Geographical Location

The Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika) is a country in Northeastern Europe. Lithuania, together with Latvia and Estonia, constitute the three Baltic states. The country shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and the Russian exclave (Kaliningrad Oblast) to the southwest.

Geopolitical History in Brief

During the fourteenth century, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe, existing under the name the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It consisted of present-day Belarus, Ukraine and parts of Poland and Russia. In 1569 Poland and Lithuania formed a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The commonwealth lasted for more than two centuries. From 1772 to 1792 it was slowly dismantled by the neighboring countries. Hereafter, the Russian Empire took over most of Lithuania's territory.

In the aftermath of World War I, Lithuania's Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918 declaring the reestablishment of a sovereign state. Independence lasted a brief time. Starting in 1940 Lithuania was occupied first by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As the Germans retreated toward the end of World War II in 1944, the Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania. On 11 March 1990, after 50 years of Soviet occupation, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence.