LITHUANIA, formerly one of the provinces of the Russian Empire, since the World War an independent state. Lithuania includes three groups of ter ritory: Lithuania proper, or Litivia, which formed the governments of Vilna and Troki; the Duchy of Samogitia; and Russian Lithuania, comprising Polesie, Black Russia, or Novogrodek, White Russia, or Minsk, Meislav, Vitebsk, Smolensk, Polotsk and Polish Livonia. Part of it is included in East Prussia. The inhabitants are a race separate by themselves, speaking a language which is said to be more closely related to ancient Sanskrit than any other European tongue or dialect. They are at least partly Slavic, and bear close affinity to the Wends of Prussia, the Letts of Livonia and the Cours of Courland.
Lithuania was, in ancient times, sub ject to Russia, but in the twelfth century gained its independence, being ruled by a ruler who bore the title of Grand Duke. At one time the Lithuanians conquered Russian territory to the very gates of Moscow. In 1386 the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jagello, was elected King of Poland, which brought about the union of the two countries in 1569. After the partition of Poland by the European Powers, in 1797, Lithuania was annexed to Russia, together with a portion of Poland.
At one time the country was a uni versal forest, very sparsely inhabited, but Catherine the Great, of Russia, dis tributed large parts of it among her German favorites and a certain per centage of it was reclaimed by serf labor. Yet even now the country is not thickly populated.
It was in this region that the first heavy engagements between Russia and Germany took place, in 1914, when, shortly after war was declared, the Russians crossed the Nieman and in vaded East Prussia, only to be hurled back in the Masurian Lakes by Hinden burg. In the fall of 1916 the Germans began their drive through Courland into Lithuania proper, with Vilna, the ancient capital of the Lithuanians, as their ob jective. On Sept. 11, 1915, the battle for the possession of Vilna and the surround ing territory opened. Three days later the city was in their possession. The battle continued, however, until Sept. 28, and was one of the important engage ments in this theater of the war.
Having acquired military possession of this territory, the Germans prepared to consolidate their Possession by forming a civil government that would give them support. The descendants of the court favorites, to whom Catherine had made the land grants, still Germans at heart, co-operated with the German Government in this effort. In September, 1917, these
elements, assuming the right to repre sent the Lithuanian people, formed the Grand Diet at Vilna. On Dec. 11, 1917, the executive body of the Diet, the Lithuanian National Council, supposed to represent all the political parties among the people, issued a declaration of independence, which advocated "a per manent, firmly established alliance be tween the Lithuanian State and the Ger man Empire, which should be realized primarily in military and commercial conventions, and in community of tariff and currency." It was the German contention that this kind of civil organization in all the occupied Baltic provinces constituted "self determination" of the people that caused the disruption of the Brest Litovsk peace negotiations in February, 1918, the Russian Bolsheviki demanding that the German military forces with draw and give the people the right to declare themselves without pressure from German influences.
On March 23, 1918, a delegation from the Lithuanian Grand Council was per mitted to present its declaration of inde pendence to the German Imperial Chan cellor, who, in his answering speech, said, "Lithuania will take a share of Ger many's war burdens, which are promot ing Lithuania's emancipation." The ef fect of this declaration created a senti ment against the alliance with Germany, even among the German landowners, who constituted the limited body of voters in the new State. On July 11, 1918, the Diet held a meeting at Vilna and de clared in favor of a monarchical form of government. To forestall the proba bility that the Germans would demand that the King of Prussia be elected head of the new government, the Diet chose the Duke of Urach, a Catholic prince of the cadet branch of the Wurttemberg, royal family, as their king.
The final defeat of the Central Powers. however, brought about the downfall of this clique of rulers of Lithuania. In January, 1919, the Lithuanians, fearing aggression from the Russian Bolsheviki, and a possible revolution within Lithu ania by Bolsheviki sympathizers, placed themselves under the temporary admin istration of the Polish Government. In March occurred a Cabinet crisis, brought about by the withdrawal of their support of the administration by the Socialists. A new Cabinet was constituted, repre senting a Christian Democratic majority, with Dovaitis as Premier. On April 4, 1919, Antanas Smetona, a lawyer, and the former president of the Council of State, was elected President of the Lithu anian Republic.