Lithuanian history

Lithuanian history as the history of any other state makes the biggest part of its attractiveness in the eyes of the tourist. By the way for example the Coliseum in Rome is however only a pile of stones picked up in a special order. And these stones revive only due to the memory of events happened in the arena and associated legends.

The same is Lithuania where there are so many castles, old mills and ancient trades, it recovers from inanimate a living one due to several facts and legends which have bound so firmly nowadays that is difficult to distinguish one from another.

The Middle Ages period is the basis of the present day history of Lithuania. From the 13 - th to the 16 - th century Lithuania was one of the largest states in Europe – Lithuanian Grand Duchy. It stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and included the territories of present day Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. In different times the capital of the Duchy was in Vilnius, Kyarnava and Novogrudok (Belarus). Lithuania still honors the dukes of those times: Mindaugas, the first Lithuanian duke, Vytautas and Gedemin.

At the end of the 16th century the fame of Grand Duchy declined. The beginning of the end of the first Lithuanian state is considered to be the union which was signed between Lithuanian Grand Duchy and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the town of Lublin in 1569. Lithuania lost the part of its sovereign rights and its population started to borrow Polish traditions and values afterwards.

The 18th century led the state to the end. Being weak after the North war an allied state of Poland and Lithuanian Grand Duchy were had to capitulate to the power of Russian empire. After three divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the territory of present day Lithuania became the part of Russia.

After the First World War Lithuania could have got its independence again. In 1920 the first Lithuanian republic was created which existed till 1939. That year was one more tragedy for Lithuania: USSR and Germany signed a secret contract (a treaty signed by Molotov and Ribentrop) about the division of Lithuania. In 1941 the territory was occupied by German-fascist troops. In 1944 the Soviet army took Lithuania in its possession. Today the period from 1944 to 1991 is called “the time of Soviet occupation” by some Lithuanians.

Having existed for 50 years as a “sovereign Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic” in 1991 Lithuania declared its real sovereignty and pull out of the USSR. It’s all due to the national movement for independence “Saudis”. The last notable event in the history of the country is considered to be the first of May 2004 when Lithuania entered the European Union.

Passing through a thousand years of great victories and great defeats, had periods of prosperity and decline, Lithuania was able to give to contemporaries the most important thing that proud today any nation. Lithuanians managed to maintain their distinct culture, their language and their traditions, which today amount something invisible, but quite definite. People call it the "spirit of the land." It is he who gives life to mossy stones of ancient castles, worn blades of windmills and amber beads, made on the patterns long time ago.