Istoria Lituaniei

Abstract

A special attention has been given to the birth of the nobiliary state during the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century, to the three divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian state, to the status of Lithuania within the Russian Empire, to the attempts of deliverance from the Russian domination, to the creation of the national Lithuanian spirit and symbols and of the modern political life. The third chapter of this book invokes a few essential moments in the history of this state: the acquiring of its independence at the end of the First World War, the creation of the institutions of the Lithuanian State, the Lithuanian political life during the years of the democratic regime and during those of the authoritarian regime that followed – a regime that had so much in common with the Romania led by Nicolae Ceauşescu that the publication of a material prepared for a volume on the topic of the interwar dictatorial regimes was refused during the 1980s. Finally, this chapter ponders over the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and its dramatic consequences on the Lithuanian State, which disappeared for the second time from among Europe’s independent nations. The 4th and the 5th chapter have in view the Lithuania of the Communist period, the Second Lithuanian Republic (1990- 2010), and also an analysis on the history of the Romanian-Lithuanian relations. This chapter highlights Lithuania’s fate during the Second World War – passed from Soviet Union to Nazi Germany and back, the history of the institutions of the Soviet Lithuanian republic, including of the repressive ones, the resistance, the deportations, the transformations in the economic, social, demographic, cultural domain during the years 1940-1990 in the Lithuanian society, the dissidence phenomenon that followed the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as the regain of Lithuania’s state independence on March 11, 1990. [...] „Istoria Lituaniei” (Lithuania’s History) is the result of a pioneering editing approach of the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies, an organization that, during the last few years, has had noticeable initiatives supporting the research on the Baltic Sea area. This action is all the more praiseworthy as the Romanian authors involved in this publishing enterprise are the best experts in the history of this geographic region, and Zigmantas Kiaupa, a university professor at the University of Vilnius, who has been working for the National Archives of this country for many decennia, is one of the most respected Lithuanian historians and the author of a synthesis on the Lithuanian history, well received by the Lithuanian and the international public. The monograph signed by these four authors comprises five analysis chapters, an introduction and a chapter of conclusions, all these being well structured in order to attain the goals proposed, namely of rendering the main elements of the social, cultural, economic, political and international relations’ dynamics that marked the history of the Baltic state. In the first chapter of this work, the authors highlighted the most important moments in the history of the Baltic state: the creation of the Great Dukedom of Lithuania, its evolution towards the status of great regional power, its internal and external politics – including in conjunction with Medieval Moldova – or the constitution of the Union from Lublin. In its turn, the second chapter approaches the political, social, cultural etc. evolutions in the Lithuanian area during the period between the Union of Lublin and the beginning of the First World War (1914).