Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic

The Lithuanian SSR was formed on July 21, 1940; on Aug. 3, 1940, it became a part of the USSR. It is located in the western European part of the USSR. Lithuania borders on the Latvian SSR to the north, on the Byelorussian SSR to the east and south, and on Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast of the RSFSR to the southwest. It extends westward to the Baltic Sea. Area, 65,200 sq km; population, 3,233,000 (estimate, as of Jan. 1, 1973). The capital is the city of Vilnius.

Lithuania is divided into 44 raions; it has 92 cities and 22 urban-type settlements.

Lithuania is a socialist state of workers and peasants, a Union soviet socialist republic, part of the USSR. The present constitution of the Lithuanian SSR was ratified by the Extraordinary Session of the People’s Seimas (parliament) on Aug. 25, 1940. The supreme body of state power is the unicameral Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR, elected for a term of four years on the basis of one deputy per 10,000 inhabitants. Between sessions of the Supreme Soviet the supreme body is the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR. The Supreme Soviet appoints the republic’s government (the Council of Ministers) and passes laws for the republic. Local bodies of power in the raions, cities, settlements, and apylinkė are the corresponding soviets of working people’s deputies, elected by the population for a two-year term. Latvia is represented by 32 deputies in the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

The supreme juridical body of Lithuania is the republic’s Supreme Court, which is elected by the Supreme Soviet for a five-year term; it has civil and criminal divisions and a plenum. There is also a presidium of the Supreme Court. The procurator of the Lithuanian SSR is appointed by the procurator general of the USSR for a term of five years.

The territory of Lithuania is on the East European Plain and the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea and in the basin and lower course of the Nemunas (Neman) River.

Coastline. The coastline is 99 km long. The coasts are primarily low-lying and sandy, with beaches and shoreline dunes. Near the shore the sea is shallow. The shallow, largely freshwater Courland Lagoon (Kurŝių Marios) is separated from the sea by the narrow Courland Spit (Kurŝių Neringa).

Terrain. The republic’s surface is characterized by alternation of lowland plains and hilly uplands; glacial forms of terrain are found almost everywhere. Along the Baltic coast there is a narrow lowland belt (15–20 km wide, with elevations to 50 m) that slopes down to the sea; it is characterized by low, gentle hills and by dunes along the shore. In its lower course the Nemunas is a swampy delta plain. To the east the lowland gives way to the žemaitija Uplands, the highest point of which is Mount Medvėgalis (234 m). In the central region, extending from northeast to southwest, is the Central Lithuanian Lowland, which is up to 100 km wide and has an average elevation of 80–90 m. Its surface is a flat plain composed of bottom-morainic and lacustrine glacial deposits and, in a number of places, by terminal-morainic ridges. In the east and south is the Baltic Ridge, whose highest point is Mount Paviŝtytis (288 m). On the territory of Lithuania the ridge is divided into three uplands: Aukŝtaitija in the northeast, Dzūkai in the center, and Sudovia in the southwest. Its terrain is of the hilly-morainic type, with sinkholes, composed of glacial formations of the Valdai glaciation, and it has eskers and kames. In the northeast is the Svenčionéliai Upland, which also has hilly-morainic terrain with sinkholes. The Southeastern Plain (average elevation, 120 m), with outwash plains and fluvioglacial terraces, extends to the southeast from the Baltic Ridge; continental dunes are frequent. The Medininkai Upland (part of the Aŝmena Upland), which has the highest point in Lithuania, Mount Juozapiné (292 m), is located in the extreme southeastern part of the republic, in the region of the Byelorussian Ridge. The terrain is hilly-morainic, consisting of glacial formations of Moscow glaciation. Its surface has been smoothed by solifluction, and in places it is dissected by old ravines.

Geologic structure and mineral resources. The territory of Lithuania is located in the western part of the Eastern European Platform. The western and central areas of the republic are within the Baltic Syneclise; the eastern part is occupied by the Byelorussian Anteclise. The crystalline foundation of the platform lies at a depth of up to 2,100 m in the syneclise and rises to 120 m in the region of the Byelorussian Anteclise. The sedimentary layer, which ranges in thickness from 200 to 2,100 m, is composed of terrigenous, carbonate, and halide deposits. In the west and south the Anthropogenic deposits are underlain by Permian and Mesozoic deposits; in the northeast, by Devonian deposits.

The entire western part of Lithuania and the adjacent part of the Baltic Sea are promising areas for petroleum and natural gas; a commercial Cambrian petroleum deposit was discovered in 1968 (the Ŝiupariai deposit). Thick strata of Permian anhydrites are found in the area of Kaunas at depths of 150–250 m; in the northwest there are cement limestones (the Karpenai deposit). Dolomites, which are used in the production of crushed rock and gravel, are associated with upper Devonian strata; high-quality glass sands (the Anykŝčiai deposit) are associated with Neocene deposits. Deposits of clays, sand-and-gravel mixtures, and sands suitable for use in construction work are found in Anthropogenic strata. There are numerous peat bogs and deposits of chalk and gypsum; the crystalline foundation has manifestations of ferruginous and rare-earth mineralization, and there are titanium-zirconium placers along the Baltic coast. Amber is also found. The deep horizons have brines, commercial waters (iodine-bromide and boric), and thermal waters. There are discharges of Devonian and Permian mineral waters, which are the basis for the operation of health resorts.

Climate. The climate is transitional between maritime and continental. Its continental quality increases from west to east. The average temperature of the coldest month, January (—4.8°C), varies from —3°C in Palanga to —6°C in Ignalina. The average temperature of the warmest month, July (17.2°C), varies from 16.5°C in Klaipė da to 17.6°C in Kaunas. The average annual precipitation is 630 mm. The greatest total precipitation occurs on the windward slopes of the žemaitija Uplands (about 800 mm; Vainaičiai, 844 mm), and the least occurs on its northeastern slopes and in the northern part of the Central Lithuanian Lowland (Mačiünai, 509 mm). Seasonal distribution of precipitation is uneven. The greatest amount occurs in August (on the coast, in October). The growing season is 169–202 days long.

Rivers and lakes. Lithuania is characterized by a branched river network that is most extensive in the western and central portions of the republic. The rivers belong to the basin of the Baltic Sea. The largest river, the Nemunas, rises in Byelorussia and flows into the Courland Lagoon of the Baltic Sea; its main tributaries are the Neris (Vilija), Nevėžys, Dubysa, Merkys, Minija, and Ŝeŝupė. The most important rivers that do not belong to the Nemunas basin are the Venta, Mūŝa, and Nemunėlis; their upper courses are located in Lithuania, but their lower courses lie outside it. The rivers are fed by groundwater, rain, and meltwater. Hydroelectric power resources are estimated at more than 600,000 kilowatts. The principal high-water period occurs in the spring; summer and autumn rains cause flash floods. During the winters the rivers freeze over for an average of three months. The Nemunas River is navigable from Kaunas to its estuary. In 1959 the Kaunas Reservoir was created on the Nemunas.

There are about 3,000 lakes, which occupy about 1.5 percent of the republic’s area. Almost all these lakes are of glacial origin. Most of them are located in the Baltic Ridge. Lithuania’s largest lake, Drūkŝa, is situated in the northeast, on the border of the Byelorussian SSR, and it belongs to the basin of the Zapadnaia Dvina (Daugava). The deepest lake, Tauragnas, has a maximum depth of 60.5 m. The lakes are used for the development of the fishing industry and the raising of waterfowl.

Soils. Lithuania’s soils are of the podzol type. There is a prevalence of soddy podzols (45.3 percent of the territory); 17.6 percent of the territory is occupied by soddy gley soils, which predominate in central Lithuania, and 18.4 percent by soddy-bog soils, which occur mainly on the western slopes of the žemaitija Uplands. The most fertile are the soddy carbonate soils (7.8 percent), which are located in the north, in central Lithuania, and in the basin of the Ŝeŝupė. Boggy soils occupy 5.3 percent of the republic’s area. Podzol-pine soils, which predominate in the Southeastern Plain, occupy 4.2 percent. There are alluvial soils (covering 1.4 percent of the territory) in the valleys of the major rivers (the Nemunas and others). During the years of Soviet power great reclamation projects have been undertaken (see below: Economy).

Flora. Lithuania is located in a mixed forest subzone. The area covered by forests is 1.6 million hectares (ha), or 25 percent of the territory. The forests are situated in individual tracts; there are ten major forest tracts (with an area of more than 100 sq km), among which are Kazlų R ūda and Varėna-Druskininkai. More than 50 percent of the forests are located in the southeastern part of the republic. There are also many forests in central Lithuania and žemaitija. Coniferous forests account for 65 percent of the total (pine forests, 41.3 percent; spruce forests, 20 percent); deciduous forests, 35 percent (small-leaved, 23.7 percent; broad-leaved, 15 percent). Pine forests are widespread mainly in the southeast and along the coast of the Baltic Sea; spruce forests are prevalent on the western slopes of the žemaitija Uplands. Broad-leaved forests are encountered primarily in central Lithuania. Large-scale reforestation projects are under way. About 17 percent of Lithuania is occupied by meadows and pastures, and about 7 percent by marshes, of which 60 percent are lowland swamps, widespread primarily on the Baltic Ridge and in the southeastern part of the republic.

Fauna. Animals of the taiga and broad-leaved forests are characteristic of Lithuania. Common mammals include the European hare, fox, wolf, elk, red deer, sika deer, boar, raccoon dog, mink, lynx, marten, otter, and beaver. The rivers and lakes are inhabited by bream, pike, perch, roach, European cisco, eel, and trout.

Conservation. In bourgeois Lithuania the cutting of forests considerably exceeded their natural growth. From 1919 to 1939, 260,000 ha were cut, but only 56,000 ha were planted. The elk, wood grouse, and swan were on the verge of extinction, and the marten and otter were becoming very rare; the beaver was exterminated. Great harm was inflicted on the natural resources during the period of the fascist German occupation.

In 1959 the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR adopted a law on conservation. The republic has the žuvintas Preserve for rare birds, as well as 101 specialized preserves (landscape, landscape-historical, botanical, zoological, ornithological, and geological), with a total area of 146,000 ha. The preservation and collection of medicinal herbs has been organized. On the Courland Spit a great deal of work has been done toward the stabilization and fixation of the loose, shifting sands (including the planting of 1,500 ha of forest). Also under protection are 194 arboretums, 94 geological landmarks, and 261 species of plants, of which 51 are exceptionally rare. There has been an increase in the number of elk, red deer, otter, boar, and marten. Beaver and bison have been reintroduced and acclimatized; muskrat, sika deer, and pheasant have also been acclimatized. Bodies of water have been stocked with young eel, peled, Ladoga lake cisco, Astrakhan carp, and Ladoga whitefish. A national park has been established in eastern Lithuania (in Aukŝtaitija).

Natural regions. The Baltic coastal region includes the Courland Spit, the maritime lowland, and the Nemunas River delta; the žemaitija region encompasses the žemaitija Uplands, with their numerous lakes; the Baltic Plain includes the Central Lithuanian and Lower Nemunas lowlands; the Baltic Ridge is distinguished by a great number of lakes (the regions of Ignalina and Zarasai); the Southeastern Plain is sandy, with extensive pine forests; and the Aŝmena-Medininkai Upland is located in the extreme southeastern part of the republic.

REFERENCES

M. B. JAKOVERIS

Lithuanians account for 80 percent of the population (2,-507,000 persons; data given here and below are from the 1970 census). The remainder is made up of Russians (268,000), Poles (240,000), Byelorussians (45,000), Ukrainians (25,000), Jews (24,000), and others.

In 1973 the average population density was 49.6 per sq km (as compared with 41.6 in 1959). The population is evenly distributed; the most densely populated regions are in the southwestern part of the republic. As of Jan. 1, 1973, women made up 53 percent of the population, men accounted for 47 percent. In 1972, 80.3 percent of the population working in the republic’s economy was employed in material production. The total number of industrial and office workers was 1,198,000; of these, 36.7 percent were employed in industry and construction, 31.3 percent in agriculture and forestry, 4.8 percent in transportation and communications, 12.9 percent in health services and education, and 6.7 percent in commerce, public food service, and supply. In 1972 women made up 50 percent of the total number of industrial and office workers; in industry they accounted for 50 percent, in education and culture 76 percent, and in health services 83 percent.

During the years of Soviet power, in connection with the growth of industry, there has been an increase in the urban population (see Table 1); in 1973 it was 54 percent of the total (as compared to 23 percent in 1939). New cities and urban-type settlements have sprung up, including Elektrėnai, Naujoji Akmenė, and Grigiŝkės. As of 1973 the largest cities were Vilnius (409,000), Kaunas (332,000), Klaipėda (155,000), and Ŝiauliai (103,000).

Primitive communal structure (to the ninth century A.D.). The oldest archaeological landmarks on Lithuanian territory date to the Stone Age (sites from the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods, tenth and ninth millennia to the second millennium B.C.). At that time the populace lived in clan communities, led a nomadic life, and engaged in hunting, fishing, and gathering. Tools and weapons were made of stone, bone, and horn. Beginning in the third millennium, stone articles were ground and polished; the production of pottery began, and amber was worked. Livestock raising developed, along with primitive slash-and-burn farming. The inhabitants gradually changed over to a sedentary way of life and created permanent settlements. At that time the ancestors of the Baltic tribes arrived on the territory of Lithuania and neighboring lands; among them were the Lithuanians, Latvians, Old Prussians, and Sudovians (Jatvingai or Jatwings).

Fortified settlements took shape in Lithuania in the first millennium. The use of bronze articles began early in the second millennium B.C. Ironworking began in the fifth century, but only in the fourth to second centuries B.C. did iron tools and weapons replace those made from stone. Iron sickles and scythes were used in harvesting, but wooden plows and harrows pulled by oxen were still used to cultivate the land. The main crops were rye, oats, and wheat. The people also engaged in apiculture, hunting, and fishing.

At the turn of the Common Era the clan community began to disintegrate, and the family community became the prevalent socioeconomic unit; at the same time individual extended families appeared. The Lithuanian tribes conducted a brisk trade with the Slavs and, through them, with the former Roman provinces as well. During the first few centuries of the Common Era large tribes and tribal alliances, such as the žemaičiai (Samogitians), Aukŝtaičiai, and Sudovians, took shape on the territory of Lithuania. During the fifth and sixth centuries the family community disintegrated; clan ties were replaced by territorial ties. Class and property differences were manifested within the community: private property came into being, and a feudal aristocracy appeared.

Feudal period; emergence and development of feudal relations; formation and establishment of the Lithuanian feudal state (ninth to 15th centuries). From the ninth to 12th centuries tillage agriculture became widespread throughout Lithuania, and crafts and trade developed. Feudal relations began to form.

The feudal period in Lithuanian history began in the 13th century. The feudal patrimony included patriarchal slaves and some of the members of the peasant communes. Until the mid-15th century most of the peasants were personally free. The oldest method of exploiting the peasants was the compulsory collection of “gifts” and tribute; corvée also became widespread.

In the ninth to 12th centuries statelike territorial associations took shape in Lithuania in the form of principalities (Deltuva, Karŝuva, Lietuva, and others) headed by the “most noble ones,” the kunigai (princes). Favorable conditions for the rise of a Lithuanian feudal state and the formation of a unified state authority were created by the economic, political, and cultural ties among the principalities, by alliances of individual princes for protection against attack or for invasion of their neighbors, and by the advancement of the “senior” princes in the process (which is attested to by a 1219 treaty between Lithuanian and Galician-Volynian princes). The process of formation of the Lithuanian nationality also began during that period. Lithuania and the Lithuanians were first mentioned in written sources in 1009; in 12th-century chronicles these concepts were frequently encountered.

From the late 1230’s to the 1260’s one of the senior princes of the Aukŝtaičiai, Mindaugas, subjugated the lands of other princes. By 1240 the early feudal Lithuanian state known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had taken shape. The formation and development of a feudal society and the formation of the Lithuanian state resulted from the internal evolution of socioeconomic relations. The process was accelerated by the influence of Lithuania’s economic, political, and cultural ties with its closest eastern and southern neighbors, as well as by its interest in defense against the aggression of the German knights, who in the 13th century undertook campaigns of conquest against the Lithuanian lands. For more than 200 years military clashes took place between the Lithuanians and the German Knights of the Sword (after 1237, the Livonian Order), who established a position at the mouth of the Daugava, and with the Teutonic Order, which in 1229–30 had settled on the territory of Poland and the province of Kulm. In 1236 the Knights of the Sword were defeated by the Lithuanians near Saule (Ŝiauliai). In the period from 1230 to 1283 the knights of the Teutonic Order were able to seize the lands of the Old Prussians and the western Lithuanians, who twice revolted against the Germans (in 1242—49 and 1260–72, under the leadership of G. Mantas). In 1260, Lithuanian troops gained a victory over the German Crusaders in a battle near Lake Durbe (in Courland), and they temporarily halted the seizure of Lithuanian lands.

In the mid-13th century, after the Mongol Tatar conquests, taking advantage of the feudal fragmentation of the Russian lands, the Lithuanian princes annexed Byelorussian, Ukrainian, and Russian lands. The unification of the Lithuanian feudal state was accomplished by Vytenis (reigned 1293-c. 1315), who annexed Polotsk, the Turov-Pinsk principality, and part of Chernaia Rus’, together with Volkovysk. The consolidation of the hereditary power of the Grand Duchy took place during the reign of Gediminas (ruled 1316–41).

During the reigns of Gediminas, Algirdas (1345–77), and Kęstutis (1345–82) the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded considerably. In the mid-14th century Minsk, eastern Volyn’, Podolia, and Kiev came under Lithuania’s power. Vytautas (reigned 1392–1430), who followed a vigorous policy of centralization, annexed to Lithuania the lands between the Dnieper and Dnestr as far as the Black Sea, as well as Smolensk, Viaz’ma, and the area around the upper course of the Oka River in the east. At this time Lithuania became an important, major power in Eastern Europe, and it offered stubborn resistance to the Golden Horde (battles near the Sinie Vody River, 1363, and the Vorskla River, 1399). However, the unevenness of its socioeconomic development and the heterogeneity of its population were fundamental reasons for the relatively brief life of the centralized Lithuanian state.

Expansion into the Slavic lands weakened the attempt by the Lithuanian feudal lords to regain the western Lithuanian lands that had been seized by the German knights, and it allowed the German orders to gather their forces and continue their aggression. In 1283 the Crusaders crossed the Nemunas River. From 1340 to 1410 the Teutonic and Livonian orders conducted as many as 100 military campaigns in Lithuania. The most important battles occurred near the Strėva River (1348), Kaunas (1362), and the village of Rudava (1370). In 1401–09 the žemai-čiai revolted against the Crusaders, to whom the Lithuanian princes had ceded their lands on several occasions (because of internecine strife). The Lithuanian people were self-sacrificing in the defense of their independence, relying on aid from the population of the annexed Slavic lands.

Under conditions of internal struggle and warfare against the Crusaders, the Krewo Union of 1385 was concluded between Lithuania and Poland, and in 1387, Lithuania (with the exception of žemaitija) adopted Catholicism. In that year Jagiełło (Jogaila), who ruled from 1377 to 1392, issued the first charter to the Catholic feudal lords, according to which they became independent de jure and de facto within their own holdings. The žemaičiai were converted to Catholicism in 1413. On July 15, 1410, the combined forces of Lithuania and Poland defeated the knights of the Teutonic Order at the battle of Tannenberg (1410). The defeated Teutonic Order ceased its aggression against the Lithuanian and Russian lands. According to the Treaty of Toruń (1411) and the subsequent Treaty of Mėlnas (1422), the order was forced to abandon žemaitija, but the Klaipėda region remained under the authority of the Germans. In 1435, after the Livonian Order was defeated in a battle near Sventa (Ŝventoji), its aggression also ceased.

During the 14th and 15th centuries the three-field rotation system became predominant in the peasants’ principal occupation, agriculture. The main form of exploitation of the peasants remained payment in kind, but various types of corvée also existed. The process of enserfment of the peasants began in the second half of the 14th century. The institution of bound peasants was known in Lithuania during the 14th century under the names kaimynai, veldamai, and parobkai.

The division of social labor reached a high level in Lithuania during the 14th and 15th centuries. Crafts and the production of ceramics, glass, and jewelry developed in the cities. Trade expanded. Beginning in the 14th century, to defend themselves against the Crusaders, the Lithuanians built large, architecturally complex castles in Medininkas, Kaunas, Trakai, and Vilnius that attested to the high degree of skill of the local builders and architects.

Consolidation and development of serfdom; Lithuania as part of the Rzecz Pocpolita (15th to late 18th centuries). Kazimieras IV’s charter of 1447, which confirmed the charters granted the gentry in 1387, 1432, and 1434, converted feudal dependence into formal serfdom. However, the final enserfment of the peasants occurred a century and a half later according to the Third Lithuanian Statute (1588). There was a gradual exacerbation of the class struggle, which gave way to open peasant demonstrations (1418 and 1536–37).

In the 16th century the attempt of the grand princes and the feudal lords to increase the income from their estates led to the rise of the estate-corvée system of farming and the voloka reform (a more exact recording of lands, the establishment of a universal three-field rotation system, and an increase in exploitation). In 1547, Sigismund August issued the Voloka Regulations, concerning the economic restructuring of the lands belonging to the grand princes. In the late 16th century the requirements of economic development compelled the feudal landowners as well to convert to the new method of organizing their estates (the voloka measurement).

The class of feudal landowners (appanage princes, boyars, and others) formed the principal support of the grand prince. Beginning in the mid-15th century the Council of the Grand Prince was gradually transformed into the Council of Lords (a council of the highest Lithuanian feudal lords). A class-representative feudal-gentry seimas arose in the mid-15th century. In the early 16th century the Council of Lords and the Seimas became the principal bodies of state power. The boyars and gentry finally achieved the status of a privileged class.

