REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA

• Official name: Republic of Lithuania
• Location: Eastern Europe
• International organisations: The Council of Europe, The European Union, The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation
• Borders: Belarus, Latvia, Poland, Russia
• Coastline: Baltic Sea
• Land area: 65,200 Km2
• Population: 3,300,000
• Annual GDP (PPP) per capita: US$15,400 (2009 CIA estimate). World ranking: 55
• Ethnicity: Lithuanian 85%, Russian 5%, Polish 6%, Belarusian 2%.
• Languages: Lithuanian 80%, Russian 10%, Polish 7%, Belarusian 2%. Small minorities speak Latvian, Ukrainian and Yiddish.
• Religion: The great majority of the population are Catholic Christians. There are small Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish minorities.
• Form of government: Parliamentary democratic republic. Lithuania is divided into ten counties.
• Capital: Vilnius
• Constitution: The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania came into effect on 25 October 1992.
• Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term. The President's functions are largely ceremonial. President Dalia Grybauskaite assumed office on 12 July 2009.
• Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the President. The Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party in the legislature and is accountable to it.
• Legislature: Lithuania has a unicameral legislature, the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), which has 141 members elected for four-year terms. Of these, 71 members are elected from single-member constituencies and 70 members are elected by proportional representation.
• Electoral authority: The Central Elections Committee conducts national elections.
• Freedom House 2009 rating: Political Rights 1, Civil Liberties 1

Political history

The mediaeval Lithuanian kingdom was united with Poland through a dynastic marriage in 1386, and was fully integrated into Poland by the Union of Lublin in 1569. The three partitions of Poland, in 1772, 1793 and 1795, saw Lithuania divided between Russia and Prussia (later Germany). The Lithuanians, a Baltic people distinct from the Slavic populations around them, were subject to foreign rule for over a century.

When the Russian Empire collapsed in 1918, an independent state was established under German control. Full independence as a republic was declared on Germany's surrender in November 1918. Independent Lithuania was democracy until 1926, when a military coup brought Antanas Smetona to power as a dictator. In 1940, under the secret clauses of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Soviet Union forced Lithuania to accept occupation, which was rapidly followed by incorporation into the USSR as the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Lithuania was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941, then reconquered by the Soviets in 1944, although nationalist resistance continued until 1953. Soviet rule was then unchallenged until 1988, when the Gorbachev government lifted restrictions on political activity. In 1990 nationalist parties won local elections and in 1991, despite strong Russian resistance and some violence, Lithuania declared its independence. Russian forces finally withdrew from Lithuania in 1993. In 2004 Lithuania joined both NATO and the European Uniuon.

The largest party in the current legislature is the Homeland Union-Conservatives of Lithuania. Andrius Kubilius, head of the Homeland Union, has been Prime Minister since December 2008. The governing coalition includes the National Resurrection Party. The main opposition party is the Lithuanian Social-Democratic Party. Other parties include the extreme right-wing Order and Justice, the liberal Liberals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania, and the Election Action of Lithuania's Poles, which represents the Polish minority.

Updated February 2010