LITHUANIA, GRAND DUCHY OF

state, incorporating Lithuania proper, Belorussia, and the western Ukraine, which became one of the most influential powers in eastern Europe (14th16th century). Pressed by the crusading Teutonic and Livonian Knights, the Lithuanian tribes united under Mindaugas (d. 1263) and formed a strong, cohesive grand duchy during the reign of Gediminas (reigned 131641), who extended their frontiers across the upper Dvina River in the northeast to the Dnieper River in the southeast and to the Pripet Marshes in the south. After Gediminas' death, two of his sons succeeded him: Kestutis ruled Lithuania proper, preventing territorial encroachments from the German knights and their allies, while Algirdas, the titular grand duke, continued his father's expansionist policies and, by conquering vast Russian and Tatar territories, stretched his domain from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Influenced greatly by their Russian subjects, the Lithuanians not only reorganized their army, government administration, and legal and financial systems on Russian models but also allowed the Russian nobility to retain its Orthodox religion, its privileges, and its local authority. The Lithuanians, however, also remained involved with their western neighbours; in 1385, under pressure from the hostile Teutonic Knights, the grand duke Jogaila (reigned 13771434) concluded a pact with Poland (Union of Krewo), agreeing to accept the Roman Catholic faith, marry the Polish queen, become king of Poland, and unite Poland and Lithuania under a single ruler. Jogaila took the Polish name Wladyslaw II Jagiello. Polish influence subsequently began to replace Russian influence in Lithuania. The grand duchy, however, retained its autonomy, and, under the rule of Vytautas, Jogaila's cousin and former political rival, who was named viceroy in 1392, it expanded to the Ugra and Oka rivers in the east, assumed a dominant role in Tatar and east Russian political affairs, and became the most powerful state in eastern Europe. In 1410 Lithuania, led by Vytautas, also joined Poland and decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights (Battle of Tannenberg). As a result, it gained control of the northwestern territory of Samogitia (confirmed in 1422) and permanently reduced the German threat to Lithuania. After Vytautas' death (1430), Lithuania continued to have its own rulers, who were nominally subordinate to the Polish king but maintained Lithuania's autonomy and its authority in eastern European affairs. When the Poles chose the 19-year-old Lithuanian grand duke Casimir as their king (1447), the two countries became somewhat more closely associated. Casimir, however, in an attempt to guarantee Lithuania's independent status, granted a charter to the Lithuanian boyars who had proclaimed him grand duke (1447), verifying the nobles' rights and privileges, giving them extensive authority over the peasantry, and thereby increasing their political power. The authority of the grand duke subsequently declined, and, without its strong ruler, Lithuania was unable to prevent the Tatars from continually raiding its southern lands; nor could it stop Muscovy from annexing the principalities of Novgorod (1479) and Tver (1485), which had maintained close relations with Lithuania, from seizing one-third of Lithuania's Russian lands (14991503), and from capturing Smolensk (1514), which Lithuania had held since 1408. During the 16th century Lithuania made major economic advances, including agrarian reforms, and generally appeared to maintain itself as a strong, dynamic state. When the wars between Muscovy and Lithuania were resumed in the Livonian War (q.v.; 155883), however, Lithuania's resources were strained, and it was forced to appeal to Poland for help. The Poles refused unless the two states were formally united. Lithuanian resistance to a union was strong, but, when Sigismund II Augustus (grand duke of Lithuania 154472; king of Poland 154872) attached one-third of Lithuania's territories (Volhynia, Kiev, Bratslav, and Podlasia) to Poland, the Lithuanians had to accept the Union of Lublin (1569). Under the terms of the union, Lithuania officially remained a distinct state, constituting an equal partner with Poland in a Polish-Lithuanian confederation. Nevertheless, it soon became the subordinate member of the new state. Its gentry adopted Polish customs and language; its administration organized itself on Polish models and pursued Polish policies. Although the peasants retained their Lithuanian identity, Lithuania was politically an integral part of Poland from 1569 until the end of the 18th century, when the partitions of Poland placed it in the Russian Empire. History Early history Lithuanians are an Indo-European people belonging to the Baltic group. They were the only branch within the group that managed to create a state entity in premodern times. The Prussians, overrun by the Teutonic Order in the 13th century, became extinct by the 18th century. The Latvians to the north were conquered during the first three decades of the 13th century by the Order of the Brothers of the Sword (this order became a branch of the Teutonic Order in 1237). The Lithuanians, protected by a dense primeval forest and extensive marshland, successfully resisted German pressure. Samogitia (Lithuanian: Zemaitija), lying between Prussia and Livonia, two lands already in the hands of the German crusading knights, was a particular object of German expansion. The German threat induced the Lithuanian tribes to unite in the middle of the 13th century under Mindaugas. He and his family were baptized in 1251, and two years later he was accepted into the feudal hierarchy of Europe by being crowned king of Lithuania by authority of Pope Innocent IV. Mindaugas, who had reverted to paganism, and two of his sons were assassinated in 1263. The Lithuanians retained their naturalistic pagan religion until the late 14th century. Traidenis, ruler from 1270 to 1282, was probably the founder of the dynasty named after Gediminas, who began to rule about 1315. Although Lithuanian expansion to the east and south into the area of modern Belarus and Ukraine had begun after the destruction of the Kiev realm, it was Gediminas who systematically carved out the empire that was historic Lithuania, a wide region inhabited by Lithuanians and East Slavs. As his letters from 1323 indicate, Vilnius was by then the capital. At Gediminas' death in 1341 or 1342, Lithuania's frontiers extended across the upper Dvina in the northeast to the Dnieper in the southeast and the Pripet (Prypyat) Marshes in the south. The Lithuanians were not sufficiently numerous for colonization. Control was maintained through undoubted political talent and a spirit of religious tolerance. The ruling Lithuanian warrior caste intermarried extensively with the ruling princely families of the subject East Slav principalities and accepted Orthodoxy. Trakai Castle, located on an island in Lake Galve, west of Vilnius, Lithuania. Built by Vytautas Gediminas divided his empire among his seven sons. After a brief period of internecine strife a diarchy of two remained: Algirdas, with his capital in Vilnius, assumed the title of Great Prince and dealt with eastern affairs; Kestutis, whose capital was the island castle at Trakai, dealt with the threat from the Teutonic Order. Upon his death in 1377, Algirdas left his eldest son, Jogaila, an expanded empire in the east, which after 1362 included Kiev. Relations between Jogaila and his uncle Kestutis, however, were inimical. In 1381 Kestutis drove Jogaila from Vilnius and assumed the title of Great Prince. In the following year fortune changed. Jogaila captured Kestutis and his eldest son, Vytautas. Kestutis was imprisoned and killed, but Vytautas escaped and found sanctuary among the Teutonic Order, which hoped to utilize him as its vassal. The German threat had increased significantly. Jogaila had tried to stem the tide in 1382 by granting all of Samogitia up to the Dubysa River to the order. The extended ruling family of Lithuania was split. Those of Jogaila's brothers who ruled in the East Slav regions of the realm counseled alliance with Moscow, including acceptance of Orthodox Christianity. Those in the core lands of the state favoured an alliance with Poland and acceptance of Roman Christianity. Union with Poland Jogaila chose the latter course. On Aug. 14, 1385, he concluded an agreement to join his realm with Poland in return for marriage to the 12-year-old Polish queen Jadwiga and assumption of the Polish throne as king. The agreement was effected early in the following year. In 1387 Jogaila formally introduced Roman Christianity among his Lithuanian-speaking subjects. Newly baptized nobles were granted extensive privileges. Their status was officially patterned on the feudal social structure prevalent in Western Christendom. In 1392 a reconciliation took place between Jogaila and Vytautas, who returned as ruler of Lithuania. The baptism of the Lithuanians removed the basis for the existence of the Teutonic Order, which had officially been founded to defend Christianity. Its stature was considerably reduced after a defeat on July 15, 1410, at Grnwald (Tannenberg) at the hands of a joint Polish-Lithuanian army. The battle signaled a decisive ebb of the German threat. The Lithuanian state reached its apogee during the rule of Vytautas, called the Great, who died in 1430. The realm extended from the Baltic Sea south to the shores of the Black Sea and east almost to Mozhaisk, some 100 miles west of Moscow. The Teutonic Order was no longer menacing, but a new threat from the east appeared. In 1480 Ivan III, Great Prince of Moscow, assumed the title of sovereign of all the Russes. In effect he laid claim to all the lands of the old Kiev state. Most of these, including Kiev itself, were part of the Lithuanian realm. The struggle with Moscow continued over the next two centuries. Until 1569 the union of Lithuania and Poland remained a loose alliance by virtue of a common ruler. On July 1, 1569, a common Polish-Lithuanian parliament meeting in Lublin transformed the loose personal union of the two states into a Commonwealth of Two Peoples. While Poland and Lithuania would thereafter elect a joint sovereign and have a common parliament, the basic dual state structure was retained. Each continued to be administered separately and had its own law codes and armed forces. The joint commonwealth, however, provided an impetus for cultural Polonization of the Lithuanian nobility. By the end of the 17th century it had virtually become indistinguishable from its Polish counterpart. The peasantry, however, retained the old language. The economy Even before independence the Lithuanian government had embarked on a program of dismantling the Soviet economic system. Beginning in February 1991 laws were passed to facilitate privatization. These ranged from the purchase of retail and service shops by former employees of the state to the purchase of land by Lithuanian nationals. That the bulk of Lithuania's trade was still closely linked to the former republics of the U.S.S.R., which were themselves in economic collapse, was a major complicating factor. So too was Lithuania's dependence on critically important foreign oil and natural gas and industrial raw materials. Unemployment, still quite low in the early 1990s, was expected to increase during the shift to a market economy. In an attempt to minimize the impact of the transition to a market economy, new programs for unemployment benefits and retraining were passed by the Lithuanian parliament, but it was not clear where the government would find the funds to pay for such programs. The Lithuanian economy was buffeted by price inflation and by a scarcity of resources. Many manufactured goods were of such poor quality as to be marketable only in the former U.S.S.R. Resources Lithuania possesses a good range of useful mineral resources, including sulfates, notably gypsum; chalk and chalky marl; limestones; dolomites; various clays, sands, and gravels; peat; some iron ore and phosphorites; and mineral waters. Oil deposits have been detected in the offshore regions. The power potential of the many rivers and the traditional resources of the great forests and the rich agricultural areas have added to the basic wealth of the nation, which is well placed geographically for trade purposes. Amber, which is a fossil tree resin, is found along the shore of the Baltic Sea. The land Relief, drainage, and soils Underlying rock structures are of little significance for the contemporary Lithuanian terrain, which, basically, is a low-lying plain scraped by Ice Age glaciers that left behind thick, ridgelike terminal deposits known as moraines. The Baltic coast area is fringed by a region characterized by geographers as the maritime depression, which rises gradually eastward. Sand dunes line an attractive coast, and the Kuriu Marios (German: Kurisches Haff; English: Courland Lagoon), a lagoon almost cut off from the sea by a thin, 60-mile (100-kilometre) sandspit, forms a distinctive feature. This is bounded on the east by the Zemaiciai Upland, which gives way to the flat expanses of the Middle Lithuanian Lowland. The lowland consists of glacial lake clays and boulder-studded loams and stretches in a wide band across the country from north to south; some portions of it are heavily waterlogged. The elevated Baltic Highlands, adjacent to the central lowland, thrust into the eastern and southeastern portions of the country; its rumpled glacial relief includes a host of small hills and numerous small lakes. The vencioniai and the Amena highlandsthe latter containing Mount Juozapine, at 958 feet (292 metres) above sea level the highest point in Lithuaniaare located in the extreme east and southeast. Lithuanian soils range from sands to heavy clays. In the northwest, the soil is either loamy or sandy (and sometimes marshy) and is quite heavily podzolized, or leached out. In the central region, weakly podzolized, loamy peats predominate, and it is there that the most fertile, and hence most cultivated, soils are found. In the southeast, there are sandy soils, somewhat loamy and moderately podzolized. Sandy soils, in fact, cover a quarter of Lithuania, and most of these regions are blanketed by woodlands. Lithuanian rivers drain to the Baltic and generally have the slow, meandering characteristics of lowland rivers. The Neman (Nemunas), cutting north and then west through the heart of the country, is the largest. Its main tributaries are the Merkys, Neris, Nevezis, Dubysa, Jura, Minija, and eupe. A distinctive feature of the Lithuanian landscape is the presence of about 3,000 lakes, mostly in the east and southeast. The boggy regions produce large quantities of peat that, dried by air, is used in both industry and agriculture. Climate The climate of the country is transitional between the maritime type of western Europe and the continental type found farther east. As a result, damp air masses of Atlantic origin predominate, alternating with continental Eurasian and, more rarely, colder Arctic air or air with a southern, tropical origin. Baltic Sea influences dominate a comparatively narrow coastal zone. The mean temperature for January, the coldest month, is 23.4 F (-4.8 C), while July, the warmest month, has an average temperature of 63 F (17.2 C). Average annual rainfall is 31 inches (800 millimetres), diminishing inland. Rainfall reaches a peak in August, except in the maritime strip, where the maximum is reached two to three months later. The people Ethnically, about 80 percent of the population is Lithuanian, but there are also Russians and Poles and lesser numbers of Belorussians, Ukrainians, Jews, Latvians, Tatars, Gypsies, and others. Natural increase, rather than immigration, has accounted for most of the recent population growth. This situation distinguishes Lithuania from its Baltic neighbours. The comparatively high level of ethnic homogeneity in Lithuania and the persistence of Roman Catholicism in the face of decades of Soviet promulgation of atheism as the official state ideology further distinguish Lithuania from Latvia and Estonia, where historically German-Scandinavian religious and cultural values have predominated. Lithuania was the last pagan nation in Europe, accepting Roman Catholicism in the late 14th century. Elements of the pagan religion have survived in the countryside. Most of the population is Roman Catholic; there are smaller groups of Evangelical Lutherans, Evangelical Reformists, and other faiths.