A centralized Russian state came into being in the late 15th century. With its formation, the Russian lands that had been seized by Lithuania began to gravitate toward Moscow. The attempts by Lithuanian feudal lords to retain the lands by force and to conquer new lands led to unsuccessful wars with Russia at the turn of the 16th century, in the course of which the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was considerably reduced. In 1558–83, Lithuania was drawn into an unsuccessful war with the Russian state over Livonia. The Lithuanian feudal lords were tending toward closer ties with Poland, hoping to receive aid for the war against Russia, as well as equal rights with the Polish feudal lords. The Polish lords strove to bring about such a union, desiring to seize the Ukrainian lands. The Lublin Union of 1569 was concluded, uniting Poland and Lithuania into a single state, the Rzecz Pospolita (the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania). The Lublin Union did not completely eliminate Lithuania’s autonomy as a state: a separate legislature and courts, as well as the higher administrative positions and a state treasury, army, and territory, were retained. However, Lithuania’s sovereignty was greatly limited. At the head of the Rzecz Pospolita stood the king, who was elected jointly by the Polish and Lithuanian feudal lords; a common sejm (parliament) was also formed.

The Lithuanian feudal lords took an active part in the Polish intervention in Russia in the early 17th century. From 1654 to 1667 the Rzecz Pospolita again went to war with Russia over the issue of the Ukrainian and Byelorussian lands. Russian troops occupied the eastern part of Lithuania. In 1655 they captured Vilnius and Kaunas. Taking advantage of this situation, Sweden occupied žemaitija and attempted to seize the Baltic Region. A group of Lithuanian feudal lords, led by the hetman J. Radziwiłł, signed the Kėdainiai Agreement with Sweden to free themselves to continue the war against Russia. The Armistice of Andrusovo (1667) between Russia and the Rzecz Pospolita was concluded near Smolensk. The Lithuanian feudal lords succeeded in retaining the Right-bank Ukraine and the Byelorussian lands. During the Northern War (1700–21), the Rzecz Pospolita acted as Russia’s ally. From 1702 to 1706, Lithuania was occupied by Swedish troops. In 1709, Peter I smashed the army of Charles XII at Poltava, leading to the liberation of Lithuania from the Swedes.

One-third of the population—and, in žemaitija, up to one-half —perished as a result of the war and an epidemic of the plague. During the Rzecz Pospolita’s political decline in the 17th and 18th centuries, elements of statism also faded away in Lithuania: sejms of the individual parts of the Rzecz Pospolita were not convoked, Lithuanian representatives to the general sejm did not make up even one-third of the delegates, and the Council of Lords ceased to function. Both the Lithuanian and Polish feudal lords joined in parties and confederations, and they engaged in internecine wars, in which the neighboring states intervened. The Constitution of May 3, 1791, abolished the last remnants of Lithuania’s statehood. As a result of the three partitions of the Rzecz Pospolita, by Prussia, Austria, and Russia in 1772, 1793, and 1795 after the unsuccessful uprising led by T. Kościuszko (1794–95), the Rzecz Pospolita was eliminated as a state.

From the 16th through the 18th century the culture, scholarship, and art of the Lithuanian people attained significant development.

Disintegration of the feudal serf system and the rise of capitalist relations (late 18th through first half of the 19th century); Lithuania as part of the Russian Empire. Intense disintegration of the feudal serf means of production, along with the formation of capitalist relations, began in the second half of the 18th century, leading to a notable economic revival. Increased exploitation of the peasantry brought about a major uprising in the Ŝiauliai estate in 1769. Dispossession of peasants from their land, which is characteristic of periods of disintegration of feudalism, created a reserve of wage labor, which was used with increasing frequency on the farms of well-to-do peasants. In certain localities the landowners granted peasants their liberty for money payments and leased lands to free tenant farmers. According to the third partition of the Rzecz Pospolita in 1795, most of the Lithuanian lands were unified with Russia. Wilno and Slonim provinces were formed on its territory. They were merged into the Lithuanian Province in 1797 and divided into Grodno and Wilno provinces in 1801; Kovno Province was separated from the latter in 1842. The part of Lithuania located on the left bank of the Nemunas River was ceded to Prussia in 1795 and remained in its possession until 1807; it then became a part of the Duchy of Warsaw, and in 1815 it was unified with the Russian Empire as part of the Kingdom of Poland (Augustów Province; after 1867, Suwałki Province). The western Lithuanian lands (the Klaipėda region) remained within Prussia.

The unification of Lithuania with Russia facilitated the development of capitalist relations. Lithuania was drawn into the all-Russian market. The strengthening of ties between the Lithuanian and Russian peoples assisted in drawing the Lithuanian workers into the revolutionary movement of Russia.

The feudal serf system in both Lithuania and Russia underwent a crisis in the first half of the 19th century. The peasant movement gained considerable strength. During the suppression of the 1830–31 uprising in Lithuania and Poland, tsarist troops devastated the region. Large-scale peasant uprisings occurred in 1838, 1842, 1843, and 1847. The peasant movement took on a particularly broad scope during the revolutionary situation of 1859–61. As early as 1817, under the influence of the peasant struggle, Lithuanian landowners had proposed the abolition of serfdom without transferring their lands to the peasants. On Nov. 20, 1857, the tsar issued a rescript to the Wilno governor general, V. I. Nazimov, that laid the foundation for the 1861 reform. The Lithuanian landowners were trying to liberate the peasants without land. Because it feared disorders, the tsarist government demanded the compulsory guarantee of land to the peasants in return for certain fixed obligations.

Capitalist period; premonopoly capitalism (second half of the 19th century). In Lithuania the abolition of serfdom in 1861 (on the basis of the Local Statute for the provinces of the Northwestern Region) made the class struggle more acute. As throughout Russia, the peasants demanded their full share of the land without redemption payments. Their interests were most clearly represented by the supporters of the Russian Revolutionary Democrats K. Kalinovskii, E. Serakovskii, and A. Mackevičius, who directed the 1863–64 uprising in Lithuania and Byelorussia and advocated the radical social and national liberation of the Lithuanian people. By the spring of 1864 the uprising had been cruelly suppressed by the tsarist troops, but the government was compelled to grant several concessions. By a decree of Mar. 1, 1863, the status of vremennoobiazannyi (temporarily obligated) was eliminated and the peasants received the right of obligatory purchase of land plots. The conditions of such purchase were more favorable than those in the other provinces of Russia: the peasants basically retained their former plots, but the redemption payments were reduced. This accelerated the development of capitalist relations, particularly in agriculture, which had specialized in livestock raising and dairy farming. The process of class differentiation among the peasants intensified, and the number of farm workers increased (by the end of the 19th century there were 189,000). Tens of thousands of impoverished Lithuanian peasants moved to the industrialized cities (Riga, St. Petersburg, and Odessa) or emigrated to the USA or Great Britain.

The development of industry was facilitated by the construction of railroads (St. Petersburg-Warsaw, 1861–62; Liepāja-Romny, 1871–76; and the Poles’e Railroad, 1884–85). The ties of the territory’s economy with the principal economic centers of Russia and with foreign markets increased, but the rate of industrial development in Lithuania was slower than in Russia as a whole. The manufacturing industry was prevalent. Enterprises were primarily on a small scale; many were in the stage of handicrafts production (enterprises with fewer than 50 workers accounted for 85 percent of the total). The fragmentation of the proletariat and its heterogeneous national composition complicated the class struggle. In the process of development of capitalist relations the Lithuanian nation was formed, as was the working class. The Lithuanian urban and rural bourgeoisie developed.

In the second half of the 19th century the tsarist government intensified its policy of national oppression in Lithuania. Leaders of the Lithuanian nationalist movement during the 1880’s and 1890’s included J. Basanavičius, J. Ŝliupas, V. Kudirka, and J. Turnas-Vaižgantas, who were representatives of the bourgeois-liberal and clerical intelligentsia. They grouped around the periodicals that they published abroad beginning in 1883 and distributed illegally in Lithuania. These public figures made a definite contribution to Lithuanian democratic culture, but their policy of accommodation and nationalistic ideology hindered the further development of the Lithuanian people’s liberation struggle.

Under the influence of the Russian revolutionary movement and demonstrations by Lithuanian workers, the process of differentiation within the nationalist movement was accelerated. J. Andziulaitis-Kalnėnas, J. Mačys-Kėkŝtas, S. Matulaitis, J. Biliūnas, and others criticized bourgeois policy and ideology. They advocated participation by the Lithuanians in the general Russian revolutionary movement. Narodnik (Populist) circles appeared in Vilnius in 1872; they included the revolutionary Narodniki A. Zundelevich (Zundelevičius) and Iu. Lukaŝevich (Lukasevičius). Dissemination of the ideas of scientific socialism in Lithuania by members of the Proletariat Party, among whom was L. Janavičius, began in 1883; in 1884 the party established ties with the Liberation of Labor group. Organizations of the Polish Socialist Party began to operate in Lithuania in 1893. The Bund (the General Union of Jewish Workers in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia) formed in 1897.

Spontaneous demonstrations by Lithuanian workers began in 1861. The first strikes by industrial workers took place in 1871; by farm workers, in 1883. Mutual-aid offices appeared in Vilnius in 1888; they laid the foundation of the trade union movement (see below: Trade unions). In 1892 the workers of Lithuania observed the May 1 holiday. During the 1890’s a mass workers’ movement began, and the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party came into being (see below: Communist Party of Lithuania).

Period of imperialism and bourgeois-democratic revolutions in Russia (1900–17). The economic crisis of 1900–03 aggravated class conflicts in Lithuania. The revolutionary upsurge was expressed in May 1 demonstrations in Vilnius (1901 and 1902) and Kaunas (1902), as well as in economic strikes, and members of the nationalist movement who were dissatisfied with the policy of the Lithuanian bourgeoisie joined the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party in increasing numbers. The liberal bourgeoisie became active and in 1902 formed the Lithuanian Democratic Party.

The most important demonstrations by Lithuanian workers during the Revolution of 1905–07 were the January strikes in the major cities and the general celebration of the May 1 holiday in 1905; the general political strikes and demonstrations in August, October, and December 1905; the summer strikes by farm laborers in 1905–06; the unrest among the soldiers quartered in Lithuania in 1905–06; and the preparation for an armed uprising, which was most intense in December 1905 and January 1906. The Lithuanian bourgeoisie attempted to take control of these events and to use them in its own interests. For this purpose it convoked a congress of Lithuanians in December 1905 (the Vilnius Seimas), which, under pressure from representatives of the revolutionary people, adopted certain antigovernment resolutions. However, the reactionary leaders of the congress, in collaboration with right-wing Social Democrats, expunged from the resolutions calls for an armed rebellion and division of landowners’ lands. Beginning in 1906 the Lithuanian bourgeoisie openly defended the counterrevolution. Its most reactionary elements united in the Christian Democratic Party of Lithuania and rallied around the newspaper Viltis (Hope). During the years 1906–13, as the result of the Stolypin agrarian reform, about 20 percent of the peasant farms were converted into farmsteads.

After the suppression of the revolution the struggle of the Lithuanian workers continued. In 1908–09 the tanners of Vilnius went out on strike for more than five months. They were given material aid by the proletariat from the industrial centers of Russia, as well as by the workers of Germany, France, and Belgium. The protest strikes against the 1912 Lena shootings were joined by workers from Vilnius and Kaunas. Farm workers also went out on strike. Pravda and other Bolshevik publications were distributed in Lithuania.

From the beginning of World War I (1914–18) the territory of Lithuania was an arena of military action. By the fall of 1915, German troops had occupied almost all of Lithuania, and about 300,000 inhabitants were evacuated to the interior of Russia. Industrial enterprises were partially closed down, and some of them were moved to Russia. The Bolsheviks and the revolutionary Lithuanian Social Democrats struggled against the Lithuanian bourgeoisie, which was preaching class peace, supporting the imperialist war, and striving to divert the workers from internationalist revolutionary struggle. Together with the Russian proletariat, the evacuated Lithuanian workers participated in the Revolution of February 1917.

Great October Socialist Revolution and the struggle for Soviet power (1917–19). The October Revolution opened up new prospects for the social and national liberation of the Lithuanian people, as well as for the restoration of an independent Lithuanian state. The workers greeted with approval the decrees of Soviet power on peace and land, as well as the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia. Lithuanian workers in Russia took part in the October Revolution and in the consolidation of its achievements. At the Second All-Russian Congress, Soviet power was hailed by V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas and P. Balys in the name of the Lithuanian workers. The Commissariat for Lithuanian Affairs, headed by Mickevičius-Kapsukas, was formed on Dec. 8 (21), 1917, as part of the People’s Commissariat on Nationalities of the RSFSR; it played an important role in mobilizing the revolutionary forces of Lithuanian refugee workers for the struggle for Soviet power in Lithuania.

Under the influence of the revolutionary events in Russia, the struggle in Lithuania against the German invaders and the Lithuanian bourgeoisie intensified. In September 1917, under the supervision of the occupation authorities, the bourgeoisie created the Lithuanian Council (Lietuvos Taryba), which on December 11 (24) issued a declaration “on the eternal ties of alliance between the Lithuanian state and Germany.” On Feb. 16, 1918, the Lithuanian Council adopted an act on the so-called independence of Lithuania; however, in March 1918, yielding to pressure from Germany, it again requested that the German authorities recognize Lithuania on the basis of the declaration of Dec. 11, 1917. At the peace negotiations in Brest in 1918, Mic-kevičius-Kapsukas protested against the subordination of Lithuania to Germany. In the summer of 1918 the council proclaimed Lithuania a monarchical state and invited the German prince von Urach to accede to the royal throne. After the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 1918 the Lithuanians who had been evacuated began to return to their homeland. The First Congress of the Communist Party of Lithuania (CPL) was held illegally on Oct. 1–3, 1918, in occupied Vilnius.

Favorable conditions for the establishment of Soviet power in Lithuania were created by the defeat of Germany in World War I, the November Revolution of 1918, the abrogation of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty by Soviet Russia, revolutionary ferment among the German troops stationed in the Baltic Region, the breakup of the occupation regime, and the upsurge of the revolutionary struggle of the Lithuanian workers under the leadership of the CPL. On Dec. 8, 1918, the Central Committee of the CPL, at an illegal session, adopted a resolution establishing the Provisional Revolutionary Government, headed by Mickevičius-Kapsukas. On December 15 the Vilnius Soviet of Working People’s Deputies declared itself the sole authority in the city and passed a resolution greeting the government of the RSFSR and the Red Army. On December 16 the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Lithuania published a manifesto proclaiming the overthrow of the authority of the German occupation forces, the dissolution of the nationalist Lithuanian Council, and the transfer of all power into the hands of the Soviet of Working People’s Deputies. The manifesto also set forth a program for the building of socialism in Lithuania. On December 16–19 political demonstrations took place in Vilnius, Kaunas, Ŝiauliai, and Panevėžys under the slogan “All Power to the Soviets!” On Dec. 22, 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars of Soviet Russia ratified the decree signed by V. I. Lenin recognizing the independence of the Lithuanian SSR.

In December 1918 and January 1919, Soviet power was established over most of Lithuania. It was opposed by bourgeois nationalists, German occupation forces, and imperialist circles in the USA and the Entente, as well as the Polish counterrevolutionaries. Acting on a request from the revolutionary government of Lithuania, the government of the RSFSR sent troops— including the Fifth Vilnius Regiment, which had been formed in Moscow—to render fraternal aid to the Lithuanian workers in their struggle against the interventionists. On December 31 the German occupation troops were forced to abandon Vilnius. Together with them the Lithuanian bourgeois government moved to Kaunas. On the night of Jan. 1, 1919, by taking advantage of the small numbers of the revolutionary forces, Polish legionnaires attacked the Workers’ Council of Vilnius and seized power in the city. However, on January 5 units of the Red Army arrived and liberated it. In January 1919 the bourgeois Lithuanian government addressed a request to the Entente states and Germany for armed anti-Soviet intervention in Lithuania and speeded up the formation of a Lithuanian bourgeois army. In January 1919, German occupation forces defeated the Soviets in Kaunas and a number of other places in western Lithuania. A congress of representatives of district revolutionary committees was held in Vilnius on January 31; the First Congress of Lithuanian Farm Laborers, on February 15–16; and the First Congress of the Councils of Workers’, Peasants’ (landless and land-starved), and Red Army Deputies of Lithuania, on February 18–20. To combat the interventionists and internal counterrevolution, the congress recognized the efficacy of voluntary unification of Lithuania and Byelorussia to form a single Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Litbel), with its capital at Vilnius.

In its struggle against counterrevolution, the Soviet government nationalized land, banks, and industrial enterprises; it also canceled debts of workers and the urban poor to capitalists, established an eight-hour working day, abolished estates and their privileges, guaranteed the national equality of workers of various nationalities, separated church and state, and proclaimed free compulsory education. Unemployment was reduced. However, the leaders of Soviet Lithuania made certain errors (refusal to apportion to the peasants a part of the land confiscated from landowners; the forced organization of agricultural communes).

In 1919 the government of the RSFSR rendered 200 million rubles in financial aid to Lithuania; Soviet Russia and the Soviet Ukraine supplied raw materials, fuel, and building materials. In February 1919, with the intensification of military intervention in Soviet Russia, an offensive against Soviet Lithuania was also begun by German troops and nationalist Lithuanian units from the west and Polish legionnaires from the south. On April 21 the troops of bourgeois Poland occupied Vilnius. By the end of August a bourgeois dictatorship had been established. The interventionists and bourgeois nationalists dealt harshly with the revolutionary workers and peasants.

Bourgeois dictatorship (1919–40). The governments of the imperialist countries regarded the creation of an independent Lithuanian state unfavorably. The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 failed to establish Lithuania’s borders. In mid-1919, German troops and Russian White Guard units advanced against the Lithuanian bourgeois state; a conflict arose with bourgeois-landowning Poland, which was supported by the Entente. Under these circumstances the government of the RSFSR on Sept. 11, 1919, proposed a peace treaty with the bourgeois government of Lithuania; it was signed on July 12,1920, in Moscow. According to the agreement, Soviet Russia recognized the independence of bourgeois Lithuania, including Vilnius and its surrounding area, as an integral part of Lithuania.

On July 14, 1920, the Red Army liberated Vilnius from the troops of bourgeois Poland, and in August the Soviet government handed it over to Lithuania. However, in October 1920 bourgeois Poland again occupied the Vilnius region. After the Moscow Treaty the Entente governments also recognized Lithuania (1922), demanding in exchange a close alliance between Lithuania and Poland in order to create a united front against the USSR. The anti-imperialist struggle of the Lithuanian people and the friendly position of Soviet Russia aided bourgeois Lithuania in maintaining its independence from the efforts of the Entente to impose upon it a union with Poland (the Himans Plan, 1921). In 1923, Klaipėda and the Klaipėda region were incorporated into Lithuania. On Sept. 28, 1926, Lithuania and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact. The USSR saved Lithuania from occupation by bourgeois-landowning Poland in 1927 and 1938.

The workers of Lithuania, under the leadership of the Communist Party, continued their struggle against domination by the bourgeoisie. In mid-September 1919 a general workers’ strike flared up in Kaunas. In February 1920 there was a spontaneous uprising by the soldiers of the Kaunas garrison that was harshly suppressed by government troops. The bourgeoisie was compelled to grant some concessions. On Aug. 1, 1922, the Lithuanian Constituent Seimas adopted a constitution proclaiming Lithuania a parliamentary republic, as well as a land-reform law, according to which the holdings of landowners were limited to 80 hectares (ha); in 1929 they were increased to 150 ha. Land was granted first of all to volunteers of the bourgeois army. From 1919 to 1939 about 39,000 new settlers and more than 26,000 peasants received 459,000 ha of land. Landless and land-starved peasants received small plots. The reform facilitated the growth of the kulak stratum and landowning by the bourgeoisie; it accelerated the development of capitalist relations in Lithuania. Nevertheless, Lithuania remained an agrarian country. By the beginning of 1939, 73.8 percent of the population was rural, whereas about 7.5 percent of the population was employed in industry and crafts. The development of the Lithuanian economy was retarded by the artificial separation of the country from the Russian market and by its dependence on the major imperialist powers; the rate of the industrial growth was slow. From 1911 to 1939 gross output increased by a factor of 2.1, mainly because of food processing and light industry.

Specialization in agriculture was determined by requirements of the market, mainly Great Britain and Germany. There was a rapid process of enrichment of the national bourgeoisie. During the period 1931–38 the profits of joint-stock companies rose from 5.9 million to 16.7 million litai. Unemployment was considerable and continuous (there were 76,000 completely or partially unemployed in 1940; in the rural areas hidden unemployment encompassed about 250,000 persons). From 1929 to 1939 about 80,000 people emigrated.

The democratic rights proclaimed in the constitution were limited by the continuous war footing. In October 1922, with the support of the CPL, five workers’ deputies were elected to the First Seimas, but in 1923 the bourgeois government dissolved the Seimas and arrested the workers’ faction, as well as the candidates from the workers’ groups to the Second Seimas (more than 150 persons).

Because it feared further revolutionizing of the masses, the Lithuanian bourgeoisie embarked on a path of establishing an open dictatorship. On Dec. 17, 1926, the Tautininkas Party and the Christian Democratic Party staged a coup d’etat that met with no resistance from the government of the Liaudininkas Party or the Social Democrats and resulted in the establishment of the fascist dictatorship of A. Smetona. A harsh regime was instituted in the country, and a bloody terror was begun against the CPL. Many progressive public organizations and trade unions were broken up, and in 1927 the Seimas was dissolved. In 1936 all bourgeois parties except the Tautininkas Party were banned.

Working clandestinely, the Communist Party continued to lead the workers’ struggle against fascism. In 1929 there were about 30 strikes, and in 1934 about 90; the number of strikers grew from 1,300 to 10,000. The antigovernment mood of the peasants was manifested in mass demonstrations in Suwałki and Dzūkai (1935). The tactic of a united workers’-antifascist popular front developed during this period increased the authority of the CPL. Communists and Social Democratic workers participated in a demonstration by 30,000 persons in Kaunas on June 17, 1936, and in a subsequent three-day general political strike.

When Hitler came to power, the threat of enslavement of Lithuania by fascist Germany increased. Germany occupied the Klaipėda region on Mar. 22, 1939. The workers, along with Lithuanian society in general, expressed indignation at the policy of the government, which was prepared to transform Lithuania into a protectorate of fascist Germany for the sake of preserving the bourgeois system. On Oct. 10, 1939, the Lithuanian government was compelled to sign a mutual-aid agreement with the USSR, according to which the Vilnius region, liberated by the Red Army in September 1939, was transferred to Lithuania. To strengthen Lithuania’s defense, a small number of Soviet military units was stationed there. Trade agreements were also signed.

The treaty did not affect Lithuania’s social and state structure. It ensured its national independence and was directed against the conversion of Lithuania into a staging area for an attack on the USSR. In addition, the treaty weakened imperialism in Lithuania and aided the struggle of the Lithuanian people against the bourgeois system. The Lithuanian workers hailed the signing of the treaty, but the rulers of Lithuania, striving to maintain the dominance of the bourgeoisie, strengthened their fascist regime and sabotaged the treaty, preparing to abrogate it and convert Lithuania into a protectorate of Hitler’s Germany. In a note dated June 14, 1940, the USSR proposed strict observance of the mutual-aid pact by the government of Lithuania. On June 15 a supplementary contingent of Soviet troops entered Lithuania, with the consent of the Lithuanian government, to ensure fulfillment of the terms of the pact. The Lithuanians greeted the Soviet troops and demanded a change in government. The people’s movement grew, and President Smetona fled to Germany. Favorable foreign and domestic conditions had been created for the overthrow of the fascist regime and the establishment of Soviet power by the Lithuanian workers. The incipient socialist revolution was headed by the CPL. On June 17, under the leadership of the CPL and under conditions of great political activity among the people, a people’s government headed by the antifascist leader J. Paleckis was formed.

Socialist period

Victory of the 1940 socialist revolution; beginning of the building of socialism. The peaceful path of the revolution made possible the most important social changes by constitutional means. The People’s Government of Lithuania legalized the Communist Party, the Komsomol, and trade unions, freed political prisoners, and established workers’ supervision of banks and business enterprises; it also dissolved all bourgeois organizations and made changes in the composition of the state apparatus. In the elections to the People’s Seimas held on July 14–15, 1940, candidates of the Democratic Alliance of Working People, headed by the Communists, received more than 99 percent of the votes. On July 21–23, 1940, the People’s Seimas adopted the Declaration on the State Structure; the Declaration on the Admission of Lithuania Into the USSR; the Declaration on the Proclamation of Land as Owned by the People as a Whole, or State Property; and the Declaration on the Nationalization of Banks and Large-scale Industry. The promulgation of the resolutions by the People’s Seimas signified the victory of the socialist revolution in Lithuania. Expressing the will of the Lithuanian people, the Seimas declared Lithuania to be a Soviet socialist republic and addressed a request to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for the admission of Lithuania into the USSR. On Aug. 3, 1940, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR granted the request, and the Lithuanian SSR became a part of the USSR as a Union republic with equal rights. On Aug. 25, 1940, the Extraordinary Session of the People’s Seimas adopted a constitution for the Lithuanian SSR and declared the People’s Seimas to be the Provisional Supreme Soviet of the Republic, elected the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR, and approved the Council of People’s Commissars of the Lithuanian SSR. The admission of Lithuania into the USSR ensured the retention of Lithuania’s national state system and its subsequent development on a socialist basis.

Radical socialist changes in the economy and culture were made in 1940 and 1941 with the fraternal aid of the republics of the Soviet Union. The nationalization of land, banks, large-scale and medium-scale industry, and commercial and other capitalist enterprises ensured rapid growth rates of industry. In 1940–41 the number of industrial workers increased by a factor of 2.1. Work was guaranteed for 55,800 unemployed persons, and 23 enterprises that had been idle under the domination of the bourgeoisie were renovated and put into operation. Lithuania’s national economic plan for 1941 was directed at industrialization of the republic.

In September and October 1940, land reform was promulgated in Lithuania; during the course of the reform, large-scale landownership was abolished and the limit of kulak landowner-ship was set at 30 ha. In addition, 607,600 ha was confiscated for the state land resources, and more than half of this amount was given to 75,600 landless or land-starved peasants. In the countryside there was a change in the relations of class forces; agrarian capitalists disappeared, the remnants of the landowning class were eliminated, the kulak class was restricted, and the laboring peasantry became dominant. Sovkhozes, the first centers of socialist agriculture, were created. During the spring of 1941, 42 machine tractor stations and 262 machine and draft-horse stations were in operation. Peasants were granted long-term credit, and the state debt of poor farms was written off. The first kolkhozes were established.

To improve the status of the workers, laws were adopted to increase wages, to provide social insurance and free medical care, and to decrease apartment rents. The elimination of illiteracy and low levels of literacy was begun, and the foundations were laid for the formation of Soviet Lithuanian literature and art. The building of socialism in Lithuania was interrupted in June 1941 by fascist Germany’s treacherous attack on the USSR.

Great Patriotic War (1941–45). The entire territory of Lithuania was occupied during the first week of the war. Relying on the bourgeois nationalists, the occupation forces abolished all the achievements of Soviet power. Lithuania was made a part of the so-called Eastern Territory (Ostland) as a “general province,” headed by General Commissar A. von Renteln. A terrorist occupation regime was established, and a policy of Germanization of Lithuania was conducted. By the fall of 1942, 16,300 colonists had been brought into the country from Germany.

The CPL led the struggle against the occupation forces and their collaborators. The Lithuanian workers answered fascist terror and plundering with sabotage and the refusal to supply agricultural products. The first groups in the underground partisan struggle, in Lithuania were organized in the summer of 1941. By the fall there were 14 partisan groups operating on Lithuanian territory. The headquarters of the partisan movement of Lithuania, under the direction of A. Sniečkus, was set up in Moscow on Nov. 26, 1942. There were 92 partisan units and groups (with a total of about 10,000 persons), as well as two underground party committees, operating in Lithuania. The partisan and Komsomol organizations published 15 underground newspapers. During the fighting the partisans derailed 577 troup trains, put about 377 steam locomotives and more than 3,000 railroad cars out of commission, destroyed 18 enemy garrisons, and killed or wounded more than 14,000 Hitlerites and collaborators. More than 1,800 Lithuanian partisans were awarded orders and medals for their heroism and bravery; seven of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

At the beginning of the war about 23,000 Lithuanian citizens were evacuated to the interior of the Soviet Union. Workers from the country’s eastern areas helped them to settle in new localities and to join in the struggle against the common foe, fascism. The 16th Lithuanian Rifle Division, a Lithuanian national group, was formed as part of the Soviet Army in 1942; it took part in battles for the liberation of Russian and Byelorussian lands and of Lithuania. It followed a route from the Orel region to the shores of the Baltic Sea. During the war about 14,000 soldiers of the division were awarded military orders and medals, and 12 of them received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Army liberated Vilnius on July 13, 1944, and Kaunas on August 1. Lithuanian partisans fought in these battles. On Jan. 28, 1945, the Soviet Army captured Klaipėda and completed the liberation of Lithuania from the fascist occupation forces. For the first time in history all Lithuanian lands were united. The material damage to the republic’s national economy and population was 17 billion rubles (in 1941 prices). The occupation troops destroyed about half the livestock and about 80 percent of industrial enterprises, almost all the electric power plants, and a number of cities. The Hitlerites and their collaborators in Lithuania killed about 500,000 civilians and about 200,-000 prisoners of war; they also transported about 40,000 persons to Germany for forced labor. Sites of mass executions by Hitlerites in Lithuania included Panėriai, the Ninth Fort, and Pirčiupis. The Hitlerites wiped out the villages of Miliūnai, Dargužiai, and Ferma. The Lithuanian bourgeois nationalists and the reactionary part of the clergy, headed by Archbishop J. Skvireckas, collaborated with the occupation forces.

Building socialism in Lithuania; the republic during the period of developed socialist society. In the immediate postwar period in Lithuania there was a revival of the socialist changes that had been interrupted by the war. Within a brief period the Soviet state and economic machinery was restored. National cadres of party, Soviet, and economic office workers were trained at Soviet schools and higher educational institutions and in special courses. Specialists from other Soviet republics helped to restore and develop the national economy. The Soviet government allocated resources; the fraternal republics supplied Lithuania with raw materials, building materials, machinery, equipment, and transportation. As early as 1944—45, 80 percent of all factories and plants that had been functioning before the war were restored to operation.

The fourth five-year plan for development of the national economy of the USSR (1946–50) was the first long-term plan for developing Lithuania’s national economy. For Soviet Lithuania it was a period of restoration of the economy and socialist reconstruction, industrialization of the republic, and collectivization of its agriculture. Through the efforts of the Lithuanian working class, Lithuanian industry reached its prewar production level in 1948 and, in 1950, exceeded it by more than 90 percent. There was an increase in the number of workers in the republic’s industry: in early 1941 there were 46,300 employees in state and cooperative industry; in 1945, 36,500; and in 1950, 76,600.

Unemployment was completely eliminated. As a result of socialist industrialization, Lithuania’s economic backwardness was overcome and the material and industrial bases of socialism were established.

On Aug. 30, 1944, the Supreme Soviet of Lithuania passed the law On Overcoming the Effects of the German Occupation on the Agriculture of the Lithuanian SSR, which restored Soviet land use. The peasants were given back the lands that had been taken from them by the fascist colonists, the kulaks, and the bourgeoisie. From 1944 to 1948, 1,575,000 ha of land was transferred to the state’s land resources, of which 688,000 ha was distributed to landless peasants. Land was provided to 96,000 families.

The land reform of 1945–48 undermined the economic power of the kulaks and ended landlessness among the peasants. The most prominent place in rural economic life was occupied by peasants of average means. The kolkhoz movement began to revive in 1947. On Mar. 20, 1948, the Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian SSR and the Central Committee of the CP(B) of Lithuania adopted the decree On the Organization of Kolkhozes in the Lithuanian SSR. The path to collectivization was considered from all points of view at the Sixth Congress of the CP(B) of Lithuania. The republic’s kolkhozes received large credits and hundreds of thousands of tons of fertilizer from the state.

The process of the socialist transformation of Lithuanian agriculture was basically complete by the end of 1951. The kolkhozes encompassed 94.8 percent of the peasants’homesteads and 87.5 percent of the peasants’ lands; the kulak class had been eliminated, and the kolkhoz system had been established. The building of socialism in Lithuania proceeded under conditions of an acute class struggle. The remnants of the overthrown exploiting classes, with the support of the reactionary Lithuanian émigrés, formed armed groups and attempted, by means of assassinations and threats, to interfere with the building of socialism.

As a result of the radical changes in the economy and culture of Lithuania, the fundamentals of socialism were built. On Dec. 26, 1951, the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR legislatively confirmed the establishment of the foundations of socialism and introduced corresponding changes into the republic’s constitution.

During the years of the postwar building of socialism new branches of industry came into being. Gross industrial output in 1972 increased by a factor of 37 as compared to 1940; agricultural output, by a factor of 2.7. Agriculture reached a high level of development. The workers’ standard of living was raised. Elimination of the farmstead system of settlement and the creation of kolkhoz settlements began in 1950 (from 1967 to 1972 almost 21,000 houses were built in such settlements, and the number of individual farmsteads decreased by 24,000). The upsurge in economy and culture has been accompanied by an expansion of mutual aid and a deepening of ties with the fraternal republics.

During the postwar decades a cultural revolution was carried out in Lithuania. The general educational level of the population rose, and skilled Lithuanian cadres emerged from the working class. A national intelligentsia drawn from the common people was created. The various manifestations of bourgeois and petit bourgeois ideology were overcome. A great deal of work was done by party organizations in forming a communist Weltanschauung among the broad masses. New higher educational and scientific and cultural-educational institutions, national theaters, libraries, and clubs were established in Lithuania. The culture of the Lithuanian people flourished, national in form, socialist in content, and international in spirit and character. Socialism was built in the republic, and Lithuania was transformed into a highly developed industrial-agrarian socialist republic. The Lithuanian people were consolidated into a socialist nation. In the context of a well-developed socialist society the Lithuanian workers, along with the peoples of the entire Soviet Union, are working to create the material and technical bases of communism. The title of Hero of Socialist Labor has been awarded to 127 of the republic’s workers. On July 17, 1965, for its achievements in building socialism and in connection with the 25th anniversary of Soviet power, Lithuania was awarded the Order of Lenin; in December 1972 it was awarded the Order of the Friendship of Peoples to mark the 50th anniversary of the USSR.

SOURCES

REFERENCES

H. A. ŠADžIUS

The Communist Party of Lithuania (CPL) is a component part of the CPSU.

The dissemination of Marxism and the emergence of the Social Democratic movement in Lithuania date to the late 19th century. The first Marxist circles came into being in the late 1880’s in Vilnius and a number of other cities. In September 1895, V. I. Lenin arrived in Vilnius for talks with the local Social Democrats. His arrival strengthened the revolutionary trend in the Lithuanian Social Democratic movement. The Center for Lithuanian Social Democracy was formed in late 1895; among its members were A. Domaŝvičius, S. Trusevičius (K. Zalev-skis), and A. Moravskis. The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (SDPL) and the Workers’ Union of Lithuania (WUL) were formed in May 1896. In 1900, on the initiative of F. E. Dzerzhinskii, the Social Democrats of the Kingdom of Poland, the WUL, and some of the left-wing elements of the SDPL united to form the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania. Its committees were founded in Vilnius and Kaunas.

Beginning in the mid-1890’s there were two conflicting trends within the Social Democratic movement of Lithuania, the revolutionary Marxist trend and the opportunist trend. The revolutionary trend was represented by Dzerzhinskii, M. Iu. Kozlovskii, F. V. Gusarov, and I. A. Piatnitskii; the Lithuanian Bolsheviks S. Rulkovskis and A. Pal’chik (Palčikas); and the revolutionary Social Democrats V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas, Z. Angarietis (Aleksa), and P. Eidukevičius from the SDPL. Lithuanian revolutionary Social Democrats took part in creating Social Democratic organizations of the student youth of Lithuania, such as the Congress of the Social Democratic Youth of Lithuania, Liepája, and Minsk (1896) and the Draugas (Comrade) Social Democratic youth organization (1904).

Organizations of the RSDLP existed from 1901 to 1919. The Vilnius Group of the RSDLP (Gusarov, I. O. Klopov, and others), which assisted in transporting Iskra and maintained contact with its editorial board, formed in July 1901. Beginning in 1904 the group operated under the direction of the Northwestern Committee of the RSDLP. In 1905 the groups united by the committee formed the Northwestern Union of the RSDLP, which in 1906 was renamed the Union of the RSDLP of Lithuania and Byelorussia. In 1904 the Vilnius Group of the RSDLP had 120 members; in 1905, 400; and in 1906, 800. Among the members of the Vilnius Committee of the RSDLP during 905–06 were the Bolsheviks Rul’kovskis, A. A. Solcas, Pal’chik, and N. N. Krestinskii. In the second half of 1905, RSDLP organizations came into being in Kaunas, Ŝiauliai, Panevéž ys, and Ŝvenč ionys. Members of the RSDLP disseminated the newspapers Vpered, Proletarii, and others in Lithuania and issued leaflets and single and periodical publications, such as Listok Vilenskoi gruppy RSDRP (Leaflet of the Wilno Group of the RSDLP; August 1905) and Soldatskaia zhizn’ (Soldiers’ Life; 1906–07) in Russian and Walka robotnicza (The Workers’ Struggle; Vilnius, 1906) in Polish. Nevertheless, there was a noticeable opportunist influence within the Lithuanian organizations of the RSDLP, which consisted of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. During the reaction of 1908–10 most of the Lithuanian RSDLP organizations were dissolved. The Vilnius organization continued to be active to a certain extent. Its representative, M. Gurevičius, took part in the Prague Conference of the RSDLP (1912).

The activity of the Bolsheviks aided in strengthening the revolutionary trend in the SDPL. Its seventh congress (August 1907, Kraków) advocated unification with the RSDLP, but this was not carried out because of the arrests of many party members. During the reaction and a new revolutionary upsurge, the revolutionary Social Democrats (Eidukevičius, Mickevičius-Kapsukas, and others) established ties with Lenin and worked with the Bolshevik press. Vilnis (The Wave; Riga, 1913–14), the newspaper of the Lithuanian Social Democrats, was disseminated throughout all of Lithuania and propagandized the ideas of the Bolsheviks. The National Equality Bill, Lenin’s first work published in Lithuanian, appeared in its tenth issue (April 1914).

During World War 1 (1914—18), Bolshevik groups were established among the evacuated Lithuanian workers in Petrograd, Moscow, Voronezh, Ekaterinoslav, and Rostov-on-Don under the auspices of local organizations of the RSDLP. The Conference of Lithuanian Social Democratic Groups (Petrograd, Nov. 21, 1916) adopted a resolution on joining the Bolshevik Party and forming a party division in the Lithuanian region. After the February Revolution of 1917 the Lithuanian Bolsheviks emerged from the underground. Delegates of the Lithuanian Bolsheviks at the Sixth Congress of the RSDLP(B), July-August 1917, announced that their ranks included about 2,000 persons. In September 1917, Lithuanian sections of the RSDLP(B) were created in place of the regions; after 1918 they were called Lithuanian sections of the RCP(B), and they existed until 1922. On Oct. 10 (23), 1917, the Central Committee of the RSDLP(B) confirmed the Provisional Central Lithuanian Bureau, headed by Mickevičius-Kapsukas. It published the first Lithuanian communist newspapers and pamphlets and conducted conferences of the Lithuanian sections, at which the participants discussed questions of party work in the occupied territory of Lithuania, where the process of Bolshevization of the Social Democratic organizations was under way and where the central bureau sent party members for underground work in 1918.

The first communist cells were formed in Vilnius and in the northern part of Lithuania during the spring of 1918; during the summer and fall they operated in many cities and districts. At a conference held in Vilnius on Aug. 14, 1918, the revolutionary Social Democrats decreed that the party of the Lithuanian working class would be called the Communist Party (its organizations were active even in the regions of western Byelorussia, which were occupied by German troops in 1915). The communist organizations that had originated underground united at the first clandestine congress of the CPL (Oct. 1–3, 1918, in Vilnius). The congress recognized as the party’s principal task the organization of the struggle to drive out the occupation forces and the establishment of Soviet power; it adopted a party charter and elected a central committee, including Eidukevičius, S. Grybas, K. Kernovičius, and R. Pileris. In December 1918 the Central Committee co-opted Mickevičius-Kapsukas and Angarietis, who had come from Moscow for underground party work. After the November Revolution in Germany in 1918 and the emergence of revolutionary situations in the countries it occupied, the Communist organizations of Lithuania led the workers’ struggle to establish Soviet power. In March 1919, in connection with the unification of the Lithuanian and Byelorussian Soviet republics into the Lithuanian-Byelorussian SSR, the party organizations of Lithuania and Byelorussia merged into the unified Communist Party of Lithuania and Byelorussia as part of the RCP(B).

In the underground after 1919, and as a section of the Comintern after 1921, the CPL was the only political party that carried on the revolutionary struggle for the social and national interests of the Lithuanian workers. As it mastered Marxism-Leninism more completely and adapted it creatively to specific conditions, the CPL corrected certain errors that it had made in 1918–19; it strengthened its ties with the masses, successfully combated the clerics and members of the Liaudininkas Party, and exposed the schismatic policy of the right-wing Social Democrats. It also advocated the unification of all antifascist and patriotic forces, the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship, the establishment of Soviet power in Lithuania, and rapprochement with the USSR.

Among the members of the Central Committee of the CPL in 1920–40 were Mickevičius-Kapsukas, Angarietis, K. Požela, J. Greifenbergeris, A. Sniečkus, K. Didžiulis, I. Gaŝka, J. Garelis, I. Meskupas, V. Niunka, A. Petrauskas, K. Préikŝas, J. Stimburys, and M. Ŝumauskas. The bourgeoisie dealt harshly with the Communists. During this period the following members perished: the secretary of the central committee of the party, Požela, and members of the central committee Greifenbergeris, K. Giedrys, Grybas, V. Rekaŝius, and Garelis. Some 3,096 communists and antifascists were put on trial, and about 6,800 persons were sent to concentration camps or imprisoned.

In 1940 the Lithuanian workers overthrew the fascist dictatorship. The CPL emerged from the underground and led the workers’ struggle to establish bodies of Soviet power and to build socialism. On Aug. 15, 1940, the Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the CPL considered the tasks of developing the republic and elected A. Sniečkus as first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPL. On Oct. 8, 1940, the CPL was accepted as a component part of the ACP(B). The Fifth Congress of CP(B) of Lithuania, held in February 1941, approved the national economic plan for the Lithuanian SSR for 1941, which had been adopted by the Central Committee of the ACP(B) and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR.

During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Lithuanian Communists led the struggle of the Lithuanian people against Hitler’s occupation forces and their bourgeois-nationalist collaborators. The Northern and Southern oblast committees of the CP(B) of Lithuania, 20 district and 29 volost (small rural district) party committees, and 232 primary party organizations were operating in occupied territory. Party work was directed by the Central Committee of the CP(B) of Lithuania (secretary, Sniečkus), the leaders of the operational groups of the central committee M. Ŝumauskas and G. Zimanas, and the secretaries of the party district and city committees S. Apyvala, M. Afonin, and J. Baŝčiulis. Partisan detachments and groups operated under the direction of the CP(B) of Lithuania. Party and Komsomol organizations published underground newspapers and leaflets. Among the party leaders and organizers of the partisan movement in Lithuania who perished in the fight against the enemy were Meskupas, P. Pajarskis, D. Rocius, J. Vitas, and T. Tamulevičius. After the liberation of the republic, the CP(B) of Lithuania directed its efforts toward the restoration and strengthening of the bodies of Soviet power, as well as toward the implementation of socialist transformations. The CPL was aided by the Central Committee of the ACP(B) and its bureau for the Lithuanian SSR.

Guided by the resolutions of the congresses of the CPSU and the plenary sessions of its central committee and the congresses of the CPL and the plenary sessions of its own central committee, the Lithuanian communists strengthened and increased the capacity for struggle among the party organizations. Thousands of progressive workers and kolkhoz peasants and the best representatives of the intelligentsia united in the ranks of the CPL. The republic’s party organizations accomplished a great deal in combating bourgeois ideology and educating workers in the spirit of socialist internationalism.

The Sixteenth Congress of the CPL (held in March 1971) summed up the development of the republic’s national economy and culture; it drew generalizations from accumulated experience and indicated measures to carry out the tasks of communist construction as set before the Soviet people by the Program of the CPSU and the five-year plan for developing the national economy of the USSR for 1971–75. Much of the work of the Sixteenth Congress of the CPL was devoted to problems of ideology.

In implementing the resolutions of the Twenty-fourth Congress of the CPSU, the CPL has concentrated its attention on organizational and political work among the masses; on improving the selection, placement, and training of personnel; and on control over the implementation of party and government resolutions. Under the leadership and with the aid of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the CPL has succeeded in transforming Lithuania into a well-developed industrial-agrarian republic with flourishing culture and science and a high standard of living for its workers. The main reason for the success achieved by the CPL and the Lithuanian people is Lithuania’s close unity and friendship with the peoples of all the fraternal republics of the Soviet Union. Under conditions of a developed socialist society, the CPL has mobilized the workers to implement the tasks set by the Twenty-fourth Congress of the CPSU in continuing the course of creating the material and technical bases of communism.

See Tables 2a and 2b for data on the growth of the CPL and on its congresses.

REFERENCES

R. ŠARMAITIS

The Komsomol of Lithuania is a component part of the All-Union Komsomol.

The first underground Komsomol cells (M. Lickevičius, A. Matulaityté, V. Rimŝa, and B. Kazlauskaitè) formed in late 1918 in Vilnius. After the establishment of Soviet power on most of the territory of Lithuania, the Central Bureau of the Komsomol of Lithuania was founded in Vilnius on Jan. 29, 1919, on the initiative of the Central Committee of the CPL (its members included R. Antokol’skii, Lickevičius, and N. P. Volov). This day is considered the “birthday” of the Lithuanian Komsomol. In early March 1919 there were 300 Komsomol members in Vilnius. In the spring of 1919 most Komsomol members joined the Red Army; some of them were evacuated to Soviet Russia, and some remained underground. Clandestine Komsomol organizations were created in Vilnius and Kaunas in the fall of 1919 and in Panevėžys and Marijampolė in early 1920. At a conference of the representatives of Komsomol organizations held in Kaunas on Apr. 4, 1920, the Central Bureau of the Komsomol was elected (J. Greifenbergeris, E. Tautkaitė, and others). The conference of the Lithuanian Komsomol that met on Aug. 27, 1922, sent a letter of greeting to V. I. Lenin.

At the First Congress of the Lithuanian Komsomol (Kaunas, Oct. 17–18, 1924), the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Komsomol was elected. In 1926 the Lithuanian Komsomol had 400 members. From 1920 to 1940 the Lithuanian Komsomol was a section of the Communist Youth International. During this period the Lithuanian Komsomol operated underground. After 1923, the Komsomol used legal youth organizations and student societies in its activity. From 1919 to 1940 the Komsomol organizations issued about 80 single and periodical publications, as well as hundreds of leaflets. Many Komsomol members perished in the struggle against the bourgeois yoke; among them were R. Čarnas and A. Ŝiaučiūnaitė, members of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Lithuania.

In 1940 the Lithuanian Komsomol members joined in the building of socialism. On Oct. 18, 1940, the Lithuanian Komsomol organization was accepted as part of the All-Union Komsomol. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) the Lithuanian Komsomol showed exemplary heroism. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to ten Komsomol members, four of them posthumously (the partisans M. Melnikaitė, A. Čeponis, H. Borisa, and J. Aleksonis). In early 1944, two underground oblast committees were in operation—the Northern committee (secretary, J. Macevičius) and the Southern committee (secretary, J. Olekas)—as well as 18 city and district committees and 236 primary Komsomol organizations. Youths under 25 years of age accounted for 40 percent of the members of the partisan and underground antifascist movement. Komsomol members published underground newspapers and leaflets.

After the liberation of Lithuania from the fascist German occupation forces, the Lithuanian Komsomol became organizationally strong and grew ideologically by participating in the restoration and further development of the socialist national economy and culture. Members of the Lithuanian Komsomol developed the virgin lands of Kazakhstan, worked in the mines of the Donbas and as shock workers on construction sites of the All-Union Komsomol, and sponsored the construction of a number of major enterprises in their own republic.

Under conditions of a developed socialist society, the Komsomol members of Lithuania have taken valuable initiatives and contributed patriotic innovations; they are in the vanguard of socialist emulation to fulfill production plans ahead of deadlines; and they are participating in the effort to increase production efficiency based on acceleration of technological progress and growth in labor productivity, to improve the quality of the products, and to make more efficient use of production capacities and of labor and material resources. Under the leadership of the Lithuanian Komsomol a great number of projects in various regions of the country are fulfilled by summer student detachments from the republic’s higher educational institutions.

The Lithuanian Komsomol is constantly replenishing the ranks of the Communist Party: in 1972, 2,919 Komsomol members were accepted into the ranks of the CPSU (50 percent of those accepted by the CPSU during that year). As of January 1973 there were 6,344 primary Komsomol organizations. Under the leadership of the CPL, the Lithuanian Komsomol is laboring to create the material and technical bases of communism, and it is carrying out work in the communist education of the rising generation.

See Tables 3a and 3b for data on the growth of the Komsomol of Lithuania and on its congresses.

REFERENCES

R. ŠARMAITIS

The trade unions of Lithuania are a component part of the trade unions of the USSR. The trade union movement in Lithuania originated in the late 19th century. In 1888 underground workers’ mutual-aid savings offices were established in Vilnius. They were the basis for the carpenters’ union (founded 1895), the General Union of Lithuanian Tanners (founded 1897), and other unions, with about 1,400 members, that formed in Vilnius. Trade unions were organized in Kaunas, Ŝiauliai, and Vilkaviŝkis. In March 1906 the Lithuanian trade unions were legalized, but during the Stolypin reaction 13 trade unions were closed down, and others operated underground.

In 1918–19, with the establishment of Soviet power, the number of Lithuanian trade unions increased from ten to 18, and the membership increased from 4,000–5,000 to 20,000. In bourgeois Lithuania some of the trade unions (the left wing) were led by the Communists, and others were led by the Social Democrats and clerics. On June 20–22, 1920, the First All-Lithuanian Congress of Trade Unions was held in Kaunas under the direction of the Communists (there were 200 delegates, representing about 40,000 trade union members). In 1921 the left-wing trade unions of Lithuania joined the Red International of Trade Unions. By 1934, trade unions had been eliminated by the bourgeois-fascist government of Lithuania. The government created the Chamber of Labor (1936) and attempted to direct the workers’ movement. The CPL used the institutions of the Chamber of Labor to extend its own influence among the workers.

After the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship, trade unions were legalized by the people’s government on June 28, 1940. Trade union membership grew, and union activity increased. In January 1941 the Lithuanian trade unions merged with the trade unions of the USSR and participated in the socialist transformation of the Lithuanian national economy. As of June 1941 there were 225,000 trade union members.

With the liberation of the republic from the fascist occupation forces, the restoration of trade unions began. In October 1944, 458 primary trade union organizations were created (with 25,000 members). On July 3–6, 1945, the Second Congress of Lithuanian Trade Unions was held, representing 117,000 members. The republic’s trade union organizations participated in the restoration of the republic’s national economy, in industrialization, and in the collectivization of agriculture.

The trade unions of Lithuania are advocates of improved production management. They are striving for the fulfillment of production plans and for a communist attitude toward labor; they are concerned with improving working conditions and the daily lives of industrial and office workers; and they fulfill the functions of state and public monitoring of labor safety and the observance of labor legislation. The work of the trade unions is directed by the republic-level Council of Lithuanian Trade Unions. Eleven trade union congresses have been held.

As of January 1973, there were 20 sectorial trade unions; 8,664 primary organizations had about 1,306,000 members. The trade unions of Lithuania have at their disposal 102 houses and palaces of culture, 1,659 Red Corners, 140 libraries, 5,753 clubs and amateur arts groups (of which 34 have been awarded the title “people’s”), 82 departments in people’s universities, six tourist centers, 46 permanent Pioneer camps, 17 stadiums, 87 gymnasiums, and seven swimming pools. The state social insurance budget in 1973 was 112.6 million rubles. H. Šadžius

General characteristics. In 1948, the gross industrial output of Lithuania had already surpassed the 1940 level. Subsequent socialist industrialization was directed toward the creation of an industrial complex in accordance with Lithuania’s natural economic conditions and the economic interests of the entire country. The non-metal-consuming sectors of industry that require highly skilled labor (the electronics, electrical-engineering, and radio engineering industries; production of computer hardware; and machine-tool construction) experienced the greatest development. Essential shifts in the sectorial structure of industry took place during the process of industrial development of Lithuania. The progressive sectors—machine-tool construction, instrument-making, the electrical and radio engineering industries, shipbuilding, and the chemical and microbiological industries— developed greatly. Modern power engineering, fishing, and fish processing have come into being. Technical retooling and basic modernization have taken place in the traditional branches (light industry, wood products, meatpacking and dairying, and the building-materials industry). Agriculture specializes mainly in meat and dairy livestock raising.

During the years of Soviet power, Lithuania has become a republic with a well-developed socialist industry and an extensively mechanized, highly productive agriculture. As of 1972 (on a per capita basis for the republic), Lithuania occupied first place in production of meat, milk, and metalcutting machine-tools; second place in production of knit underwear, hosiery, woolen and silk fabrics, and synthetic fibers; and third place in production of furniture and paper and in the fish catch.

Lithuania’s interrepublic economic ties have expanded on the basis of territorial division of labor and specialization and a broadening of scientific and technological cooperation. The aid of the fraternal Soviet republics has been instrumental in the construction of the V. I. Lenin Lithuanian State Regional Electric Power Plant, the 50th Anniversary of the USSR Akrnene Cement Plant, the Kėdainiai Chemical Combine, the Jonava Nitrogen Fertilizer Plant, the Kaunas 50th Anniversary of October Synthetic Fiber Plant, and the Baletija Klaipėda Shipyard. Equipment was supplied by about 300 enterprises from all the Union republics. The RSFSR, the Ukraine, and Byelorussia aided Lithuania in creating a machine-tool industry over a short period. Lithuania supplies large refrigerated fishing trawlers, electronic computers, copying equipment, electric welding equipment, units for making vitamin-enriched grass meal, household electric adding machines, cable, paper, cardboard, building materials, mineral fertilizers, and farm produce.

Industry. Industry is developing in the direction of concentration: in 1960 the gross output of enterprises employing more than 1,000 persons was 36.9 percent of the total; in 1970, it was 65.1 percent. The average annual proportions of workers employed in such enterprises were 34.5 percent and 58.5 percent, respectively. Gross output in the period 1961–72 increased by a factor of 3.6; the means of production (group A) increased by a factor of 4.5, and consumer goods (group B), by a factor of 2.9. The growth rates of total production by individual branches of industry are shown in Table 4.

About 75 percent of Lithuania’s industrial output comes from the five largest cities (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Ŝiauliai, and Panevėžys). New industrial centers are being established in medium and small cities. From 1946 to 1972 more than 200 major state industrial enterprises were built. The output of the main industrial products is shown in Table 5.

The basis of the energy economy is provided by imported fuel (natural gas, fuel oil, and coal). Local resources—water power and peat—are of secondary importance; the proportion of peat in the total fuel budget decreased from 26 percent in 1960 to 5 percent in 1970. Since 1961 natural gas has been supplied to Lithuania through a pipeline from Dashava (Ukrainian SSR). In 1965 such gas accounted for 20 percent of all fuel used, and its proportion is increasing every year. Coal is brought in from the Donbas and the L’vov-Volyn’ basin (in the Ukrainian SSR). An oil refinery under construction (as of 1973) in the city of Mažeikiai is intended to satisfy Lithuania’s needs for petroleum products. Among the installations that have been built during the years of Soviet power are the Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant, the V. I. Lenin Lithuanian State Regional Electric Power Plant (in Elektrėnai), and the Vilnius Heat and Electric Power Plant No. 2.

Machine-building and metalworking occupy a prominent position in Lithuania’s industry; one-third of all industrial production personnel are employed in this branch, and its share in the total industrial product is 23 percent. A leading position belongs to the production of metalcutting machine-tools, precision instruments, automatic equipment, electronic data-processing units, and electrical appliances. New enterprises of the instrument-making, electrical-equipment, and radio industries are located in Vilnius, Kaunas, Panevėžys, Kėdainiai, Mažeikiai, Ŝiauliai, Alytus, Utena, Tauragė, and Pabradė. Seagoing fishing ships and cargo vessels are built and repaired at Klaipėda. Farm machinery is produced in Vilnius, Rokiŝkis, and Radviliŝkis. There is production of equipment for the food-processing industry (Kapsukas), bicycles and motors for motor bicycles (Ŝiauliai), and automatic compressors (Panevėžys).

The chemical industry is represented by a chemical combine in Kėdainiai that produces sulfuric acid, ammonium-phosphate

fertilizer, and superphosphate, a nitrogen fertilizer plant in Ionava, a synthetic-fiber plant in Kaunas, and a plastics plant in Vilnius. The pharmaceutical industry is well developed in Vilnius and Kaunas. An artificial-leather plant has been built in Plunge.

The gross output of building materials increased by a factor of 54 as compared to 1950. Local raw materials are the basis for the production of high-quality cement (Naujoji Akmenė), bricks (Daugėliai, Vilnius, and Kaunas), lime, large silicate blocks, drainpipes, tiles, and slate. The production of cast reinforced-concrete structural components and parts in 1972 had increased by a factor of 5.7 as compared with 1960 levels. The production of new types of items, such as slag cotton, glass block, and linoleum, has been established. Glassmaking plants in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Radviliŝkis have been modernized and mechanized. A glassmaking plant producing window glass (4.4 million sq m in 1972) and glass block (6.9 million standard blocks in 1972) has been built in Panevėžys.

During the years of Soviet power the wood-products and paper and pulp industries have been transformed into a major, mechanized sector. The largest furniture combines are located in Jonava, Klaipėda, Kaunas, Ŝiauliai, and Vilnius. The main centers of the paper industry are Kaunas and Grigiŝkės. High-grade paper is produced at the J. Janonis Paper Mill in Kaunas. Cardboard is produced in Klaipėda, Grigiŝkes, and Pabradė; pulp and plywood, in Klaipėda; matches, in Kaunas; and wood panels, in Klaipėda, Vilnius, Grigiŝkės, and Kazlų Rūda.

The most highly developed branches of light industry are the production of woolens and knitwear, garments, and footwear. Local raw materials (flax) and materials shipped from other parts of the USSR (cotton, hides, and wool), as well as synthetic and artificial materials, are used.

The main centers of light industry are Kaunas, Vilnius, Ŝiauliai, and Klaipėda, where there are nine enterprises and two shops for the preliminary treatment of flax. Production of linen fabrics is concentrated in Panevėžys, Biržai, and Plungė. A knitted-goods factory was built in Utėna in 1967, and a cotton-textile combine was built in 1968 in Alytus. The fur industry has been expanded in Kaunas and Vilnius. Crafts have also been developed.

The main branches of the food-processing industry are meatpacking, dairying, and fishing; they provide about 75 percent of the output of Lithuania’s food-processing industry. Meat-packing combines were built in Vilnius, Klaipėda, and Alytus; others in Tauragė, Panevėzys, and Ŝiauliai were modernized and expanded. Large dairy combines are situated in Kaunas, Vilnius, Panevèžys, Siaulai, and Klaipėda. Butter-and-cheese enterprises and creameries are located throughout the republic, with most of them in the Central Lithuanian Lowland and in the northeastern regions. Klaipėda is the center of the maritime fishing and fish-processing industry. During the years of Soviet power a large commercial fishing fleet has been built. There is fishing in the Baltic and Barents Seas, as well as in the Atlantic Ocean. The catch consists primarily of herring, Baltic herring, cod, and many common species. Other well-developed branches are the sugar industry (Kapsukas, Panevėžys, Pavenčiai, and Kėdai-niai), flour-milling, confectionery, alcohol and vodka, and brewing, as well as fruit and vegetable processing and the production of vegetable oil.

Agriculture. During the years of Soviet power large-scale mechanized, highly productive state and cooperative farms were established. In 1972 there were 1,314 kolkhozes and 293 sovkhozes. Dairy livestock raising is combined with swine breeding or poultry raising. In 1972 the area of agricultural land was 3.6 million ha, of which 2.48 million ha was arable land, 446,000 ha was hayfields, and 636,000 ha was pasture. For sown areas see Table 6.

Among the grains (39.2 percent of the sown area in 1972), the main crops are winter rye in the east, southeast, and west; wheat in the Central Lithuanian Lowland; and barley and oats in all regions. Among industrial crops (3.3 percent of sown area), flax is grown in the Central Lithuanian Lowland and in the west;

sugar beets, primarily in the Central Lithuanian Lowland. Potatoes and other vegetables (8.2 percent of the sown area) are cultivated throughout the entire territory, but mainly in the suburban regions. Fodder crops (basically perennial and annual grasses and corn) occupy 49.3 percent of the sown area. During the years of Soviet power the harvest of all crops has increased. In 1971 the harvest of grains was 26.6 centners per ha (as compared to 9.4 in 1940). The use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture has been intensified; from 1966 to 1972 the consumption of inorganic fertilizers doubled. The gross harvest of agricultural crops is shown in Table 7.

140,000 ha were drained by closed drainage systems. In 1972 there were 44,400 tractors (in actual units), 9,800 grain-harvesting combines, and 23,100 trucks in operation. On kolkhozes and sovkhozes the main field operations have been mechanized (tilling the soil, planting grain and sugar beets, and harvesting grain and silage crops). The digging of potatoes has been 93 percent mechanized; hay mowing, 82 percent. Since 1964 all kolkhozes and sovkhozes have been electrified.

The leading branch of agriculture is livestock raising, which provides 80 percent of all the monetary proceeds of agriculture. The increase in the head of livestock and the output of the main

As of Jan. 1, 1973, the total area of fruit and berry plantings had reached 37,000 ha (as compared with 20,000 ha in 1950). In 1972 the gross fruit and berry harvest was 947,000 centners (as against 172,000 centners in 1950).

From 1966 to 1972, about 2.3 billion rubles (32 percent of the capital investment in the Lithuanian economy) were allocated to the establishment and strengthening of the production and industrial bases of agriculture. Water-management construction was conducted on a large scale: a yearly average of 130,000 products of livestock raising are shown in Tables 8 and 9.

Livestock raising has developed throughout Lithuania. Poultry farming has largely been converted to industrial methods. Large poultry farms and hatcheries have been built. Apiculture, fur farming (silver-black fox, blue fox, and mink), and fish farming are also developing.

The growth of livestock raising output has been achieved through intensification of the sector. Feed resources have been increased by the cultivation of meadows and pastures, by an

increase in the harvest of fodder crops, and by the production of mixed feeds.

The changes in state purchases of agricultural produce are shown in Table 10.

Transportation. The main types of transportation are railroads and motor vehicles. The length of rail lines in general use in 1972 was 1,954 km, and the density of the rail network is 30 km per thousand sq km. Railroad freight turnover in 1972 was 14.7 billion ton-km, and passenger turnover was 2.2 billion pas-senger-km. The main railroad trunk lines are Liepāja-Ŝiauliai-Vilnius-Baranovichi, Leningrad-Daugavpils-Vilnius-Grodno, Minsk-Vilnius-Kaunas-Kybartai-Kaliningrad, Radviliŝkis-Panevėžys-Rokiŝkis-Daugavpils, and Vilnius-Kaunas-Ŝiauliai-Klaipėda.

As of 1972 there were 33,300 km of highways, including 15,600 km of paved roads. The main all-Union highways are Minsk-Vilnius-Kaunas-Kaliningrad, Riga-Ŝiauliai-Tauragė-Kaliningrad, and Vilnius-Kaunas-Klaipėda. The freight turnover of general-use motor-vehicle transportation in 1972 was 1.9 billion ton-km, and passenger turnover was 5.3 billion passenger-km.

The total length of navigable shipping routes (as of 1972) was 628 km. In 1972 the cargo turnover of river transportation was 138 million ton-km. The ice-free port of Klaipėda is located on the Baltic seacoast. There are air transportation links with many cities of the USSR, as well as with individual raion centers of Lithuania.

