The people of Lithuania are predominantly Lithuanian – the following largest group is the Russian population, most of who arrived following World War II as part of the Soviet industrialization programme. Next in terms of population size are the Poles, numerous living in the south-west from the country. There are also little communities of Ukrainians, Latvians and Tartars.

Lithuanians are predominantly Roman Catholic, and the religion has survived despite Soviet persecution. 33% of Lithuanian priests were ’sent to Siberian concentration camps. The local Lithuanian language suffered in a similar way. The Soviet authorities tried hard to impose Russian on the nation – government officials spoke Russian, and Russian immigrants were discouraged from learning Lithuanian. Today, most individuals speak Lithuanian, an Indo-European language.

The region of Lithuania is initially mentioned in a German chronicle of 1009. The country traded with Kievan Rus and other nearby states. Power was centralized in the 13th century, and Lithuania’s initial and only king, Mindaugas, was crowned in 1253, an event that’s still commemorated on 6 July each year. He brought Catholicism to the country. A succession of Grand Dukes then took over, and the nation was united with Poland in 1569.

Nevertheless, this weak alliance was carved up by its neighbours during the 18th century, and the peasants came under harsh tsarist rule. The Russian (Cyrillic) script was imposed. During World War II the nation was occupied by German armies, and an independent state was established following they left at the end from the war. At the beginning of World War II, Lithuania was forced to allow the establishment of Soviet military bases on its territory, and independence was totally lost in 1940 when the country became a republic from the USSR.

Germany invaded in 1941, and most of the Jewish Lithuanian population died in German concentration camps. The USSR took over again in 1944. Mikhail Gorbachev’s liberalization reforms of the mid 1980s were seized on by Lithuanians hungry for freedom, and the country became independent once much more when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.