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66-629: Whether Samogitians are considered to be a distinct ethnic group or merely a subset of Lithuanians varies. However, 2,169 people declared their ethnicity as Samogitian during the Lithuanian census of 2011, of whom 53.9% live in Telšiai County . The political recognition and cultural understanding of the Samogitian ethnicity has, however, changed drastically throughout the last few centuries as 448,022 people declared themselves Samogitians, not Lithuanians, in

132-526: A Germanisation of Prussia . The subsequent imperial Russian occupation from 1795 until 1915, with some interpositions such as the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the Uprisings of 1831 and 1863 , accelerated this process of Slavicization. While under Russian occupation, Lithuanians endured Russification , which included the 40-year-long ban on public speaking and writing in Lithuanian (see, e.g., Knygnešiai ,

198-585: A Proto-Balto-Slavic stage, from which Baltic languages retain numerous exclusive and non-exclusive lexical, morphological, phonological and accentual isoglosses in common with the Slavic languages , which represent their closest living Indo-European relatives. Moreover, with Lithuanian being so archaic in phonology, Slavic words can often be deduced from Lithuanian by regular sound laws ; for example, Lith. vilkas and Polish wilk ← PBSl. *wilkás (cf. PSl. *vьlkъ ) ← PIE *wĺ̥kʷos , all meaning " wolf ". When

264-511: A gong ), sekminių ragelis ( bagpipe ) and the pūslinė , a musical bow made from a pig's bladder filled with dried peas. 11th century The 11th century is the period from 1001 (represented by the Roman numerals MI) through 1100 (MC) in accordance with the Julian calendar , and the 1st century of the 2nd millennium . In the history of Europe , this period is considered the early part of

330-683: A ' puppet monarch ' during the Heian period . In Korea, the rulers of the Goryeo Kingdom were able to concentrate more central authority into their own hands than in that of the nobles, and were able to fend off two Khitan invasions with their armies. In the Middle East, the Fatimid Empire of Egypt reached its zenith only to face steep decline, much like the Byzantine Empire in the first half of

396-404: A Lithuanian population revealed that Lithuanians are close to both Indo-European and Uralic -speaking populations of Northern Europe. Y-chromosome SNP haplogroup analysis showed Lithuanians to be closest to Latvians , Estonians , Belarusians and southern Finns . This is the result of Iron Age Europe . Autosomal SNP analysis situates Lithuanians most proximal to Latvians , followed by

462-428: A decision was made, or with what we have offended Your Lordship so much that Your Lordship has deservedly been directed against us, creating hardship for us everywhere. First of all, you made and announced a decision about the land of Samogitia , which is our inheritance and our homeland from the legal succession of the ancestors and elders. We still own it, it is and has always been the same Lithuanian land, because there

528-573: A heavy Lithuanian presence. Lithuanians in the early 20th century were among the thinnest people in the developed countries of the world. In Lithuanian cuisine there is some emphasis on attractive presentation of freshly prepared foods. Lithuania has been brewing midus , a type of Lithuanian mead for thousands of years. Locally brewed beer ( alus ), vodka ( degtinė ), and kvass ( gira ) are popular drinks in Lithuania. Lithuanian traditional beer of Northern Lithuania, Biržai , Pasvalys regions

594-643: A majority of the population not only in what is now Lithuania , but also in northwestern Belarus , in large areas of the territory of the modern Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, and in some parts of modern Latvia and Poland. In 1940, Lithuania was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union , and forced to join it as the Lithuanian SSR . The Germans and their allies attacked the USSR in June 1941, and from 1941 to 1944, Lithuania

660-443: A stuffed potato creation, is the most popular national dish. It is popular among Lithuanians all over the world. Other national foods include dark rye bread , cold beet soup (šaltibarščiai), and kugelis (a baked potato pudding). Some of these foods are also common in neighboring countries. Lithuanian cuisine is generally unknown outside Lithuanian communities. Most Lithuanian restaurants outside Lithuania are located in cities with

726-440: A variety of influences during the country's rich history. Since shared similarities in history and heritage, Lithuanians, Jews and Poles have developed many similar dishes and beverages: dumplings ( koldūnai ), doughnuts ( spurgos ), and crepes ( lietiniai blynai ). German traditions also influenced Lithuanian cuisine, introducing pork and potato dishes, such as potato pudding ( kugelis ) and potato sausages ( vėdarai ), as well as

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792-645: Is one language and the same inhabitants. But since the land of Samogitia is located lower than the land of Lithuania , it is called as Samogitia, because in Lithuanian it is called lower land [ Žemaitija ]. And the Samogitians call Lithuania as Aukštaitija , that is, from the Samogitian point of view, a higher land. Also, the people of Samogitia have long called themselves Lithuanians and never – Samogitians, and because of such identity ( sic ) we do not write about Samogitia in our letter, because everything

858-625: Is generally considered Lithuania's founder. The Lithuanians are the only branch of Baltic people that managed to create a state entity before the modern era . During the Late Middle Ages , Lithuania was ravaged by the Lithuanian Crusade , which ended only by the Treaty of Melno in 1422. In fact, the crusade persisted after the definite Christianization of Lithuania in 1387, when Europe's last pagan people were baptised. Simultaneously,

924-420: Is not a recognized ethnicity. In list of ethnic groups of Russia there is one person who declared himself with "Zhemaijty". Samogitians call themselves žemaitē , although exonyms are used in different languages. Lithuanians Lithuanians ( Lithuanian : lietuviai ) are a Baltic ethnic group . They are native to Lithuania , where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two millions make up

990-566: Is one: one country and the same inhabitants." — Vytautas the Great , excerpt from his 11 March 1420 Latin letter sent to Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor , in which he described the core of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , composed from Žemaitija (lowlands) and Aukštaitija (highlands). Term Aukštaitija is known since the 13th century. The territory inhabited by the ethnic Lithuanians has shrunk over centuries; once Lithuanians made up

1056-510: Is popular among Lithuanians in Lithuania as well as in the diasporic communities. Basketball came to Lithuania through the Lithuanian-American community in the 1930s. Lithuanian basketball teams were bronze medal winners in the 1992 , 1996 , and 2000 Summer Olympics . Joninės (also known as Rasos ) is a traditional national holiday, celebrated on the summer solstice. It has pagan origins. Užgavėnės ( Shrove Tuesday ) takes place on

1122-408: Is well appreciated in Lithuania and abroad. Starka is a part of the Lithuanian heritage, still produced in Lithuania. Among Indo-European languages , Lithuanian is conservative in its grammar and phonology, retaining archaic features otherwise found only in ancient languages such as Sanskrit (particularly its early form, Vedic Sanskrit ) or Ancient Greek . Thus, it is an important source for

1188-616: The 1897 Russian Empire census . On 13 July 1260, the Samogitians decisively defeated the joint forces of the Teutonic Knights from Prussia and Livonian Order from Livonia in the Battle of Durbe . Some 150 knights were killed, including Livonian Master Burchard von Hornhausen and Prussian Land Marshal Henrik Botel . Samogitians lived in western Lithuania and were closely related to Semigallians and Curonians . In 1413, they became

1254-639: The Catholic Church , while the Lietuvininkai who lived in the northern part of East Prussia prior to World War II, were mostly Lutherans . The territory of the Balts, including modern Lithuania, was once inhabited by several Baltic tribal entities ( Aukštaitians , Sudovians , Old Lithuanians, Curonians , Semigallians , Selonians , Samogitians , Skalvians , Old Prussians ( Nadruvians )), as attested by ancient sources and dating from prehistoric times. Over

1320-509: The Chancellors Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi , while the political conservatives were led by Chancellor Sima Guang and Empress Dowager Gao, regent of the young Emperor Zhezong of Song . Heated political debate and sectarian intrigue followed, while political enemies were often dismissed from the capital to govern frontier regions in the deep south where malaria was known to be very fatal to northern Chinese people (see History of

1386-666: The Crusades which revitalised a church and a papacy that had survived tarnished by the tumultuous 10th century. In 1054, the Great Schism saw the political and religious culmination and a formal split between the Western and Eastern church. In Germany , the century was marked by the ascendancy of the Holy Roman Emperors , who hit their high-water mark under the Salians . In Britain, it saw

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1452-676: The High Middle Ages . There was, after a brief ascendancy, a sudden decline of Byzantine power and a rise of Norman domination over much of Europe, along with the prominent role in Europe of notably influential popes . Christendom experienced a formal schism in this century which had been developing over previous centuries between the Latin West and Byzantine East, causing a split in its two largest denominations to this day: Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy . In Song dynasty China and