Economic regions. Eastern Lithuania includes 12 raions, with an area of 19,200 sq km. Power engineering, machine building, instrument-making, light industry, and the electrotechnical, radio-engineering, metalworking, wood-products, paper, and food-processing industries are well developed. The principal industrial center is Vilnius. The power-engineering center of Elektrėnai came into being during the years of Soviet power. In agriculture there is a predominance of grain crops and truck farming near urban areas (vegetables, orchards, and livestock raising), especially in the area around Vilnius. The all-Union health resort of Druskininkai is located in the region.

Southern Lithuania includes 12 raions, with an area of 17,100 sq km. It has well-developed metalworking, radio-engineering, electrical-engineering, chemical, food-processing, wood-products, and paper industries, as well as light industry. Its principal industrial center is Kaunas. Industry is also well developed in Alytus and Kapsukas. Kėdainiai and Jonava, centers of the chemical industry, were created during the years of Soviet power. Southern Lithuania is a well-developed agricultural region, with both the cultivation of field crops and meat and dairy livestock raising; a considerable area is under winter wheat and, among the industrial crops, sugar beets.

Northern Lithuania includes 13 raions, with an area of 19,100 sq km. It has light industry and machine-building and metalworking, as well as radio-engineering, electrical-engineering, construction, and food-processing industries. The main industrial centers are Ŝiauliai, Panevėžys, and Telŝiai. The food-processing industry is well developed (meat-packing and dairy combines; sugar refineries). The largest cement plant in the Baltic Region (at Naujoji Akmenė) was built during the years of Soviet power. The region is outstanding for its fertile soils and is the republic’s granary. The predominant grain crop is winter wheat; the predominant industrial crops, flax and sugar beets. There is meat and dairy livestock raising.

Western Lithuania includes seven raions, with an area of 9,800 sq km. The leading sectors of industry are fishing and shipbuilding. The pulp and paper industry, light industry, and food processing are also developed. The area’s main industrial center is Klaipėda. In agriculture, cattle raising is predominant; it relies on large-scale feed resources (alluvial meadows and pastures, which account for 40 percent of all agricultureal lands). There is also swine breeding. Large areas are under fodder crops. Rye, wheat, barley, and oats are also planted. Among the industrial crops are flax and sugar beets. Sheep raising is well developed near Klaipėda and the health resort of Palanga.

Standard of living. During the years of Soviet power there has been a constant rise in the standard of living of the people. In 1960 the national income of Lithuania was 1.8 billion rubles; in 1972, 4.6 billion rubles. From 1961 to 1972 the national income grew by a factor of 2.7. The monetary income of workers in 1971 increased by a factor of 3.4 in comparison with 1960. Payments and benefits from public welfare funds in 1972 were 949.6 million rubles (including state pensions of 211.6 million rubles), as compared to 464.8 million rubles (including state pensions of 80.4 million rubles) in 1965. Per capita payments and benefits in 1972 were 292.1 rubles, as against 156.4 rubles in 1965. The total turnover of retail goods in 1972 was 2.558 billion rubles and had increased by a factor of 11.6 in comparison with 1950 (in comparable prices). As of 1972, Lithuania had 1,063 savings banks. As of Jan. 1, 1973, total savings deposits were 1,115,400,000 rubles (as compared to 9.9 million rubles in 1950, 87.1 million rubles in 1960, and 175.9 million rubles in 1965). The average per capita deposit in 1972 was 345 rubles (as compared to 4 rubles in 1950, 31 rubles in 1960, and 59 rubles in 1965).

Housing construction attained great scope. From 1946 to 1972 funds from the state, kolkhozes, and the population produced 22,304,000 sq m of housing space, including 11,570,000 sq m during the period 1966–72.

REFERENCES

I. P. KUNCHINA

Medicine and public health. In 1972 the birthrate was 17 per thousand, and the mortality rate was 9.1; the infant mortality rate was 15 per thousand live births (in 1940 the rates were 23, 13, and 122, respectively). The average life span is 72 years (as compared with about 32 years in 1926). The principal causes of death are cardiovascular diseases and malignant tumors.

Public health developed slowly during the period of bourgeois dominance (1919–40). Widespread diseases included acute intestinal infections, typhus, tuberculosis, trachoma, children’s infections (measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and whooping cough), and venereal diseases. Cases of relapsing fever, as well as brucellosis, malignant anthrax, and smallpox, were encountered. Malaria appeared during the war.

During the postwar period, typhus and relapsing fever, trachoma, smallpox, and malaria were eliminated; diphtheria was almost completely eliminated. The morbidity rate of whooping cough and measles and the death rate from tuberculosis were sharply reduced. Since 1959 there have been mass vaccinations of children and adolescents against polio, as a result of which it has been virtually eliminated.

In 1972 there were 295 hospitals, with 34,000 beds (10.5 beds per thousand), as against 77 hospitals, with 8,900 beds (3 beds per thousand), in 1940. The hospitals of Lithuania have 6,500 beds for internal medicine, 4,400 for surgery, 600 for oncology, 700 for ear-nose-and-throat patients, 400 for ophthalmology, 1,000 for neurology, 2,500 for maternity, 1,500 for gynecology, and 4,200 for children with noninfectious disorders. Outpatient medical aid was provided by 442 clinics (as against 128 in 1940); there are 46 first-aid stations for workers on the job. In 1972, 218 gynecological consultation offices and children’s polyclinics and outpatient clinics were in operation. There were also 22 dispensaries, including seven for tuberculosis, four oncological, and five for skin and venereal diseases, with accommodations for 2,000 patients. There were 1,100 pharmacists and 1,300 assistants working at 338 pharmacies and 1,073 pharmaceutical stations. A network of public-health and epidemic-control institutions has been created, including 57 sanitation and epidemic-control stations. In 1972 institutions for therapy and preventive medicine employed 9,700 physicians (one physician for every 335 people) and 26,700 secondary medical personnel, as against 2,000 physicians (one for every 1,500 people) in 1940.

Medical personnel are trained at the Kaunas Medical Institute, the department of medicine of the University of Vilnius, and six medical colleges. In addition to the higher educational institutions, there are five research institutes for problems of medical science and practice (experimental and clinical medicine, oncology, epidemiology, microbiology and hygiene, tuberculosis, and physiology and pathology of the cardiovascular system). As of 1973, medical educational and research institutes employed more than 70 doctors and 400 candidates of medical sciences.

The balneological and pelotherapeutic health resorts of Drus-kininkai, Birŝtonas, and Likėnai and the seaside resorts of Palanga and Nėringa enjoy great popularity. There is a unique park for therapeutic physical education in the city of Druskinin-kai. A research laboratory of health resort science has been in operation since 1967. In 1972 there were 60 sanatoriums, workers’ resorts (not counting day houses), and boardinghouses, with 14,400 places (as against ten sanatoriums, with accommodations for 960 persons, in 1940).

The republic’s budget for public health and physical education in 1972 was 129.6 million rubles (17.7 million rubles in 1950).

Physical education, sports, and tourism. In 1973 there were 3,500 physical education groups in operation (with a membership of 434,500), and there were more than 30 stadiums, 250 soccer fields, 420 gymnasiums, 150 facilities for skiing and water sports, 16 swimming pools, and about 2,000 sports areas. There were 82 sports schools for children and youths, with an enrollment of 33,000. The republic-level voluntary sports societies žalgiris and Nemunas (for rural athletes) were established in 1944 and 1951, respectively. Under Soviet power, 1,800 masters of sports have been trained, along with more than 80 world-class masters of sports and 51 honored masters of sports and coaches of the USSR. From 1945 to 1972 more than 300 athletes became champions of the USSR, 123 became champions of Europe, and 15 became world champions; three won gold medals at the Olympic Games (17 won prizes at the games). At the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in 1963, Lithuanian athletes placed seventh in the overall team standings.

A network of campsites, tourist centers, and tourist routes has been developed; in 1972 it served 215,500 tourists. The region of the Lithuanian Lakes (eastern Lithuania) is an excellent area for rest, tourism, and water sports. Popular water routes for tourists include those along the Neris and Nemunas Rivers, the Ignalina ring of lakes, and the Molėtai lakes. There are 219 health sports camps, as well as lodges for hunters and fishermen. In 1972, Lithuania was visited by about 13,000 tourists from 28 countries.

Veterinary services. Under Soviet power, through the implementation of planned antiepizootic and veterinary sanitation methods, Lithuania has been rid of epizootic lymphangitis and infectious anemia of horses, hog cholera, mange diseases of animals, tuberculosis and brucellosis of cattle, and tuberculosis and distemper of fowl. In recent years no cases of foot-and-mouth disease have been recorded. The incidence of bacterial colitis, paratyphoid, and helminthiases among animals has been reduced, and the morbidity rate of swine erysipelas and atrophic rhinitis has been reduced to individual cases. Potential dangers are presented by natural foci of brucellosis, trichinosis, and rabies and by animals brought in from other countries through the port of Klaipėda.

In 1973 the State Veterinary Service had 448 veterinary institutions, including 44 stations for combating animal diseases, 143 area veterinary treatment centers, 150 veterinary sectors, and 44 raion veterinary laboratories. More than 1,100 veterinarians are employed in Lithuania (as against 131 in 1939) and about 1,900 veterinary feldshers (as against 130 in 1939). Veterinarians are trained at the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy, and veterinary feldshers are trained at four technicums. Research in veterinary medicine is conducted at the Lithuanian Scientific Research Veterinary Institute (in the city of Kaiŝiadorys), as well as at the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy, the Institute of Zoology and Parasitology, and the Institute of Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR.

The first schools on the territory of present-day Lithuania, which were connected with Catholic churches and monasteries in Vilnius, Kaunas, Varniai, and Trakai, appeared in the 14th and 15th centuries. The development of public education in the 16th century was facilitated by the Reformation, whose leaders published religious literature in Lithuanian and established schools. The first secondary school in Vilnius, which was opened by A. Kulvietis, a leader of the Reformation, existed from 1539 to 1542. During the 16th and 17th centuries parochial elementary schools existed in about 50 population centers. In 1570 the Jesuits founded a collegium, or secondary school, in Vilnius; it became an academy in 1579. Jesuit colleges appeared in Kražiai, Kaunas, Paŝiauŝė, and other cities. There were also Evangelical secondary schools in Vilnius, Birzai, Kėdainiai, and Ŝiluva. With the victory of Catholicism over the Reformation in Lithuania, reactionary forces intensified, and the Evangelical schools disappeared.

After the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773, their schools came under the jurisdiction of the State Education Commission, which reformed the entire system of public education. The administration of the secondary schools was entrusted to the secular Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Seven-year district secondary schools and six-year subdistrict schools were established. There was considerable expansion in the teaching of the natural sciences and mathematics, Polish replaced Latin as the language of instruction, and religious instruction was transferred to the church. In the late 18th century the territory of present-day Lithuania had about 320 elementary schools, 12 secondary general-educational schools, and six secondary specialized schools, including four seminaries.

The Vilnius Educational District, directed by a curator and the University of Vilnius, which had been formed in 1803 as a result of the reorganization of the Main School, was established after the unification of Lithuania with Russia (1795). In 1832, after the suppression of the 1830–31 uprising, the university was closed by the tsarist authorities, and the school system was restructured in accordance with the Russian Educational Charter of 1828. The reactionary trend intensified after the suppression of the 1863 armed uprising: the elementary schools attached to Catholic churches were closed, the teaching of Lithuanian and Polish was banned, the acceptance by the secondary schools of persons of “nonnoble” origin and of non-Orthodox faith became extremely difficult, and tuition payments were increased. In 1868 there were 209 legal elementary schools in Kovno Province (with an enrollment of 5,650 pupils), but many Lithuanian peasant children were learning how to read and write in Lithuanian in secret, itinerant rural schools, which were increasing in number (from 1884 to 1906 the tsarist administration tracked down 223 such schools). Agricultural secondary educational institutions in Rétavas and Joniŝkėlis and music schools in Vilnius, Plungė, and Rokiŝkis appeared in the mid-19th century. According to the 1897 census, literate persons between the ages of nine and 49 accounted for 54.2 percent of the population.

In the early 20th century the intensification of the revolutionary movement, along with the growth of the Lithuanian people’s struggle against nationalist oppression and for schools in their own native language, compelled the tsarist government to grant certain concessions: in 1906 the teaching of Lithuanian was permitted in the schools. In 1914, Lithuania had 1,620 elementary schools, 45 incomplete secondary schools, and 37 secondary schools, as well as a few secondary specialized educational institutions; there were no higher educational institutions.

At the beginning of World War I many schools were evacuated from Lithuania, which was occupied by German troops, into the interior of Russia. After the formation of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Lithuania (December 1918), Lithuanian schools came under the jurisdiction of the Commissariat of People’s Education. In March 1919 a decree was adopted providing for the reorganization of education: school and church were separated, universal compulsory instruction in the native language was proclaimed, and coeducation was introduced. A decree was passed concerning the restoration of the University of Vilnius, and a number of research and cultural-educational institutions were established.

After the establishment of the bourgeois dictatorship in Lithuania (1919), the bourgeoisie used the schools to reinforce its political power and to disseminate bourgeois ideology. In 1922 a law was promulgated providing for compulsory elementary education of children from the ages of seven to 14; a four-year elementary school was established, and religious instruction was introduced. Secondary schools were of two types—the complete (eight-year Gymnasiums) and incomplete (four-year Progymnasiurns). The introduction of universal compulsory education began in 1928, and in 1931 it was officially declared accomplished. However, even after this time a large number of school-age children either did not attend school or did not graduate. Elementary schools were mostly state-administered, and about half of the secondary schools were private. In 1938 there were 2,599 elementary schools (enrollment, 301,200), 58 Gymnasiums (enrollment, 15,800), 40 Progymnasiums (enrollment, 4,900), and 25 secondary specialized schools (enrollment, 4,200). There were seven higher educational institutions (the University of Kaunas, the Agricultural Academy, and others), which in 1940 had an enrollment of about 6,000.

With the restoration of Soviet power in Lithuania (July 1940), public education developed in a new direction. All schools came under state administration, tuition payments were abolished, and a great deal of attention was devoted to the elimination of illiteracy and semiliteracy among adults.

During the fascist German occupation (1941–44) the invaders closed all higher educational institutions and many secondary schools. After the liberation of Lithuania by the Soviet Army, the restoration of the public education system proceeded at a rapid pace. In 1949 a resolution was adopted providing for seven-year compulsory education. Many elementary schools were converted into seven-year schools, Progymnasiums became seven-year or secondary (eleven-year) schools, and Gymnasiums became secondary schools. In 1959–62 eight-year compulsory education was introduced. The system of preschool education developed greatly: at the end of 1972, 847 kindergartens and nursery schools were training 96,100 children (in 1940 there were 253 kindergartens, with 13,500 children). During the 1972–73 academic year there were 1,823 elementary schools, 768 eight-year schools, and 507 complete secondary schools, with an enrollment of 548,700.

An important place in the public education system is occupied by evening and correspondence general-educational schools (during the 1972–73 academic year they had an enrollment of 51,700). Educational institutions of the vocational-technical educational system had an enrollment of 30,000 in the 1972–73 academic year. The network of secondary specialized educational institutions was expanded; during the 1972–73 academic year, 78 such institutions were in operation, with an enrollment of 66,200. As of the end of 1972, three Palaces of Pioneers, 51 Houses of Pioneers, 13 young technicians’ stations, and five young naturalists’ stations were in operation.

During the 1972–73 academic year the system of higher education had 12 institutions, with an enrollment of 58,500. The most important higher educational institutions are the V. Kap-sukas University of Vilnius, the Kaunas Polytechnic Institute, the Vilnius Pedagogical Institute, the Lithuanian Agricultural Academy, the Vilnius Institute of Engineering and Construction, the Kaunas Medical Institute, the Conservatory of the Lithuanian SSR, and the Art Institute of the Lithuanian SSR. From 1945 to 1972, more than 97,000 specialists with higher education were trained. In 1972 there were 236,400 specialists with either higher or secondary specialized education employed in the national economy (as compared to 21,200 in 1940).

As of Jan. 1, 1973, more than 7,000 libraries were operating in Lithuania, including 2,589 people’s libraries (with 20.2 million books and journals). The largest libraries are the State Library of the Lithuanian SSR, the library of the University of Vilnius, and the Central Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR. There are 33 museums, the largest of which are the Museum of the Revolution of the Lithuanian SSR, the Art Museum of the Lithuanian SSR, and the Historical and Ethnographic Museum of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius and the M. K. Čiurlionis Kaunas Art Museum, the State Historical Museum, and the Literary Museum of the Lithuanian SSR in Kaunas. There are also 1,397 clubs. E. Dagité

Amateur arts. Amateur artistic activity in Lithuania dates to the late 19th century. In the early 20th century theatrical circles and artistic societies and associations were organized in various cities.

Groups in operation as of 1972 within the system of the Ministry of Culture of the Lithuanian SSR included 2,070 children’s, women’s, men’s, and mixed choral groups; 3,315 dance groups; 2,287 drama circles; 508 bands; 518 village choirs; 311 folk-instrument orchestras; 24 folk ensembles; 20 people’s amateur theaters; 155 ethnic ensembles; and 371 propaganda theater groups. The total number of participants in amateur arts is more than 270,000. Eleven groups have been awarded the title of Honored Group of the Lithuanian SSR, among them the academic choir and the folk song and dance ensemble of the University of Vilnius, the academic choir and folk ensemble of the Kaunas Polytechnic Institute, the Varpas Men’s Choir, and the Banga Choir.

Natural and technical sciences,NATURAL SCIENCES BEFORE 1919. The first data on the accumulation of technical and scientific knowledge date from the 16th century, a period of economic and cultural ascendancy for Lithuania. During the second half of the 17th century the works of K. Semenavičius on artillery, particularly those dealing with rocket design, became well known in a number of countries of Western Europe. The development of research in natural science was facilitated by the establishment of an astronomical observatory (1753) under the Vilnius Academy (subsequently the University of Vilnius). Among the important scholars who taught there in the late 18th century were the astronomer M. Počobutas, the mathematician P. Norvaiŝa, the French botanist J. Gilibert (the first researcher on the flora of Lithuania), the Italian physiologist and anatomist S. Bisio, and the German naturalist and philosopher G. Forster.

During the first half of the 19th century an important contribution to the development of the natural sciences was made by the founders of comparative anatomy in Lithuania, L. Bojanus and his student E. Eichvaldas, who advocated the theory of evolution; Jan Sniadecki, an astronomer and mathematician, who was elected corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences; his brother, Jendž ej (Andrzej) śniadecki, a chemist and biologist; the botanist S. Jundziłł; and J. Lelewel, a scholar in many fields, renowned in particular for his major works on the geography of antiquity and the Middle Ages. The school of the clinical specialist J. Frankas and the works of the pathologist and therapeutic specialist F. Rimkevičius were outstanding in medicine. The careers of A. Griŝkevičius, the author of works on the theory of aeronautics, and the physicist and chemist T. Grotthus, who established the fundamentals of the modern theory of electrolytic dissociation, also date from this period.

The tsarist government closed the University of Vilnius in 1832 and the Vilnius Medical and Surgical Academy in 1842, and scientific work began to revive only in the early 20th century.

The Lithuanian Scientific Society was established in 1907, on the initiative of the progressive Lithuanian intelligentsia. Sections of natural and medical sciences were formed within the society in 1911–12. The society’s members included scholars who were induced by the government of Soviet Lithuania to restore the University of Vilnius; in 1922 they established a university in Kaunas.

NATURAL AND TECHNICAL SCIENCES IN BOURGEOIS LITHUANIA. From 1919 to 1940 scientific work in the natural sciences and technology was poorly developed. With the exception of a few agricultural experimental stations, specialized sectorial research institutes did not exist in bourgeois Lithuania. The higher educational institutions and the Lithuanian Scientific Society became the principal centers for research.

Materialist views in biology were actively propagated by P. Avižonis, J. Kairiukŝtis, and V. Lasas. A significant role in the dissemination of materialism in natural science was played by the astronomer M. Slavènas. A great deal of work on the study of Lithuanian fauna was accomplished by T. Ivanauskas. Studies were begun on the vegetative cover and water and peat resources. P. Jodelè conducted important research on local raw materials for construction. M. Kaveckis and J. Dalinkevičius studied the stratigraphy and tectonics of Lithuania. In 1935 a geomorphological map of Lithuania was published. Geographers (S. Kolupaila and others) studied the terrain, climate, rivers, and lakes of Lithuania. V. Čepinskis, a student of D. Konovalov and a former laboratory assistant of D. I. Mendeleev, worked in electrochemistry. Research on complexes, primarily of the platinum group, was conducted by F. Butkevičius, a student of L. Chugaev. Laŝas, a graduate of the Universities of St. Petersburg and Tartu and a popularizer of the teachings of I. P. Pavlov, studied several problems of physiology. Work on specific problems of medicine was done by Avižonis, V. Kuzma, and P. Mažylis. Research was also done on the atomic spectra of cosmic rays (K. Barŝauskas) and on problems of structural mechanics and the strength of fibers (J. Indriūnas) and certain building materials. The famous breeder D. Rudzin-skas created his own school.

Stefan Bathory University existed in Vilnius (1919–39) during the Polish occupation; among the prominent scholars who taught there were the biologist J. Dembowski, the astronomer V. Dzevulskis, and the mathematician V. Zigmundas.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATURAL AND TECHNICAL SCIENCES IN SOVIET LITHUANIA. Conditions favorable to the accelerated development of research were created in Lithuania after 1940. The Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR—the republic’s principal center for research work—was established in 1941. During the Great Patriotic War the fascist occupation forces carried off laboratory equipment and apparatus, as well as some library holdings, and they blew up a number of scientific institutions.

