Battle of Backbone Mountain

Welcome to the Lithuania Portal — Sveiki atvykę į Lietuvos Portalą

Coat of Arms of Lithuania

Lithuania (/ˌlɪθjuˈniə/ LITH-yoo-AYN-ee-ə; Lithuanian: Lietuva [lʲɪɛtʊˈvɐ]), officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Respublika [lʲɪɛtʊˈvoːs rʲɛsˈpʊblʲɪkɐ]), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It borders Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Russia to the southwest, with a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Lithuania covers an area of 65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi), with a population of 2.86 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, one of only a few living members of the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family, which is also the most widely spoken language of the branch.

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 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 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 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 a high income, advanced economy, ranking 35th in the Human Development Index. 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. (Full article...)

Selected article - show another

East Prussia after the ultimatum took force; the Klaipėda Region/Memelland is depicted in blue and East Prussia in red.
On 20 March 1939, Nazi Germany's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop presented an oral ultimatum to Juozas Urbšys, foreign minister of Lithuania. Germany demanded that Lithuania give up the Klaipėda Region (also known as the Memel Territory) which had been detached from Germany after World War I, or the Wehrmacht would invade Lithuania and the de facto Lithuanian capital Kaunas would be bombed. The Lithuanians had been expecting the demand after years of rising tension between Lithuania and Germany, increasing pro-Nazi propaganda in the region, and continued German expansion. It was issued just five days after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The 1924 Klaipėda Convention had guaranteed the protection of the status quo in the region, but the four signatories to that convention did not offer any material assistance. The United Kingdom and France followed a policy of appeasement, while Italy and Japan openly supported Germany, and Lithuania accepted the ultimatum on 23 March 1939. It proved to be the last territorial acquisition for Germany before World War II, producing a major downturn in Lithuania's economy and escalating pre-war tensions for Europe as a whole. (Full article...)
List of selected articles

General images

The following are images from various Lithuania-related articles on Wikipedia.

Did you know - load new batch

Selected images

Topics

Public holidays in Lithuania
Date English name Local name Remarks
1 January New Year's Day Naujųjų metų diena  
16 February Day of Restoration of the State of Lithuania (1918) Lietuvos valstybės atkūrimo diena  
11 March Day of Restoration of Independence of Lithuania (1990) Lietuvos nepriklausomybės atkūrimo diena  
Moveable Sunday Easter Sunday Šv. Velykos Commemorates resurrection of Jesus. The first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March.
The day after Easter Sunday Easter Monday Antroji šv. Velykų diena  
1 May International Workers' Day Tarptautinė darbo diena  
First Sunday in May Mother's Day Motinos diena  
First Sunday in June Father's Day Tėvo diena  
24 June St. John's Day / Day of Dew Joninės / Rasos Celebrated according to mostly pagan traditions (Midsummer Day, Saint Jonas Day).
6 July Statehood Day Valstybės (Lietuvos karaliaus Mindaugo karūnavimo) ir Tautiškos giesmės diena Celebrates the 1253 coronation of Mindaugas, the first King of Lithuania, and the national anthem of Lithuania.
15 August Assumption Day Žolinė (Švč. Mergelės Marijos ėmimo į dangų diena) Also marked according to pagan traditions, celebrating the goddess Žemyna and noting the mid-August as the middle between summer and autumn.
1 November All Saints' Day Visų šventųjų diena Halloween is increasingly popular and is also informally celebrated on the eve (31 October).
2 November All Souls' Day Mirusiųjų atminimo (Vėlinių) diena  
24 December Christmas Eve Šv. Kūčios  
25 and 26 December Christmas Day Šv. Kalėdos Commemorates birth of Jesus.

Categories

Recognized content

Extended content

Featured articles

Featured lists

Good articles

Did you know? articles

In the News articles

Main page featured articles

Main page featured lists


The time allocated for running scripts has expired.

This list was generated from these rules. Questions and feedback are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.

Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Last updated: 2024-04-22 21:02 (UTC)

Note: The list display can now be customized by each user. See List display personalization for details.













The time allocated for running scripts has expired.

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

  • Commons
    Free media repository
  • Wikibooks
    Free textbooks and manuals
  • Wikidata
    Free knowledge base
  • Wikinews
    Free-content news
  • Wikiquote
    Collection of quotations
  • Wikisource
    Free-content library
  • Wikiversity
    Free learning tools
  • Wikivoyage
    Free travel guide
  • Wiktionary
    Dictionary and thesaurus

The time allocated for running scripts has expired.

The time allocated for running scripts has expired.

Discover Wikipedia using portals
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.

Purge server cache