1518-866: The Liao dynasty ( Manchuria ). In this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes to power in Western Asia over the now fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the Crusades were waged towards the close of the century. The Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt , the Ghaznavids , and the Chola dynasty in India had reached their zenith in military might and international influence. The Western Chalukya Empire (the Chola's rival) also rose to power by

1584-700: The Lithuanian Wars of Independence . However, a third of Lithuania's lands, namely the Vilnius Region , as well as its declared capital, fell under Polish occupation during the Interwar . A standardised Lithuanian language was approved. In the lead-up to the World War II, the Klaipėda Region was occupied by Nazi Germany after the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania . "We do not know on whose merits or guilt such

1650-605: The Vilnius County . Especially large Polish communities are located in the Vilnius District Municipality and the Šalčininkai District Municipality . Despite being the capital, Vilnius was not the largest city by number of Lithuanians until mid-2000s. According to the 2011 census Vilnius had 337,000 Lithuanians while Kaunas – 316,000. Russians, even though they are almost as numerous as Poles, are much more evenly scattered. The most prominent community lives in

1716-662: The Visaginas Municipality (52%). Most of them are workers who moved from Russia to work at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant . A number of ethnic Russians left Lithuania after the declaration of independence in 1990. In the past, the ethnic composition of Lithuania has varied dramatically. The most prominent change was the extermination of the Jewish population during the Holocaust . Before World War II, about 7.5% of

1782-435: The ban against printing the Lithuanian language was lifted in 1904, various European literary movements such as Symbolism , impressionism , and expressionism each in turn influenced the work of Lithuanian writers. The first period of Lithuanian independence (1918–1940) gave them the opportunity to examine themselves and their characters more deeply, as their primary concerns were no longer political. An outstanding figure of

1848-651: The baroque tree cake known as šakotis . Traditional dishes of Lithuanian Tatars and Lithuanian Karaites like Kibinai and čeburekai , that are similar to pasty , are popular in Lithuania. For Lithuanian Americans both traditional Lithuanian dishes of virtinukai (cabbage and noodles) and balandėliai (rolled cabbage) are growing increasingly more popular. There are also regional cuisine dishes, e.g. traditional kastinys in Žemaitija , Western Lithuania, Skilandis in Western and Central Lithuania, Kindziukas in Eastern and Southern Lithuania ( Dzūkija ). Cepelinai ,

1914-461: The classical Islamic world , this century marked the high point for both classical Chinese civilization, science and technology , and classical Islamic science , philosophy , technology and literature . Rival political factions at the Song dynasty court created strife amongst the leading statesmen and ministers of the empire. In Korea , the Goryeo Kingdom flourished and faced external threats from

1980-687: The 11th century is regarded as the beginning of the Low Middle Ages , an age subsequent to the Early Middle Ages . The century began while the translatio imperii of 962 was still somewhat novel and ended in the midst of the Investiture Controversy . It saw the final Christianisation of Scandinavia and the emergence of the Peace and Truce of God movements, the Gregorian Reforms , and

2046-554: The 14th century, corresponding to the establishment of Ashkenazi settlements in response to the invitation extended by Vytautas the Great in 1388. At the end of the 19th century, the average height of males was 163.5 cm (5 ft 4 in) and the average height of females was 153.3 cm (5 ft 0 in). By the end of the 20th century, heights averaged 181.3 cm (5 ft 11 in) for males and 167.5 cm (5 ft 6 in) for females. Lithuanian settlement extends into adjacent countries that are now outside

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2112-628: The Aryans (1892): "Thus it would seem that the Lithuanians have the best claim to represent the primitive Aryan race , as their language exhibits fewer of those phonetic changes, and of those grammatical losses which are consequent on the acquirement of a foreign speech." The Proto-Balto-Slavic language branched off directly from Proto-Indo-European, then sub-branched into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic . Proto-Baltic branched off into Proto-West Baltic and Proto-East Baltic. Baltic languages passed through

2178-562: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania on the idea of their national singularity or uniqueness and considered the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as an independent country. There is a current argument that the Lithuanian language was considered non-prestigious enough by some elements in Lithuanian society, meaning that the number of Lithuanian language-speakers decreased with Polonization in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , as well as

2244-840: The Kaliningrad Oblast, but their number is small compared to what they used to be. Lithuania regained its independence in 1990, and was recognized by most countries in 1991. It became a member of the European Union on May 1, 2004. Among the Baltic states , Lithuania has the most homogeneous population. According to the census conducted in 2001, 83.45% of the population identified themselves as ethnic Lithuanians, 6.74% as Poles , 6.31% as Russians , 1.23% as Belarusians , and 2.27% as members of other ethnic groups such as Ukrainians , Jews , Germans , Tatars , Latvians , Romani , Estonians , Crimean Karaites etc. Poles are mostly concentrated in

2310-558: The Lithuanian diaspora , largely found in countries such as the United States , United Kingdom , Brazil and Canada . Their native language is Lithuanian , one of only two surviving members of the Baltic language family along with Latvian . According to the census conducted in 2021 , 84.6% of the population of Lithuania identified themselves as Lithuanians, 6.5% as Poles , 5.0% as Russians , 1.0% as Belarusians , and 1.1% as members of other ethnic groups. Most Lithuanians belong to

2376-508: The Lithuanian state reached its apogee under the rule of Vytautas the Great ( r.   1392–1430), when it ruled the lands between the Baltic and Black seas. Thereafter, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania continued existing until 1795, however, since the Union of Lublin in 1569, it maintained its independence in the bi-confederal Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . In the 16th century the Lithuanian humanists based the national consciousness of

2442-618: The Song dynasty ). This period also represents a high point in classical Chinese science and technology, with figures such as Su Song and Shen Kuo , as well as the age where the matured form of the Chinese pagoda was accomplished in Chinese architecture . In Japan, the Fujiwara clan dominated central politics by acting as imperial regents, controlling the actions of the Emperor of Japan , who acted merely as

2508-848: The United States and Israel. Now there are about 3,200 Jews living in Lithuania. Apart from the various religious and ethnic groups currently residing in Lithuania, Lithuanians themselves retain and differentiate between their regional identities; there are 5 historic regional groups: Žemaičiai , Suvalkiečiai , Aukštaičiai , Dzūkai and Prūsai , the last of which is virtually extinct. City dwellers are usually considered just Lithuanians, especially ones from large cities such as Vilnius or Kaunas . The four groups are delineated according to certain region-specific traditions, dialects, and historical divisions. There are some stereotypes used in jokes about these subgroups, for example, Sudovians are supposedly frugal while Samogitians are stubborn. Since

2574-604: The actions against the Catholic Church). In such a context, the Lithuanian National Revival began in the 19th century. Some believed at the time that the Lithuanian nation as such, along with its language, would become extinct within a few generations. Some of the Polish- and Belarusian-speaking persons from the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania expressed their affiliation with the modern Lithuanian nation in

2640-479: The anti-communist movements, and thousands of Latin crosses were placed on the Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai , despite its being bulldozed in 1961. Lithuanian folk music is based around songs ( dainos ), which include romantic and wedding songs, as well as work songs and archaic war songs. These songs used to be performed either in groups or alone, and in parallel chords or unison . Duophonic songs are common in

2706-435: The centuries, and especially under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , some of these tribes consolidated into the Lithuanian nation, mainly as a defence against the marauding Teutonic Order and Eastern Slavs . The Lithuanian state was formed in the High Middle Ages , with different historians dating this variously between the 11th and mid-13th centuries. Mindaugas , Lithuania's only crowned king and its first baptised ruler,

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2772-494: The century. The Seljuks came to prominence while the Abbasid caliphs held traditional titles without real, tangible authority in state affairs. In India, the Chola dynasty reached its height of naval power under leaders such as Rajaraja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I , dominating southern India ( Tamil Nadu ), Sri Lanka , and regions of Southeast Asia . The Ghaznavid Empire would invade northwest India, an event that would pave

2838-503: The day before Ash Wednesday , and is meant to urge the retreat of winter. There are also national traditions for Christian holidays such as Easter and Christmas . Lithuanian cuisine has much in common with other European cuisines and features the products suited to its cool and moist northern climate: barley, potatoes, rye, beets, greens, and mushrooms are locally grown, and dairy products are one of its specialties. Nevertheless, it has its own distinguishing features, which were formed by

2904-487: The early 20th century was Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius , a novelist and dramatist. His many works include Dainavos šalies senų žmonių padavimai (Old Folks Tales of Dainava , 1912) and the historical dramas Šarūnas (1911), Skirgaila (1925), and Mindaugo mirtis (The Death of Mindaugas , 1935). Petras Vaičiūnas was another popular playwright, producing one play each year during the 1920s and 1930s. Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas wrote lyric poetry, plays, and novels, including

2970-423: The early 20th century, including Michał Pius Römer , Stanisław Narutowicz , Oscar Milosz and Tadas Ivanauskas In February 1918, while World War I was ongoing, the re-establishment of an independent Lithuanian state was declared , 122 years after it was destroyed. In the aftermath of World War I , Lithuanians militarily defended their country's independence from Poland , Whites and Soviet Russia during

3036-680: The end of the century. In Japan , the Fujiwara clan continued to dominate the affairs of state. In the Americas, the Toltec and Mixtec civilizations flourished in Central America , along with the Huari Culture of South America and the Mississippian culture of North America . The Tiwanaku Empire centered around Lake Titicaca collapsed in the first half of the century. In European history,

3102-651: The integration of the kingdom into the Holy Roman Empire and the royal palace at Pavia was summoned in 1024. By the end of the century, Lombard and Byzantine rule in the Mezzogiorno had been usurped by the Normans and the power of the territorial magnates was being replaced by that of the citizens of the northern cities. In Northern Italy , a growth of population in urban centers gave rise to an early organized capitalism and more sophisticated, commercialized culture by

3168-505: The last group of Europeans to convert to Christianity. Samogitians lived in the Duchy of Samogitia within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . In 1857, there were 418,824 people of Samogitian roots and 444,921 persons declared the Samogitian language as their mother tongue in 1897 in Kovno Governorate . Currently Lithuania does not allow for declaration of Samogitian nationality in passports as it

3234-535: The late Neolithic period the native inhabitants of the Lithuanian territory have not been replaced by migrations from outside, so there is a high probability that the inhabitants of present-day Lithuania have preserved the genetic composition of their forebears relatively undisturbed by the major demographic movements, although without being actually isolated from them. The Lithuanian population appears to be relatively homogeneous, without apparent genetic differences among ethnic subgroups. A 2004 analysis of mtDNA in

3300-602: The late 11th century, most notably in Venice. In Spain, the century opened with the successes of the last caliphs of Córdoba and ended in the successes of the Almoravids . In between was a period of Christian unification under Navarrese hegemony and success in the Reconquista against the taifa kingdoms that replaced the fallen caliphate. In Eastern Europe, there was a golden age for the principality of Kievan Rus . In China, there

3366-475: The late 19th century, including the concertina , accordion and bandoneon . Sutartinė can be accompanied by skudučiai , a form of panpipes played by a group of people, as well as wooden trumpets ( ragai and dandytės ). Kanklės is an extremely important folk instrument, which differs in the number of strings and performance techniques across the country. Other traditional instruments include švilpas whistle, drums and tabalas (a percussion instrument like

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3432-524: The majority of Lithuanians have been members of the Roman Catholic Church . According to the 2021 census, 74% of Lithuanians are Roman Catholic. Under Article 26 of the Constitution of Lithuania , persons can freely practice a religion of their choosing. Catholicism played a significant role in Lithuanian anti-communist resistance under the Soviet Union . Several Catholic priests were leaders of

3498-487: The modern Lithuanian state. A small Lithuanian community exists in the vicinity of Puńsk and Sejny in the Suwałki area of Poland, an area associated with the Lithuanian writer and cleric Antanas Baranauskas . Although most of the Lithuanian inhabitants in the region of Lithuania Minor that formed part of East Prussia were expelled when the area was annexed by the Soviet Union as the Kaliningrad Oblast , small groups of Lithuanians subsequently settled that area as it

3564-543: The novel Altorių šešėly (In the Shadows of the Altars, 3 vol., 1933), a remarkably powerful autobiographical novel. Keturi vėjai movement started with publication of The Prophet of the Four Winds by talented poet Kazys Binkis (1893—1942). It was rebellion against traditional poetry. The theoretical basis of Keturi vėjai initially was futurism which arrived through Russia from the West and later cubism , dadaism , surrealism , unanimism , and German expressionism . The most influensive futurist for Lithuanian writers