The revival of the old higher educational institutions and research centers and the organization of new institutions began after the liberation of Soviet Lithuania. Their material and technical resources were strengthened, and the number of scientific personnel increased. Thanks to a great deal of aid from party bodies, the government of the USSR, and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the structure of the republic’s academy of sciences was improved, and the range of problems treated in scientific research was broadened; departmental scientific institutions were also created. Research in the natural sciences in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s concentrated on the solution of problems growing out of the practical experience of building a socialist economy and was primarily of an applied nature.

Geologists and chemists mainly studied local mineral raw materials (deposits of chalk, marl, lime, and other carbonaceous rocks, as well as clay, gravel, and sand) and developed methods of extracting the raw materials for the production of building materials. In 1949 a cadastre of peat bogs was compiled. The first geological map of Lithuania, with a cadastre of mineral resources, was prepared. Studies of commercially important lakes were carried out under the direction of K. Bieliukas.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s a number of fundamental works based on integrated research were published, including Economic Geography of the Lithuanian SSR (1957) and Physical Geography of the Lithuanian SSR (vols. 1–2, 1958–65). Biologists conducted complex hydrobiological, hydrochemical, and botanical studies of Lithuania’s largest inland body of water, the Courland Lagoon, and developed a plan to increase its fish productivity. After 1950 a survey map of Lithuania’s soils and a map of lands to be reclaimed were compiled, a plan to rebuild the drainage system of the floodplains along the lower course of the Nemunas River was proposed, and basic recommendations were made regarding the liming of soils on kolkhozes and sovkhozes.

Since 1964 the main research trends at the institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR in the natural and technical sciences have been probability theory and mathematical statistics, mathematical problems of cybernetics and industrial cybernetics, theoretical atomic and molecular spectroscopy, the physics of semiconductors, theory of the electrolytic precipitation of metals, the development of methods of producing galvanic coatings with particular properties, and the biological bases for increasing the productivity of plants and animals.

Mathematics. A series of papers by J. Kubilius on number theory are of fundamental importance in mathematics; they were the basis for the formation of a new division of mathematics, probability theory of numbers. Highly important results in the theory of the summation of independent and weakly dependent random variables have been obtained by V. Statulevičius and, in the theory of random processes, by B. Grigelionis. Problems of probability theory, mathematical statistics, analytic number theory, functions of a complex variable, differential geometry, and differential equations, as well as mathematical logic and programming, are being studied.

Physics. In theoretical physics, attention has been devoted to research on atomic and molecular spectroscopy (under the direction of A. Jucys); new methods have been developed for producing quantum-mechanical models of atoms. Workers at a number of institutes and higher educational institutions, under the direction of P. Brazdžiunas, are conducting an overall study of the physical properties of thin semiconductor films and complex lamellar structures. An original method for studying the electric parameters of semiconductors using an ultrahigh-frequency field for heating was developed under the direction of J. Požela and has become widely used. Research on the photoelectric and optical properties of thin films and single crystals of semiconductors is under the direction of J. Viŝčakas, mainly at the University of Vilnius. Integrated research on heat exchange and the behavior of metals at high temperatures, as well as in high-temperature gas flows, is under the direction of A. žukauskas. The study of ultrasonics and its use in various areas of the national economy is conducted at the Kaunas Polytechnic Institute. Work on the physics of the atmosphere, directed by B. Styra, has been considerably expanded.

Chemistry. The main research area in chemistry is electrochemistry, particularly the theory of the electrodeposition of metals and development of the scientific principles of the technology of producing galvanic coatings with particular properties. These projects are under the direction of J. Matulis. Research on the chemistry of selenium and of polythionic and selenopoly-thionic acids, as well as the electrochemistry of manganese and its alloys, is directed by I. Janickis. Researchers at the Institute of Biochemistry are studying problems of directed synthesis of compounds that affect biochemical processes and the mechanism of their effect on cells, as well as proteolytic enzymes (L. Ras-teikienė and P. Sadauskas).

Technical sciences. The technical sciences are well developed in the Lithuanian SSR. The institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR are taking part in the development of a long-term plan for the exploitation of Lithuania’s energy potential (the projects are headed by the Institute of Physical and Technical Problems of Power Engineering), in creating new assemblies and instruments based on the results of research by the Institute of the Physics of Semiconductors, and in improving processes of deposition metallurgy. The work of the Vilnius Branch of the Experimental Scientific Research Institute of Metalcutting Machine Tools has become important in the national economy. The branch has invented and put into production a number of high-precision circular grinding machines and gear-milling machines, index devices, and measuring instruments that have gained worldwide recognition. The Thermal Insulation Scientific Research Institute occupies a leading position in the country in the development of new thermal and acoustic insulation materials.

The Lithuanian Scientific Research Institute of the Textile Industry has become the main scientific organization in the USSR for problems of the integrated processing of cellulose acetate fibers. Technological problems of textile production are being studied at the Kaunas Polytechnic Institute under the direction of J. Indriūnas. Research is under way on the processes of vibration (directed by K. Ragulskis); industrial cybernetics, automatic control, and the design of equipment for electric-arc welding are also being studied. The Lithuanian Branch of the Scientific Research Institute of the Butter and Cheese Industry has developed production technology for several new types of cheeses. New types of canned and bottled dairy products have also been created.

Biology. In biology, botanists are studying the flora of Lithuania, seeking out and developing forms of plants rich in physiologically active substances, working on methods to control plant mutations, and studying the functions of phytohormones and growth inhibitors (J. Dagys, A. Minkevičius, and others). The Institute of Zoology and Parasitology of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR is conducting research on parasitic fauna and parasitic diseases in animals and humans. Scientific projects that are intended to increase the productivity of the fishing industry have been developed. All institutes concerned with biology are participating in research on problems connected with the broad use and replenishment of natural resources.

Agriculture. A great deal of attention is devoted to the study of agriculture. Research in this area is conducted by the republic-level research institutes of agriculture, livestock raising, veterinary science, hydrological engineering and reclamation, mechanization and electrification of agriculture, and forestry; by various institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR; and by higher educational institutions, such as the Lithuanian Agricultural Academy and the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy. Problems of soil reclamation and of the planting of pastures and meadowlands are under study.

Plant breeders have developed more than 160 kinds of agricultural crops; many of them are native to Lithuania, and some are also grown in other Union republics. Lithuania was the first area in the USSR to extensively develop the industrial production of vitamin-enriched grass meal. Lithuanian Black-dappled and Red cattle have been improved, and a breed of Lithuanian white pigs has been developed for bacon production. A method of analyzing blood groups of farm animals for breeding purposes was proved and first introduced in Lithuania, and a system of pedigree registration of cattle using computers was devised. A theory of the most productive stands of timber has been developed, and methods for its implementation have been proposed.

Geography. Typological diagrams of geochemical landforms have been drawn up, and landform and geochemical regionaliza-tion of the territory of the Lithuanian SSR has been completed. An integrated geomorphological study of the Central Lithuanian Lowland and of certain landform and geological preserves has been completed. An anthropoclimatic evaluation of the republic’s health resorts has been made. Morphometric catalogs and a hydrochemical classification of Lithuania’s lakes have been compiled. The scientific principles for predicting long-term changes in the coastal zone and the theory of the dynamics of action of surf and its interaction with the shore were developed. An international collection of scientific works entitled Baltica, which is devoted to questions of Quaternary geology and paleo-geography, the dynamics and morphology of shorelines, and the marine geology and neotectonics of the Baltic Sea, has been published in Lithuania since 1963.

Conservation. Conservation measures are taken on a scientific basis, with the participation of institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR, the Lithuanian Scientific Research Institute of Forestry, and republic-level planning organizations. Their activity is coordinated by the State Committee for Conservation. Scientists have revealed differences in the intensity of pollution of natural waters by chemicals and in the erosion of soils in different landforms and have proposed differentiated methods for combating such phenomena.

Geology. Geological research is conducted by the Scientific Research Institute for Geological Prospecting, by expeditions of the Board of Geology of the Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian SSR, and by higher educational institutions. Composite geological, hydrogeological, and other maps of the Lithuanian SSR, as well as lithological-paleogeographical and paleotectonic maps of the southern Baltic Region, have been compiled. Stratigraphic charts of Paleozoic, Mesozoic-Cenozoic, and Quaternary formations, as well as stratigraphic, environmental, and paleogeographic methods of research, were made more precise. The petroleum-bearing capacity of the Baltic syneclise has been estimated, the principal petroleum-bearing strata have been isolated, their structural conditions and collection characteristics have been studied, and estimates of the petroleum reserves have been made. Research is being conducted on the reserves of the most important minerals and the potential for their use. Lithuania’s future prospects in the extraction of mineral raw materials have been estimated, the natural and exploitable resources of the underground waters of the southern Baltic Region have been characterized, and the possibilities for their artificial replenishment have been established. J. Jurginis

Medicine. The work of Lithuanian scientists in medicine has gained recognition even outside Lithuania. Problems of diseases of the cardiovascular system (Z. Januŝkevičius and J. Brėdikis), as well as rheumatism, have been studied at the Kaunas Medical Institute. Surgeons in the department of medicine of the University of Vilnius are studying the problems of building artificial heart valves and transplanting organs (A. Marcinkevičius). The subdepartment of pharmacology, in conjunction with a laboratory for the synthesis of medicinal preparations, has developed chemically and biologically active substances (H. Polukordas). A class of local anesthetics derived from compounds of benzodi-oxane, which was synthesized for the first time, has been discovered. A new β-adrenoblocking preparation called Benzoral has been developed.

The Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine is conducting research on antirheumatic preparations; in particular, it has synthesized dioxybenzoic acid, which is more effective than salicylates. New methods of treating rheumatism and diseases of the joints have been developed and put into practice. The main trend in the work of the Oncological Institute is medicamentous therapy of cancer. About 300 antiblastoma compounds have been synthesized for the first time, and their properties, toxicity, and mechanisms of action have been studied (A. Telyčènas, K. Karpavič ius, and others). Several compounds are being used in clinics. The X-ray method of treatment, as well as the use of X rays for the early diagnosis of cancer, has been developed and put into practice (M. Ŝneideris, K. Ambrozaitis, and K. Valuckas). Methods of conservative treatment have been improved, and the toxic-allergenic effects of antibiotics and other chemical preparations used in treating tuberculosis have been reduced. V. Kleiza

Social sciences,SOCIAL THOUGHT IN LITHUANIA BEFORE 1919. Beginning in the 14th century, Lithuanian social thought developed in a close relationship with that of Byelorussia and Poland. The oldest written monuments are the chronicles and religious-educational books for the common people, as well as publicistic, legal, and theological works; they defended the interests of the feudal lords and reflected the dominant religious and idealistic Weltanschauung.

Historiography in the 14th to 17th centuries dealt primarily with the dynastic history of Lithuania. The first chronicle—The Origin of the Lithuanian Race —appeared in the late 14th century. The Chronicler of the Grand Princes of Lithuania, the Chronicler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Samogitia, and the Bychovec Chronicle reflected the political struggle of the Lithuanian feudal aristocracy against the attempts of the Polish feudal lords to make Lithuania part of the Kingdom of Poland and attempted to substantiate the Lithuanian feudal lords’ right to rule Lithuania. In 1582, based on the Lithuanian chronicles, M. Stryjkowski published his Chronicle, material from which was used by A. Kojalowicz (Kojelavičius-Vijū kas) for his History of Lithuania (parts 1–2, 1656–69), which encompassed the period from ancient times to the Union of Lublin of 1569 and asserted the idea of Lithuania as a state. The strengthening of Polish-Catholic influence led in the late 17th century to a decline in Lithuanian historiography that continued until the late 18th century.

Political, social, moral, and legal problems were treated in the works of the 16th-century humanists and publicists Michalo Lituanus, A. Rotundas, and A. Volanas. Ideas of mercantilism were expressed by Lituanus and Rotundas. The prevalent legal views were reflected in the Lithuanian Statutes of 1529, 1566, and 1588. Roman, canon, and Lithuanian law was taught at the law school of St. John’s Church in Vilnius (founded in 1566) and, after 1641, at the department of law of the Vilnius Academy.

In the first half of the 16th century the leaders of the Reformation in Lithuania—A. Kulvietis, S. Rapolionis, and M. Ma-žvydas—devoted a great deal of attention to the education of the people. Demands for social reforms and class equality were put forth by representatives of the radical wing of the Reformation. In 1579, to counteract them and to strengthen the preaching of Catholicism, the Jesuits founded an academy in Vilnius. The professors at the academy and other Jesuit schools set forth the theological fundamentals of Christianity in their works on scholasticism, which were written in Latin. The representative of realism in scholasticism was M. Smiglecki, and moderate nominalism was represented by G. Stanisławski, Z. Krüger, and K. Wierzbicki. Materialist tendencies were manifested in the works of the scholasticist J. Kimbaras. In the 16th century atheistic views were expressed by K. Bekes and S. Lovan (Loveika). K. Łyszczyński was put to death in 1689 for his treatise On the Nonexistence of God (c. 1674).

Beginning in the second half of the 18th century, the influence of scholasticism grew weaker; compromise and antischolastic trends appeared. The works of A. Skorulskis, B. Dobszewicz, and others set forth the views of F. Bacon, Locke, Gassendi, Descartes, and Leibniz. In the second half of the 18th century ideas of the Enlightenment were expressed by the logician and rationalist K. Narbut. In the last quarter of the 18th century the economist J. Strojnowski advocated the doctrines of the Physiocrats. At the turn of the 19th century materialist views on nature and the universe were expressed by the natural scientists M. Počobutas, Jan śniadecki, G. Forster, J. Gilibert, and J. Briotet, and ideas of the theory of evolution were expressed by L. Bojanus and E. Eichvaldas. Idealism predominated in the humanities. J. Abicht was a proponent of Kantianism, the dualist A. Dovgird (Daugirdas) was an advocate of the philosophy of “common sense,” and J. Goluchowski was a follower of F. Schelling and G. Hegel.

In the early 19th century an important role in the development of Lithuanian historical thought was played by J. Lelewel, A. Glebovičius, I. Onacevičius, I. Danilovičius, and J. Ja-rosiewicz, who were professors at the University of Vilnius. In 1835–41, T. Narbut published a history of Lithuania in nine volumes, directed against the policies of the Polish feudal lords in Lithuania. The historian and educator S. Daukantas was the first to write works on the history of Lithuania in Lithuanian (The Customs of the Ancient Aukŝtaičiai and žemaičiai Lithuanians, 1845, and History of Lithuania, vols. 1–2, 1893–97). He contrasted Lithuania’s romantic past with its contemporary status, of which he was critical, and he exposed the reactionary role of the Catholic Church. The public figure J. Goŝtautas sharply criticized serfdom and the tsarist autocracy. J. Znosko and J. Vaŝkevičus, who worked in the department of political economy of the University of Vilnius during the first third of the 19th century, facilitated the spread of A. Smith’s theory and other trends of western European bourgeois political economy.

As a result of the closing of the University of Vilnius in 1832, the study of Lithuanian history, jurisprudence, philosophy, and economics was carried on more successfully outside Lithuania. Publication of Acta of Southern and Western Russia (vols. 1–15, St. Petersburg, 1863–92), which contained documents on the wars of the Teutonic Order against Lithuania, began in Kiev in 1863. Documents on the history of Old Prussia and Lithuania (Scriptores rerum Prussicarum, vols. 1–5) were published in Germany. A certain contribution to the study of the formation of the Lithuanian state was made by the Ukrainian scholars V. B. An-tonovich and N. P. Dashkevich. Various aspects of Lithuanian history, drawn mainly from the sphere of socioeconomic development, were treated in the monographs of N. A. Maksimeiko, F. I. Leontovich, I. P. Novitskii, M. F. Vladimirskii-Budanov, and M. K. Liubavskii. The history of the political and social structure of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after the Union of Lublin was studied by I. I. Lappo; problems of the Lithuanian state economy, by M. V. Dovnar-Zapolskii; and problems of political history from antiquity to the 16th century, by A. E. Presniakov. V. I. Picheta studied a wide range of socioeconomic phenomena of the feudal period.

Romanticism was predominant in Lithuanian bourgeois historiography at the turn of the 20th century. Its methods were used by J. Basanavičius and others in dealing with certain questions concerning the ethnogenesis of the Lithuanian people, the development of feudal relations, and the attitude of Christianity toward the ancient Lithuanian religion and culture. In economic scholarship in the late 19th century, P. Vileiŝis, V. Kudirka, P. Leonas, and J. Turnas-Vaiž gantas called for the development of national industry, crafts, and trade. The sociology espoused by both the romantics and the positivists was based on theses of the unity of the Lithuanian nation and the identity of interests of the Lithuanian bourgeoisie and the common people. The individual tenets of bourgeois classical political economy were in conflict with the official ideology of tsarism and the gentry and landowning classes. Certain representatives of the bourgeoisie— among them the originator of the free thought movement, J. Ŝliupas, and J. Adomaitis-Ŝernas—were prominent atheists and propagandists of the natural sciences, who held mainly Enlightenment views.

In the second half of the 19th century the revolutionary democrats Z. Serakovskii and A. Mackevičius, disciples and followers of the Russian revolutionary democrats, developed the idea of a people’s revolution. J. Andziulaitis-Kalnènas, J. Mačys-Kék-ŝtas, V. Dėmbskis, S. Matulaitis, and J. Biliunas proclaimed the ideas of social revolution in their best works, exposing the defense of the bourgeois system and religion. In 1903, A. Janulaitis spoke out against the reactionary trend in romantic historiography.

Propaganda for the Marxist Weltanschauung began during the 1880’s. Under the influence of V. I. Lenin’s first works, L. Janavičius used Marxist methodology in studying the development of capitalism in Poland and Lithuania (Outline of Capitalist Development in the Kingdom of Poland, 1902). The leaders of the revolutionary movement—V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas, Z. Angarietis, and P. Eidukevičius—analyzed the socioeconomic relations in the country, criticized bourgeois and petit bourgeois economic theories and the ideology of bourgeois nationalism, and dealt with questions of Lithuania’s history and culture from the Marxist point of view. The spread of Marxist opinions and the ideological differentiation of social thought were considerably accelerated by the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in Lithuania in 1918–19.

SOCIAL SCIENCES IN BOURGEOIS LITHUANIA. After the establishment of a bourgeois dictatorship (1919) only conservative and moderate bourgeois scholars could continue their scientific activity without hindrance.

In philosophy there was a predominance of neoscholasticism, primarily neo-Thomism, which combined with other religious and idealistic systems (P. Būčys, P. Dovydaitis, S. Ŝalkauskis, and A. Jakŝtas-Dambrauskas). The representatives of this trend strove to justify the reactionary policy of the ruling strata of the clerical and nationalist bourgeoisie. Sociologists and philosophers (I. Tamoŝaitis, A. Maceina, and P. Dielininkaitis) propagandized the ideas of an authoritarian corporate (fascist) system and Malthusianism (K. Pakŝtas). A unique place among the idealist philosophers was occupied by Vidūnas, who had been influenced by Indian philosophy (Buddhism and satyagraha), as well as that of Kant, Hegel, L. N. Tolstoy, and V. S. Solov’ev. Vidūnas’ works exhibited humanist tendencies (criticism of bourgeois society and condemnation of the policy of Germanization, violence, and wars of conquest), but at the same time he rejected the class struggle and set his hopes on a peaceful path for the victory of good over evil. Z. Sezemanas’ studies in logic and aesthetics were constructed on the basis of the subjective-idealistic methodology of neo-Kantianism.

Progressive social and philosophical thought developed under the difficult conditions of the clerical-fascist reaction in Lithuania. The liberal bourgeois atheists and the representatives of natural scientific materialism, who established the Society of the Ethical Culture of Freethinkers (J. Ŝliupas, J. Ilgūnas, and J. Kairiukŝtis), were in clear opposition to the dominant ideology and philosophy; the society published the newspaper Laisvoji mintis (Free Thought, 1933–41). The reactionary nature of racism was unmasked by J. Baldžius, J. Vabalas-Gudaitis, J. Galvydis, G. Zimanas, and P. Slavėnas. The journals Mokykla ir gyvenimas (School and Life, 1920–41), Mokykla ir visuomené (School and Society, 1933–36), and Kultūra (1923–41) were actively opposed to idealism and religion. Several works on the problems of dialectical materialism were published in Kultūra. Just before the events of 1940 many figures in Lithuanian culture and science, responding to the Communists’ call to struggle against the bourgeois reaction, actively criticized the sociology and politics of fascism in Lithuania (A. Venclova, J. žiug-žda, K. Korsakas, P. Cvirka, J. Ŝimkus, and J. Jurginis) and abroad (A. Bimba, R. Mizara, and L. Prūseika).

The Communist Party, working in the underground, exposed bourgeois ideology and propagandized Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism (V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas, Z. Angarietis, K. Požela, J. Greifenbergeris, and A. Sniečkus). In 1920 and 1926 the Communists organized cooperative societies in Kaunas that published a number of works by Marx and Engels, and in 1933 and 1934 the works of V. I. Lenin were published.

The spread of Marxist ideas among the Lithuanian people was facilitated by the activity of Lithuanian Communists in the USSR, such as the publishing house of the Central Committee of the CPL in Smolensk, which in 1925–28 published the first edition of the works of V. I. Lenin in Lithuanian, and the Lithuanian Sector of the Communist University for Western National Minorities in Moscow. Marxist Lithuanian literature was published by progressive organizations of Lithuanians in the USA.

The University of Kaunas was a center for the study of history. The following historical journals were published at different times: Musų senovė (Our Antiquity, 1921–22 and 1937–40), Senovė (Antiquity, 1935–38), Praeitis (The Past, 1930–33), Lietuvos praeitis (The Lithuanian Past, 1940–41), and Athenaeum (1930–39). Lithuanian historians mainly followed Russian and German historiography. They regarded the development of the history of the Lithuanian people apart from its connection with the development of the means of producton and from the class struggle.

