly quickly with several outstanding issues concerning its larger neighbours: the long-running border dispute with Poland was settled with the signing of a friendship and co-operation treaty in January 1992, and negotiations with Russia led to the withdrawal of the remaining Russian troops in Lithuania in August 1993. Lithuania’s main priorities abroad were to secure membership of the European Union and of NATO. Both are now within reach. The country has fulfilled most of the entrance criteria for accession to the EU and may well be allowed to join, along with nine other applicants (mostly from fellow central and eastern European states), in 2004. Strong objections originally posted by Moscow to any of the Baltic states entering NATO have gradually been mollified, and Lithuania may receive an invitation to join at the forthcoming Prague NATO summit in 2002.
There is a sensitive outstanding problem with Russia, however, concerning access to the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. This geographical peculiarity is important to the Russians as the single Baltic port that is ice-free throughout the year. It has also developed a thriving economy as a free trade port with access to valuable European markets. The Lithuanians are reluctant to allow a free access corridor across their territory, which is the only viable route from the enclave to the rest of Russia.
Domestic politics have been dominated by the struggle between the Democratic Labour Party – which grew out of the former Lithuanian Communist Party – and centre-right, liberal and nationalist groupings based initially around Sajudis, and more recently the New Union and the Conservative Party of Lithuania (formed following a split in Sajudis in 1996). New political formations tend to organise around a prominent individual, such as Vytautas Landsbergis, a prominent Sajudis leader and ex-president, and Algirdas Brazauskas who has given his name to the four-party social democratic coalition which won the most recent Seimas (parliament) election in October 2000. Landsbergis’ fortunes, meanwhile, received a setback when he was narrowly and unexpectedly defeated in the February 1998 race for the presidency. The victor was a little-known independent, Valdas Adamkus, who had only recently returned to Lithuania from the United States (where he had worked as an environmental protection officer). Brazauskas recovered the premiership in 2001 after a handful of short-lived predecessors.
Government: Under the constitution adopted in October 1992, legislative authority rests with the popularly elected Seimas, the parliament, with 141 Government members. The president is the head of state and is elected for a five-year term by universal adult suffrage. Executive power is vested in the Government, consisting of the prime minister, who is appointed by the president with approval of the Seimas, and his cabinet.
Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.
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