3630-419: The pious warrior who conquered Britain, Italy, and the East and the impious peacelover, the troubadour , who crafted out of the European vernacular its first great literary themes. There were also the first figures of the intellectual movement known as Scholasticism , which emphasized dialectic arguments in disputes of Christian theology as well as classical philosophy . In Italy , the century began with

3696-449: The population was Jewish ; they were concentrated in cities and towns and had a significant influence on crafts and business. They were called Litvaks and had a strong culture. The population of Vilnius, which was sometimes nicknamed the northern Jerusalem , was about 30% Jewish. Almost all its Jews were killed during the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Lithuania , some 75,000 alone between the years 1941 – 1942, while others later immigrated to

3762-413: The reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language despite its late attestation (with the earliest texts dating only to c.  1500 A.D. , whereas Ancient Greek was first written down in c.  1450 B.C. ). There was fascination with the Lithuanian people and their language among the late 19th-century researchers, and the philologist Isaac Taylor wrote the following in his The Origin of

3828-428: The renowned sutartinės tradition of Aukštaitija . Another style of Lithuanian folk music is called rateliai , a kind of round dance . Instrumentation includes kanklės , a kind of zither that accompanies sutartinės, rateliai, waltzes , quadrilles and polkas , and fiddles , (including a bass fiddle called the basetle ) and a kind of whistle called the Lamzdeliai lumzdelis ; recent importations, beginning in

3894-445: The transformation of Scotland into a single, more unified and centralised kingdom and the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The social transformations wrought in these lands brought them into the fuller orbit of European feudal politics. In France, it saw the nadir of the monarchy and the zenith of the great magnates, especially the dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy, who could thus foster such distinctive contributions of their lands as

3960-408: The way to a series of later Muslim expansions into India. In Southeast Asia, the Pagan Kingdom reached its height of political and military power. The Khmer Empire would dominate in Mainland Southeast Asia while Srivijaya would dominate Maritime Southeast Asia. Further east, the Kingdom of Butuan , centered on the northern portion of Mindanao island flourished as the dominant trading polity in

4026-405: The westernmost East Slavs ; furthermore, Germans and West Slavs (especially Poles ) are situated more proximal to Lithuanians than Finns and northern Russians. Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews display a number of unique genetic characteristics; the utility of these variations has been the subject of debate. One variation, which is implicated in familial hypercholesterolemia , has been dated to

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4092-472: Was Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky . Oskaras Milašius (1877–1939) is a paradoxical and interesting phenomenon in Lithuanian culture. He never lived in Lithuania but was born and spent his childhood in Cereja (near Mogilev , Belarus ) and graduated from Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris. His longing for his fatherland was more metaphysical. Having to choose between two conflicting countries — Lithuania and Poland — he preferred Lithuania which for him

4158-409: Was a triangular affair of continued war and peace settlements between the Song dynasty , the Tanguts -led Western Xia in the northwest, and the Khitans of the Liao dynasty in the northeast. Meanwhile, opposing political factions evolved at the Song imperial court of Kaifeng . The political reformers at court, called the New Policies Group (新法, Xin Fa), were led by Emperor Shenzong of Song and

4224-430: Was an idea even more than a fatherland. In 1920 when France recognized the independence of Lithuania, he was appointed officially as Chargé d'Affaires for Lithuania. He published: 1928, a collection of 26 Lithuanian songs; 1930, Lithuanian Tales and Stories ; 1933, Lithuanian Tales ; 1937, The origin of the Lithuanian Nation . Since the Christianization of parts of Lithuania proper in 1387 and of Samogitia in 1413,

4290-447: Was occupied by Germany. The Germans retreated in 1944, and Lithuania fell under Soviet rule once again. The long-standing communities of Lithuanians in the Kaliningrad Oblast ( Lithuania Minor ) were almost destroyed as a result. The Lithuanian nation as such remained primarily in Lithuania, few villages in northeastern Poland, southern Latvia and also in the diaspora of emigrants. Some indigenous Lithuanians still remain in Belarus and

4356-412: Was repopulated with new Soviet citizens. Small groups of Lithuanians are still present in Belarus within the Grodno and Vitebsk regions . Apart from the traditional communities in Lithuania and its neighboring countries, Lithuanians have emigrated to other continents during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The Lithuanian national sport is usually considered to be basketball ( krepšinis ), which

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