The greatest attention was devoted to the political history of Lithuania during the feudal period, particularly the creation, development, and role of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Almost all authors idealized this period. Scholars wrote about the formation of the Lithuanian state and the reign of Mindaugas (J. Totoraitis and J. Stakauskas); the development of the Lithuanian state, the reigns of Gediminas, Kestutis, and Vytautas, and the struggle of the Lithuanians against the Teutonic Order (J. Jakŝtas, J. Matusas, and I. Jonynas); and the Union of Lublin (A. Ŝapoka). Work on the history of the Lithuanian boyars was done by K. Avižonis. The socioeconomic problems of history were reflected in works by A. Janulaitis, P. Klimas, Z. I-vinskis, and A. Ŝapoka. A number of general lecture courses and textbooks were written, and anthologies and collections of documents and materials were published. Idealization of the past helped gloss over the class conflicts in bourgeois Lithuania. Problems of archaeology were studied by J. žilinskas, J. Puzinas, and P. Tarasenko; ethnology and folklore, by J. Baldžius; bibliography and cultural history, by V. Biržižka; art studies, by P. Galauné; and the history of law, by I. Lappo, M. Römer, and Janulaitis. A number of works on Lithuanian history were written by the Polish historians G. Paszkiewicz and H. -Łowmiański and by the Soviet Russian archaeologist A. Spitsyn. The foundation of Marxist studies of Lithuanian history was laid by the leaders of the CPL, V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas (Brief History of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, vols. 1–2, 1918–20) and Z. Angarietis (Formation of the CPL and the Proletarian Revolution in Lithuania [1918–19], 1962). Certain problems of Lithuanian history from the late 1920’s to the mid-1930’s were studied at the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR (S. Matulaitis and V. A. Ser-benta).

In the defense of capitalism and the justification of its economic policy, the Lithuanian bourgeoisie used various trends of vulgar political economy, particularly the theories of marginal utility and factors of production. The representatives of the liberal wing (A. Rimka, P. Leonas, A. Moravskis, and V. Jurgutis) developed theories of economic democratism, economic individualism, and the unique character of the Lithuanian economy. Agrarian bourgeois concepts, which were based on the theory of the stability of a small-scale peasant economy (J. Aleksa and J. Krikŝčiūnas), were interwoven with an idealization of the cooperative movement (P. Ŝalčius). The right-wing Social Democrats (S. Kairys and A. Janulaitis) disseminated the theories of organized capitalism. The Communist Party of Lithuania used the economic theory of Marxism-Leninism as an important ideological weapon in the struggle to liberate the working class from the yoke of the bourgeoisie.

The legal scholars S. Beliackinas, K. Ŝalkauskas, A. Janulaitis, P. Leonas, and M. Römer were working in the department of law of the University of Kaunas in the period 1922–40 (they continued their activity after the formation of the Lithuanian SSR). Lithuanian-language periodicals included Teisès fakultèto darbai (Proceedings of the Department of Law, 1924–32) and the quarterly Teisė (Law 1922–40), published by the Society of Jurists.

DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IN SOVIET LITHUANIA (AFTER 1940). The restoration of Soviet power in Lithuania opened up new possibilities for the further spread of Marxism. However, the activity of bourgeois ideologists and philosophers was renewed during the fascist occupation; in 1944 most of them emigrated to the West. A few scholars who were able to flee from the occupied area (J. žiugžda and P. Pakarklis) exposed the policy and ideology of the fascist aggressors.

Philosophy. With the creation of the foundations of socialism and the elimination of bourgeois nationalist groups, the Marxist-Leninist Weltanschauung became dominant. The works of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, as well as other Marxist sociopolitical and philosophical literature, were published in Lithuanian.

Under Soviet power new groups of philosophers have appeared. The republic’s philosophers have been working on the history of social and philosophical thought in Lithuania, on dialectical and historical materialism; on philosophical problems of natural science, ethics, logic (J. Grigonis, J. Zaksas, G. Zimanas, N. Ickovičius, J. Macevičius, E. Meŝkauskas, and R. Plečkaitis), and atheism; and on criticism of anticommunism and contemporary bourgeois philosophy (J. Aničas, J. Barzdai-tis, A. Gaidys, J. Minkevičius, V. Niunka, and R. Skaisgirys). Philosophical works have been published in Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR (Series A: Social Sciences; Philosophy, since 1955) and Problemos (Problems, since 1968).

History. The Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR (founded 1940), the Institute of Party History of the Central Committee of the CPL (founded 1948), and the subdepartments of history at higher educational institutions have become centers for the study of history. The most important cooperative works are the three-volume History of the Lithuanian SSR (in Lithuanian), edited by J. žiugžda, which summarizes the history of the Lithuanian people up to June 1940; Outline of the History of the Communist Party of Lithuania (in Lithuanian, vol 1), edited by R. Šarmaitis; and documents and materials on the history of Lithuania, Leaflets of the Communist Party of Lithuania (vols. 1–4); as well as a number of collections of archive documents.

Works on the history of the feudal period dealt with the struggle of the Lithuanian people against the Crusaders (B. Dundulis and R. Varakauskas), the genesis of feudalism and the enserfment of the peasants (J. Jurginis), the status and struggle of the peasantry during the 16th century (K. Jablonskis), and the disintegration of serfdom (M. Jūčas). The initial period of the development of capitalism was studied by M. Bičkauskas-Gentvila, J. žiugžda, S. Lazutka, O. Maksimaitienė, L. Mulevičius, V. Merkys, and R. Šarmaitis.

An important contribution has been made by scholars studying party history. The origin and development of the revolutionary movement have been analyzed by E. Griskünaitė and others. The struggle of the Lithuanian people for Soviet power in 1918–19 and its restoration in 1940 has been treated in the works of B. Vaitkevičius, R. Šarmaitis, A. Butkutė-Ramelienė, V. Kancevičius, and T. Tiškevičius. The struggle of the Lithuanian workers against the bourgeois dictatorship was the subject of works by A. Gaigalaitè and S. Atamukas; M. Staras, I. Dobrovolskis, A. Rakūnas, and K. Varaŝinskas wrote monographs on the period 1941–45. The problems of building socialism and the transition to communism are examined in the works of A. Efremenko, K. Surblys, P. Olekas, and H. Ŝadžius, and the history of the cultural revolution and the formation of the socialist intelligentsia are treated by A. Bendžius and M. Burokevičius.

Problems of the relations between bourgeois Lithuania and other states were studied by K. Navickas, R. žiugžda, and R. žepkaité. Significant success has been achieved in ethnology by J. Butkevičius, A. Viŝniauskaite, P. Dundulienė, and V. Milius and in archaeology by P. Kulikauskas, R. Kulikaus-kienė, R. Rimantienė, and A. Tautavičius. Criticism of bourgeois historiography was the subject of studies by J. Žiugžda, V. Germanas, and others. Specific sociological research studies were written by M. Demidavičius, J. Leonavičius, and R. Grigas. Lithuanian history has also been studied by scholars from other Soviet republics—the RSFSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the Ukraine (V. Pashuto, D. Pokhilevich, N. Ulashchik, and others). Articles on history are published in the series Istorija (History, since 1958), LKP istorijos klausimai (Problems of the History of the CPL, since 1959), and Lietuvos istorijos metraŝtis (Yearbook of Lithuanian History, since 1971).

Economics. Problems in economics are studied at the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR (founded 1941), the Institute of Agricultural Economics (founded 1959), the Lithuanian Branch of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for the Study of the Demand for Consumer Goods and Trade Conditions (founded 1966), and the departments of economics of the University of Vilnius and other higher educational institutions.

The development of Lithuania’s socialist economy has been treated in the cooperative works A Quarter Century on the Path to Socialism, 1965, and Lithuania After a Half-century of a New Era, 1967; in Monetary Incomes of Kolkhozes and Their Distribution (1959) by A. žilėnas, Agriculture of Soviet Lithuania, 1940–1960 (1960) by M. Gregorauskas, The Industrialization of Soviet Lithuania (1960) by K. Meŝkauskas, and Incomes of the Population of Soviet Lithuania (1970) by S. Ginaité; and in the research of J. Tamošiūnas, A. Mitrikas, A. Jablonskis, J. Maniušis, P. Kulvietis, V. Baranauskas, V. Maliŝauskas, L. Satunovskii, and J. Maiminas.

Works on problems of the political economy of capitalism and economic thought include Outline of Political Economy (1964) by D. Budrys, Hypotheses and Models of Personal Consumer Expenditures Under Conditions of Developed Capitalism (1969) by A. Buračas, and Present-day Capitalism and Its Bourgeois Theories (1972) by Budrys and Buracas. Textbooks on economics include Planning the National Economy of the USSR (1967) by J. Būč as and The State Budget of the USSR (1967) and Political Economy (1969, edited by M. Lola) by A. Daukŝ a. Economics journals include Liaudiesūkis (National Economy, since 1958), Zemės ūkis (Agriculture, since 1925), and Ekonomika (since 1960).

Law. Law is studied at the Institute of Law, which in 1952 became a law sector (since 1969 it has been part of the Division of Philosophy, Law, and Sociology of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR), the Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Technical Expertise (since 1961; from 1958 to 1961 called the Research Laboratory of Criminalistics), and the department of law of the University of Vilnius. Scholarly work is conducted in virtually all areas of the law. Monographs are published on civil law and procedure, on labor law (J. žeruolis and J. Moreinas), and on the history of the Lithuanian state and of state and administrative law (K. Jablonskis, P. Pakarklis, and S. Vansevičius). Research is also under way in the methodology of legal scholarship and on the use of cybernetic methods and equipment in criminology. Scholarly serial publications are Teisė (Law, since 1961) and Socialistič teisė (Socialist Law, since 1968).

Scientific institutions. As of 1972, the Lithuanian SSR had 88 scientific institutions (as against 20 in 1940). Research in a number of branches of natural sciences, technology, and the social sciences is conducted at a number of republic-level research institutes, in branches of all-Union research institutes, and at higher educational institutions, special-problems laboratories, and experimental stations.

More than 10,100 researchers (including those in higher educational institutions) were employed in Lithuania as of Jan. 1, 1973 (as against 633 in 1940). Among them were 19 academicians and 24 corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR, more than 200 doctors of sciences, and more than 3,300 candidates of sciences. The republic’s foremost scientific institution is the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR, which directs the work often research institutes and other institutions.

The scholars of the Lithuanian SSR maintain ties with scientific institutions, scientific production associations, industrial enterprises, and higher educational institutions in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Riga, Novosibirsk, Minsk, and other cities. The Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR is the country’s foremost scientific organization for work on probability theory and for certain other fields; the Institute of Semiconductor Physics coordinates research in the USSR on problems of thermal electrons. The Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology directs the country’s work on the theory of electrodeposition of metals. Academic institutes in the humanities take part in all-Union research on problems of history, philosophy, economics, and literary theory and criticism.

The Lithuanian SSR has developed international scientific ties in a number of areas—for example, with the scientific institutions of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, the Hungarian People’s Republic, and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (theory of electrodeposition of metals and alloys), the Academy of Sciences of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (automatic control), and scientists from the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, the Polish People’s Republic, the Socialist Republic of Rumania, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (studies of the productivity of farm animals). Ties with scientific centers in the capitalist countries have also been developed.

REFERENCES

In the 16th century Vilnius became a center of book publishing in Eastern Europe: it was there in 1522 that the Byelorussian educator Frantsisk Skorina founded the first printing shop on the territory of the present-day USSR; it issued the Acts of the Apostles and other publications. Books in Latin, Polish, and other languages were also printed. The first books in Lithuanian were the Protestant Catechism (together with the first Lithuanian primer) of M. Mažvydas (published in Königsberg in 1547) and the Catholic Catechism of M. Daukša (published in Vilnius in 1595). The first newspaper appeared in Vilnius in 1760 in Polish (Wiadomości uprzywilejowane [Privileged News]). Religious newspapers (the first was Nusidavimai dievo karalystèje [Stories About God’s Kingdom], beginning in 1823), as well as pro-German secular newspapers (the first was Keleivis [The Traveler], beginning in 1849), were published for the Lithuanian population of East Prussia.

From 1864 to 1904 printing in the Lithuanian Latin alphabet was forbidden by the tsarist government. Lithuanian periodical publications were printed in East Prussia and the USA and distributed illegally in Lithuania. Among them were the bourgeois-liberal journals Ausra (Dawn, 1883–86) and Varpas (The Bell, 1889–1905), the newspapers ūkininkas (The Feasant, 1890–1905) and Lietuviŝkasis balsas (The Lithuanian Voice, 1885–89), the clerical journal Tėvynės sargas (Guardsman of the Motherland, 1896–1904), and the atheistic scholarly-literary journal Apŝvieta (Enlightenment, 1892–93). The first Lithuanian Social Democratic newspapers, including Lietuvos darbininkas (Lithuanian Worker, 1896–99) and Darbininkųbalsas (Voice of the Workers, 1901–06), were also published abroad. Lenin’s newspaper Iskra was shipped through and disseminated in Lithuania.

Beginning in 1904, Lithuanian newspapers and journals were published legally in Lithuania; among them were the first daily Lithuanian newspaper, Vilnious žinios (Vilnius News, 1904–09), and the pro-Social Democratic newspapers Naujojigadyné (New Era, 1906–07), Skardas (Echo, 1907), and ž arija (Embers, 1907–08). The first Lithuanian literary journal, Vaivorykŝtė (Rainbow), was published in Vilnius in 1913–14. Pro-Bolshevik Lithuanian Social Democratic publications included Vilnis (Wave; 1913–14, 1917), published in Riga; Socialdemokratas (Social Democrat, 1915–16) and Rankpelnis (Laborer, 1907–23), published in Great Britain beginning in 1915; and Naujoji gadynė (New Era, 1916–17) and Kova (Struggle, 1905–17), published in the USA beginning in 1916. From 1904 to 1917 about 8,000 books were published in Lithuanian.

Publication of the first Lithuanian Bolshevik newspaper, Tiesa (Pravda [Truth]), began in Petrograd after the February Revolution of 1917. Under Soviet power in Lithuania (1918–19) the communist press published materials in Vilnius, Kaunas, and other cities in Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, and other languages. In January 1919 the government of Soviet Lithuania organized a state Lithuanian Telegraph Agency (LITA; since 1920, ELTA).

During the period of the bourgeois republic (1919–40), about 25,000 books and pamphlets were published. Their circulation was usually not large (500–3,000 copies). The single-issue periodical circulation in 1937 was about 830,000. The main periodical publications of the time were the liberal newspapers Lietuvos ūkininkas (Lithuanian Peasant, 1905–40) and Lietuvos žinios (Lithuanian News, 1909–40), the clerical journals Draugyja (Comradeship, 1907–40) and Zidinys (Hearth, 1924–40), and the clerical newspapers Rytas (Morning, 1912–38) and XX amžius (Twentieth Century, 1936–40). The nationalist ideology of the Tautininkas Party was propagated by the journal Vairas (Rudder, 1914–15, 1923–24, and 1929–40) and the official newspaper Lietuvos aidas (Lithuanian Echo, 1917–18 and 1928–40). From 1919 to 1928 the newspaper Lietuva (Lithuania) was the semiofficial publication of the bourgeois government.

From 1919 to 1940, in Lithuania and abroad, the Communists published about 340 newspapers and journals, 760 books and pamphlets, and thousands of leaflets. Underground the Communist press published the organ of the CPL Tiesa, and Kareivių tiesa (Soldiers’ Pravda, 1920–36); until 1931, short-lived legal publications were also issued. The Lithuanian journals Komuna-ras (Communard, 1921–23), Kibirkŝtis (Spark, 1924–26), and Priekalas (Anvil, 1931–38) were published in the USSR; the journal Balsas (Voice, 1928–33), in Germany; and the newspapers Laisvė (Liberty, beginning in 1911) and Vilnis (beginning in 1920), in the USA.

In 1940–41, after the establishment of Soviet power, 1,167 books were published, with a printing of about 8 million; in addition to Tiesa, publication of the new republic-level newspapers Tarybu Lietuva (Soviet Lithuania) and Valstiečiu laikraŝtis (Peasant Newspaper) and of 20 journals and other periodicals began. During the Great Patriotic War the Lithuanian Communist press published its materials underground, as well as in Moscow and other cities. From 1942 to 1944, Soviet publishing houses issued about 160 books and pamphlets in Lithuanian. The political section of the 16th Lithuanian Infantry Division published the newspaper Tèvynèŝaukia (The Motherland Is Calling).

During the postwar years the printing capacity of the republic was expanded. The K. Požela and V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas printing plants in Kaunas, as well as the Vaizdas and pergalė Plants in Vilnius, were modernized. In 1972 the republic-level publishing houses Mintis (Thought; political and scholarly literature), Vaga (Furrow; fiction), and Ŝviesa (Light; pedagogical literature) released about 2,000 books and pamphlets (including 1,300 in Lithuanian), with a total printing of more than 15 million; 88 newspapers, with a total single-issue circulation of more than 1.8 million (annual circulation, 369 million), were also published.

The republic’s newspapers are Tiesa, Komjaunimo tiesa (Komsomol Pravda; in Lithuanian since 1919, in Russian since 1949), Valstiečiu laikraŝtis (Peasant Newspaper, since 1940), Lietuvos pionierius (Lithuanian Pioneer, since 1946), Literatūra ir menas (Literature and Art, since 1946), and Tarybinis mokyto-jas (Soviet Teacher, since 1953) in Lithuanian; Sovetskaia Litva (1940–41 and since 1944) in Russian; and Czerwony sztandar (Red Banner, since 1953) in Polish.

As of 1972,122 journals were being published (annual circulation, 37.6 million copies). Among them are party, Komsomol and youth, sociopolitical, literary-artistic, scientific, and technical journals, such as Komunistas (Communist, since 1918, in Lithuanian and Russian), Ŝvyturys (Lighthouse, since 1949), Jaunimo gretos (The Ranks of Youth, since 1944), pergalė (Victory, since 1942), Tarybinè moteris (Soviet Woman, since 1952, in Lithuanian and Polish— Kobieta Radziecka), Šluota (Broom, since 1934), Mokslas ir technika (Science and Technology, since 1959), and Mokslas ir gyvenimas (Science and Life, since 1957).

Radio broadcasting in Lithuania began in 1926. Since 1956 radio transmissions have been carried on two programs (for a total of 28 hours per day) in Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish (for listeners abroad, in Lithuanian and English). Republic-level television broadcasts have been made from Vilnius since 1957 on one program (seven hours per day). Television broadcasts are relayed from Moscow and other cities of the USSR, and programs are also received from Intervision. J. Zinkus

The oldest landmarks of Lithuanian writing (14th to 17th century) were in Russian (Byelorussian; chronicles and the Lithuanian Statutes), Latin, and Polish. The common people of Lithuania expressed their opinions and hopes in a rich oral creative art, with daine (songs), tales, legends, and proverbs.

The origin and development of Lithuanian written literature was facilitated by the Reformation movement in the first half of the 16th century. The Catechism of M. Mažvydas (year of birth unknown; died 1563) contained a poetic foreword and the first Lithuanian primer, in addition to religious texts. In the 16th and 17th centuries mainly religious literature was written (M. Daukŝa, 1527–1613; J. Bretkūnas, 1536–1602, K. Sirvydas, 1579–1631; D. Kleinas, 1609–66; and S. Slavočinskis, c. 1630–60). In the 17th and 18th centuries works of fiction of secular content appeared in Lithuanian (the epigrams, narrative poems, and letters in verse of A. Ŝimelpenigis [Schimmelpfennig], 1699–1763, and K. Milkus [Mielcke], c. 1736–1805). The most important place in 18th-century literature was occupied by the narrative poem The Seasons (published in 1818) by K. Donelai-tis (1714–80), which realistically depicted nature in Lithuania and the life of the enserfed peasants.

In the first half of the 19th century Lithuanian literature was successfully developed by the poet D. Poŝka (1757–1830), the author of the narrative poem The Peasant of žemaitija and Lithuania (published in 1886); by the poets and folklorists L. Rėza (1776–1840) and S. Stanevičius (1799–1848); and by the writer and historian S. Daukantas (1793–1864). The work of the popular poet A. Strazdas (1763–1833), many of whose poems became folk songs, vividly expressed the cherished aspirations and antiserfdom attitude of the peasantry. In the narrative poem The Anykŝčiai Pine Forest (published in 1860) by A. Baranauskas (1835–1902), which influenced the subsequent development of Lithuanian poetry, the beauty of nature is celebrated and the social and national oppression of the common people is shown in the image of the dying forest.

As a result of the violence of the tsarist reaction in the mid-19th century, Lithuanian literature experienced a period of stagnation. Only a few writers continued to work, among them M. Valančius (1801–75), the founder of Lithuanian prose fiction, who was the author of the novella Juzè From Palanga (published in 1869) and collections of didactic short stories, and the poet A. Vienažindys (1841–92), who reflected in his songs the oppression of the common people. Lyric love poetry in Lithuania first developed in his work.

