A state that existed on the territory of the former Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire.

 

During the World War I, the Lithuanian lands (Kovna, Vilna, and part of the Suwalki governorates) were occupied by German troops. After the February Revolution of 1917, the occupation authorities proposed to Lithuanian politicians to formalize the separation of Lithuania from Russia and join Germany as an autonomous area. However, in September 1917, a conference of representatives of several Lithuanian political forces called for the creation of a sovereign Lithuanian national state. They elected a representative body Lithuanian Tariba (Council), which on February 16, 1918, proclaimed the restoration of the independent State of Lithuania in Vilna (Vilnius). The occupation authorities did not recognize it and on July 11 proclaimed the Kingdom of Lithuania, which was to be headed by a German prince.

 

After Germany’s defeat in World War I, Berlin formally handed over power to Tariba, but until early 1919 did not allow it to create its armed forces and civilian authorities. On November 2, 1918, Tariba adopted an interim constitution, enshrining the principle of inviolability of property rights and equality of all citizens before the law. Only in early April 1919, the Lithuanian political system gained stability thanks to the emergence of the presidency. The first president was Antanas Smetona.

 

The Provisional Revolutionary Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of Lithuania, which was created by the Bolsheviks in December 1918, proclaimed the establishment of the Lithuanian Soviet Republic. In January 1919, the Reds occupied most of Lithuania but were stopped by German units subordinate to the Entente as an alliance of victors. The Lithuanian government was forced to move to Kovno (Kaunas). In February 1919, the troops of the Lithuanian Tariba with the support of German volunteers began active combat against the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Byelorussia. In April, they clashed with the army of the Republic of Poland, which was also fighting against the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Byelorussia. On April 19, the Polish cavalry occupied Vilnius, and Józef Piłsudski, who arrived there, offered Lithuania to return to the union of the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The intervention of the Entente stopped the advance of Polish troops deep into Lithuania, but they remained much further west than the line of demarcation that was established in June. At the end of August and in September 1919, the Polish and Lithuanian armies jointly forced units of the Red Army out of the territory of Lithuania, but the entire southeast of the republic was now controlled by Poland.

 

In October 1919, the northwestern part of Lithuania was occupied by the Western Volunteer Army (WVA) under the command of Pavel Bermodnt-Avalov, based in southern Latvia. By mid-December, the Lithuanian army managed to force the WVA troops out of Lithuania.

 

On July 12, 1920, a peace treaty was signed in Moscow, according to which the Russian SFSR recognized the Republic of Lithuania as an independent state in the territory of the former Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, and Suwalk guberniyas. At the end of August 1920, the Russian SFSR transferred the Vilna and Grodno guberniyas, occupied during the Soviet-Polish war, to Lithuania. But in October, Polish troops again captured those territories. Even despite the intervention of the League of Nations, in 1922 they became part of Poland.

 

In 1922, Lithuania adopted a constitution providing for the creation of a parliamentary republic. The first Sejm (Senate), convened in 1922, elected Aleksandras Stulginskis as president. At the same time, Lithuania was recognized de jure by the Entente countries.