Cultural life was revived in the late 19th century, when the bourgeois-national and revolutionary workers’ movements originated. Mass dissemination of material from the banned Lithuanian press began, illegal Lithuanian newspapers were published regularly, a number of outstanding writers and publicists appeared, and the Lithuanian literary language took shape. An important place in the literature of this period was occupied by the publicist and writer V. Kudirka (1858–99), the poet P. Vaičaitis (1876–1901), and the poet Maironis (pseudonym of J. Mačiulis, 1862–1932), a representative of the romantic school. Maironis’ poetry (Voices of Spring, 1895) played an important role in versification and poetics and in the formation of the literary language. The revolutionary-liberation aspirations of the democratic intelligentsia were vividly reflected by the poet J. Mačys Kékŝtas (1867–1902) and the writer J. Andziulaitis-Kalné-nas (1864–1916), who were close to the labor movement and propagated socialist ideas in certain of their works. Prominent collectors of Lithuanian folklore in the second half of the 19th century were A. Juŝka (1819–80) and J. Basanavičius (1851–1927).

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the genres and forms of literature became more diverse, children’s literature developed, and works of literary criticism and literary theory appeared. Critical realism asserted itself in literature, and its apex was reached in the work of the writer žemaitė (pseudonym of J. ¿ymantiené, 1845–1921). In her short stories she depicted the difficult life of the Lithuanian peasants and showed their animosity toward the landowners and the church. Her short stories “Topylis” (1897), “The Daughter-in-law” and ‘Petras Kurmelis” (both 1898), and “On the Estate” (1907), which were written in eloquent, lively folk language, were particularly popular.

The writer J. Biliünas (1879–1907) was one of the first in Lithuanian literature to create an image of the worker (the short stories “Unemployed,” 1903, and “Strike on the Estate,” 1907); in his critical articles he asserted the principle of realism. Realistic traditions were developed by the poets J. Jovaras (pseudonym of J. Kriksciünas, 1880–1967) and L. Gira (1884–1946) and the prose writers G. Petkevicaitè-Bitè (1861–1943), A. Vienuolis-žukauskas (1882–1957), and Lazdynų Pelėda (pseudonym of the Ivanauskytėsisters). Romantic tendencies were manifested in the work of the realistic writers V. Krėvė (pseudonym of V. Mickevičius, 1882–1954) and Vaižgantas (pseudonym of J. Tumas, 1869–1933). Writers and poets used traditions and devices of Lithuanian folk art. The emergence of proletarian literature was associated with the career of the Marxist critic and writer V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas (1880–1935). A strong voice in proletarian poetry was the talented poet and revolutionary J. Janonis (1896–1917), whose poems proclaimed the victory of the approaching socialist revolution (“The Blacksmith,” “From a Worker’s Catechism,” and “To the Worker”).

The subsequent development of literature was closely associated with the Great October Socialist Revolution and the struggle of the Lithuanian people for Soviet power in 1918–19. After the temporary defeat of Soviet power in Lithuania the proletarian writers A. Regratis (1894–1924), B. Pranskus-žalio-nis (1902–64), E. Tautkaitè (1899–1960), A. Maginskas (1907–42), A. Jasutis (1910–38), and A. Gudaitis-Guzevičius (1908–69), who lived in the USSR or remained underground in Lithuania, continued to produce proletarian literature, organized a Communist press, and participated in the revolutionary struggle.

During the bourgeois regime (1919–40) modernist trends in Lithuanian literature increased noticeably. By the 1930’s a group of talented antifascist Lithuanian writers had formed; it included P. Cvirka (1909–47), J. Ŝimkus (1906–65), A. Venclova (1906–71), K. Korsakas (born 1909), V. Montvila (1902–41), S. Néris (pseudonym of S. Bačinskaitė-Bučienė; 1904–45), and K. Boruta (1905–65). They were closely linked with the common people and their revolutionary struggle. Most of them were grouped around the antifascist journals Trečias frontas (Third Front), Literatūra, and Kultūra. Cvirka’s novels Frank Kruk (1934) and The Beautiful Land (1935) occupied an important place in the progressive literature of the period. Many writers who had previously been attracted to movements such as futurism, symbolism, and neoromanticism gradually turned toward realism during the 1930’s. Among them were the poets and playwrights K. Binkis (1893–1942) and B. Sruoga (1896–1947); V. Mykolaitis-Putinas (1893–1967), a poet and author of the psychological novel In the Shadow of the Altars (1933); and the poet T. Tilvytis (1904–69). The novels and short stories of J. Marcinkevičius (1900–53), J. Simonaitytė (born 1897), J. Grūŝas (born 1901), and J. Paukŝtelis (born 1899) were also a part of realistic literature. Children’s literature came into being; it was represented by Binkis, A. Kazanavičienė (1892–1968), P. Maŝiotas (1863–1940), S. Čiurlionienė (1886–1958), and K. Jakubènas (1908–50). Important works on literary theory, criticism, and the study of folklore appeared (M. Biržiŝka [1882–1962], Gira, Mykolaitis-Putinas, Sruoga, and Vaižgantas).

There was a sharp ideological struggle among literary figures of various trends, which was vividly reflected in literary criticism. The bourgeois critics included V. Bičiūnas (1893–1945), J. Herbačiauskas (1876–1944), and A. Jakŝtas (1860–1938); among the antifascists were Venclova, V. žilionis (1905–64), Korsakas, and J. Ŝimkus); among the Marxists were Z. Angarie-tis (1882–1940), Mickevičius-Kapsukas, and Pranskus žalionis.

A new stage in the development of Lithuanian literature began after the restoration of Soviet power (1940). Its first participants were the left-wing writers Cvirka, Néris, Montvila, Gira, Ŝimkus, Tilvytis, Venclova, and Korsakas. During the Great Patriotic War, when Hitler’s forces invaded Lithuania, many Lithuanian writers were evacuated deep within the Soviet Union, where they continued to work, appearing most prolifically in poetry and publicistic work. Many writers served in the Soviet Army. The heroism and drama of the wartime years were expressed in the poems of Néris, Gira, Venclova, and Korsakas and the young poets E. Mieželaitis (born 1919), V. Mozuriunas (1922—64), and V. Reimeris (born 1921). The writers who remained in occupied Lithuania were persecuted. Montvila was shot by the Hitlerites, and Sruoga was imprisoned in a concentration camp.

The first postwar decade in Lithuanian literature was associated with problems of the restoration of the republic’s economic and cultural life, as well as with the rallying of writers of various ideological and aesthetic trends. The literary process continued under conditions of a sharp ideological struggle with the bourgeois nationalists, who were attempting to influence separate strata of the intelligentsia. Certain bourgeois-nationalist writers emigrated to the West at the end of the war. Many writers of the older generation (Vienuolis-žukauskas, Mykolaitis-Putinas, Sruoga, Simonaityté, and others) joined the ranks of the creators of postwar Soviet Lithuanian literature. Their new works became part of the general current of Soviet literature. The new Komsomol generation of writers—J. Avyžius (born 1922), A. Bieliauskas (born 1923), V. Grybas (1927–54), A. Jonynas (born 1923), J. Macevičius (born 1928), and M. Sluckis (born 1928)—raised their bellicose voices. Such significant works as the novels The Truth of the Blacksmith Ignotas (vols. 1–2, 1948–49) by Gudaitis-Guzevičius and The Puodžiūnas Estate (1949; Russian translation, 1952) by Vienuolis-Žukauskas, the narrative poem Usnynė (1949; Russian translation, On the Lithuanian Land, 1953) by Tilvytis, and the drama The Roosters Are Beginning to Crow (1947) by J. Baltuŝis (pseudonym of A. Juozėnas; born 1909) were based on the principles of socialist realism.

In the late 1950’s the contemporary phase in the development of Lithuanian literature became definite. The ideas of socialist humanism have had a favorable effect on the work of many writers, who began to make more thorough use of the national traditions of literature and art, to expand international motifs, to analyze the complex internal world of modern man, and to seek new means of artistic depiction. Colorful scenes of the life of the people were created in the novels Vilius Karalius (books 1–2, 1956) by Simonaitytė, The Insurgents (1957) by Mykolaitis-Putinas, and The Sold Years (vols. 1–2, 1957–69) by Baltuŝis. The modern Lithuanian novel was raised to a new level, and social and psychological analysis were extended in it, by Avižius (Village at the Crossroads, 1964, and Lost Blood, 1971), Bieliauskas (The Scarlet Roses Are Blooming, 1959, and Novel of Kaunas, 1966), J. Mikelinskas (born 1922; The Water Carrier, 1964), and Sluckis (Stairway to the Sky, 1963, and Thirst, 1968; Russian translation, 1969). In short-story writing, A. Bauza (born 1908), G. Korsakienė (born 1910), R. Lankauskas (born 1932), and A. Pocius (born 1930) stand out vividly.

Lithuanian poetry took a leading place in Soviet poetry. The books of poems Man (1961) by Mieželaitis and An Hour of Being (1963) by Mykolaitis-Putinas, as well as the narrative poems Blood and Ashes (1961) and The Wall (1965) by J. Marcinkevičius (born 1930), dealt in depth with the problems of contemporary man and his world; they opened up new possibilities for associative thinking and lyrical confession, along with dramatic, lyrical, and epic qualities. Important contributions to Lithuanian poetry have also been made by A. Baltakis (born 1930), J. Vai-čiunaitė (born 1937), J. Degutytė (born 1928), A. žukauskas (born 1912), A. Maldonis (born 1929), M. Martinaitis (born 1936), E. Matuzevičius (born 1917), and P. Ŝirvys (born 1922).

Moral and psychological conflicts, which are resolved in both contemporary and historical material, are prevalent in drama. Examples are Herkus Mantas (1957) and Love, Jazz, and the Devil (1967) by Grūŝas, Mindaugas (1968) and The Cathedral (1971) by Marcinkevičius, and the plays of A. Gricius (1899— 1972), K. Saja (born 1932), V. Miliūnas (born 1916), V. Rirnkevičius (born 1930), R. Samulevičius (born 1937), and D. Urnevičiutė (born 1932). Forms of poetic drama, the grotesque, and tragicomedy have been used to good effect.

In children’s and young people’s literature, the most significant works have been written by K. Kubilinskas (1923–62), Mieželaitis, A. Matutis (born 1923), Sluckis, V. Petkevičius (born 1930), V. Dautartas (born 1927), Saja, A. Liobytė (born 1915), and V. Palčinskaitė (born 1943).

A fundamental work of literary theory and criticism is the academic History of Lithuanian Literature (vols. 1–4, 1957–68), written by a group of authors under the direction of K. Kor-sakas. A great contribution to the treatment of urgent problems of the contemporary development of Lithuanian literature and literary heritage has been made by K. Ambrasas (born 1931), V. Areŝka (born 1927), A. Būčis (born 1939), V. Vanagas (born 1930), K. Doveika (born 1912), V. Galinis (born 1924), L. Gineitis (born 1920), V. Zaborskaitė (born 1922), A. Zalatorius (born 1932), J. žekaitė (born 1926), V. Kubilius (born 1928), J. Lankutis (born 1925), J. Lebedys (1913–70), R. Mikŝytė (born 1923), B. Pranskus-Zalionis, D. Sauka (born 1929), and A. Samulionis (born 1936).

The greatest achievements of Lithuanian literature have found readers in the other Soviet republics, as well as abroad. Books by Lithuanian writers have been translated into the 32 languages of the peoples of the USSR, and also into foreign languages. Form 1940 to 1972, 749 books by Lithuanian authors were translated into languages of the peoples of the USSR (including 517 into Russian, 60 into Latvian, 37 into Ukrainian, and 24 into Estonian). Works of Lithuanian literature have been translated into the languages of other peoples of the USSR by N. Tikhonov, D. Brodskii, S. Mar, V. Derzhavin, V. Zviagintseva, M. Zenkevich, M. Petrovykh, P. Antokol’skii, L. Ozerov, P. Brovka, M. Tank, D. Vaarandi, M. Čaklais, B. Saulītis, M. Bazhan, and M. Ryl’skii. From 1941 to 1970, 1,825 books by writers of the peoples of the USSR were translated into Lithuanian (including 1,543 by Russians, 84 by Ukrainians, 79 by Latvians, and 46 by Estonians).

The Soviet Writers’ Union of Lithuania was founded in 1941 under the leadership of P. Cvirka. During the war the Bureau of Soviet Lithuanian Writers was established in Moscow (1942). The first congress of the union was held in 1945; the second, in 1954; the third, in 1959; the fourth, in 1965; and the fifth, in 1970.

REFERENCES

J. LANKUTIS

Architecture. Remnants of dwellings with a round or oval floor plan, with open hearths and walls made of vertical poles covered with plaster, have been found during archaeological digs at primitive sites in Lithuania dating from the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods and particularly the Neolithic period (fourth to mid-second millennia B.C.). Timber-frame structures with a rectangular floor plan had appeared by the start of the Common Era. Fortified settlements, or piliakalniai (hill forts), which had appeared as early as the Bronze Age, became widespread in the fifth through eighth centuries; they were protected by moats, ramparts (made of boulders, logs, and clay), and a palisade made of large logs. In the ninth to 12th centuries many piliakalniai were converted into wooden castles owned by feudal lords. Dwelling structures of the 12th to 14th centuries consisted of timber-frame buildings of rectangular floor plan, with open hearths or clay stoves. Numerous castles—of wood (in Kernavė) and stone (in Kaunas)—were built during the struggle against the aggression of the Teutonic Order. Large-scale defensive complexes consisting of several castles (for example, the castles in Trākai) were erected in the important centers of Lithuania in the 14th century. In the 13th and 14th centuries castles of stone and mixed construction were primarily rectangular in floor plan; some castles had a free plan, taking into consideration the characteristics of the surrounding locality (for example, the Upper Castle in Vilnius, 14th and 15th centuries).

Early stone architecture was subordinate to purposes of military defense: there was a predominance of thick walls, and embrasures with pointed arches were sometimes encountered.

Cities began to grow up rapidly in Lithuania in the 15th century. Construction in the cities was primarily of wood; brick public buildings and, beginning in the 14th century, individual residences were erected on the main streets. The first floor of a medieval house (frequently with the back facing the street side) was occupied by a commercial area, covered by a vaulted ceiling; the kitchen was located behind it, and the living quarters were on the second floor. Some cities were encircled by stone walls, which were usually constructed relatively late (in the early 16th century). Catholic churches, which were of the single-aisle type or the three-aisle hall type, were Gothic in style and had faceted polygonal apses; some of them were adapted for defense (with fortified comer towers, embrasures, and so on).

The early Gothic period in Lithuania (14th to first half of the 15th century) was characterized by churches with high, gabled roofs and triangular gable-end pediments with few window openings, emphasizing the massive quality of their buttress-reinforced walls, and with ribbed, groined ceiling vaults in the interiors. Beginning in the late 15th century the form of the buildings became less massive, and the facades were embellished with festively ceremonious, at times capricious decoration made from molded brick (for example, Perkunas House in Kaunas, 15th to 16th century; St. Ann’s Church in Vilnius, 16th century). The wooden churches and bell towers are unique in character and are stylistically close to Lithuanian folk architecture.

In the 16th century Lithuanian art developed ties with the artistic culture of the Renaissance, which in Lithuania coexisted with Gothic in the 16th century and with early baroque in the first half of the 17th century. Certain cities acquired a regular layout (Biržai, Virbalis, and Kretinga). Town houses were built with the long sides facing the streets; in brick houses of Gothic construction, floor plans and finishings were combined with Renaissance decor. Sometimes the houses were crowned by high parapet galleries (for example, the former chapter house in Vilnius, 16th century). Most feudal castles retained the medieval defensive nature: rectangular courtyards were partially enclosed by high brick walls with parapets and loopholes and partially by residential buildings. Castles were also built in which a palace without any defensive features was situated in the fortified area, which had bastions and ramparts according to the principles of fortification of the Italian Renaissance (for example, Radvilis Castle in Biržai, late 16th and early 17th centuries). Churches were of the single-aisle or three-aisle hall or basilica types, sometimes with a transept. Wood-block facades were crowned by pediments in the spirit of Renaissance architecture, and circular staircase towers were located at the corners, although sometimes there was only one large tower above the western facade. At times such churches were adaptable for defense (for example, the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Ŝiauliai, 1595–1625).

In the 17th and 18th centuries luxurious Catholic churches and palaces were built in the baroque style. In addition to Lithuanian architects, foreign architects—Italians, Germans, and others—also designed these baroque structures. Many Lithuanian churches from the early baroque period (1600–50) followed the design of II Gesù Church in Rome in their floor plan and spatial design (the floor plan has the shape of a Latin cross, with a wide central nave, and a dome over the crossing), but they have facades with two towers, which are traditional in Lithuania (St. Kazimieras’ Church in Vilnius). During the mature baroque period (1650–1690), the interiors of the most important churches had a magnificently fashioned stucco decor (for example, the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Vilnius), as well as frescoes. The palaces of the magnates built during the second half of the 17th century were usually symmetrical in composition, without fortifications (the Sluŝkis Palace in Vilnius, 1691–94). The late baroque period (1690–1790) was characterized by three-aisle basilicas (without transepts or domes) with two towers merging into a flat facade, which is broken up by cornices and small pilasters (St. Catherine’s Church in Vilnius).

At the turn of the 19th century the principles of classicism became widespread; they were most clearly manifested in the formally rigorous structures of the architect L. Stuoka-Gucevičius, such as a cathedral (now the Art Gallery), 1777–1801, and the City Hall (now the Art Museum), 1786–99; both in Vilnius. Many secular buildings were erected; projects for the regular layout of Vilnius, Kaunas, Ŝiauliai, and other cities were formulated and partially implemented under the influence of Russian city building. An eclectic imitation of the architectural styles of the past was predominant in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th century.

The architecture of bourgeois Lithuania during the 1920’s and early 1930’s was characterized by stylization based on the use of motifs drawn from folk art and neoclassicism (for example, the bank in Kaunas, 1924–29, architect M. Songaila); in the 1930’s, construction in the spirit of “modernized classicism” and, to some extent, of functionalism predominated (the structures of the architects V. Dubeneckis and V. žemkalnis-Landsbergis).

After the expulsion of the fascist occupation forces, work began in the republic on a general plan for the restoration and subsequent development of the cities; new cities (Naujoji Akmenė; construction begun in 1948) and settlements (Elektrėnai; 1960) were built. Construction of kolkhoz and sovkhoz settlements began in 1950 (the settlement of Dainava, Ukmėrgė Raion; 1965; architects R. Kamaitis, V. K. Ŝimkus, and others). During the immediate postwar years negative tendencies toward an eclectic ornamentalism were manifested in Lithuanian architecture.

A transition to industrial construction methods began in 1955. Since 1959 large-scale construction of prefabricated apartment houses based on standard plans has been developing. Residential architecture during the 1960’s and early 1970’s was characterized by integrated construction of housing complexes; by rationally planned layouts, effectively using the natural features of the site; and by diversity of the volumetric and spatial treatment of complexes and individual buildings based on the creative use of prefabricated industrial structural components. Effective use has been made of loggias and balcony railings, as well as various methods of surface finishing and painting of walls, which imparts to each building an individual appearance. Examples are the Vilnius residential areas of žirmūnai (construction begun in 1968; architects B. Kasperavičienė and B. Krūminis, engineers V. Zubrus and S. Liubeckis) and Lazdynai (construction begun in 1967; architects V. ėekanauskas and V. Bredikis). Public buildings are constructed primarily according to individual plans, marked by austerity of form and by convenient functional organization of space. Wood, ceramics, stained glass, metal, and large-scale decorative painting and sculpture are used extensively in interior design—for example, a cafė (1956–59) and the Neringa Hotel (1960; architects A. and V. Nasvytis) and the Palace of Art Exhibits (1967; architect V. ėekanauskas) in Vilnius, the campus group of the Polytechnic Institute near Kaunas (begun in 1964; architect V. Dičius), and the Palace of Sport (1971; architects J. Kriukelis, Z. Liandzbergis, E. Chlomaus-kas, and others) and the Opera and Ballet Theater (1973; architect E. Bučiūtė) in Vilnius. Large-panel apartment houses, schools, and trade centers have been erected in Tashkent, Minsk, and Rostov-on-Don from designs (including standardized designs) by Lithuanian architects. Great success is enjoyed by Lithuanian furniture designed by T. Baginskas, V. Beiga, and L. Stapulionienė. In Vilnius, Estonian architects designed the Music Hall, as well as a number of kindergartens; Latvian architects have designed schools, and the Leningrad architect A. U. Miroshin designed the Dainava Restaurant (1962–63). The Architects’ Union of the Lithuanian SSR was founded in 1945.

Fine art. The oldest objects of fine art found on the territory of Lithuania are primitive Neolithic amber figurines of people and animals from Palanga and Neringa, as well as wooden sculpture from Ŝventoji and ceramic vessels decorated with pit-and-comb and cord impressions. Bronze temporal pendants (from the village of Kurmaičiai, Kretinga Raion), torques, bracelets, and spiral pins (from the village of Pabaliai, Panevėžys Raion) date from the fifth century B.C. to the first century A.D. Ornaments of diverse form made of amber, bronze, and (in the third and fourth centuries) silver, with geometric impressions, appeared during the first millennium of the Common Era. A high level in the artistic working of metals was reached in the ninth to 12th centuries (the finishing of weapons, trappings for horses, and articles of jewelry). Foliage motifs and stylized depictions of animals became widespread.

Few monuments of medieval Lithuanian art have been preserved; among them are several painted wooden Gothic statues (for example, a 15th-century Madonna from a church in Kretinga) and fragments of secular paintings dating from the late 14th and early 15th centuries (known from copies made in 1822) in an island castle in Trākai. In the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, Lithuanian masters were employed, along with German, Italian, and Dutch artists.

The Renaissance portrait occupied an important place in art. The use of devices borrowed from Western European ceremonial portraits was combined with a truthful portrayal of the model’s individual traits (for example, the portrait of Sigismund II August, mid-16th century, Art Gallery, Vilnius). Certain altar pictures were marked by the influence of Italian Renaissance painting—for example, the Madonna in the chapel of the Auŝra Gate in Vilnius (16th century). Tombstones with bas-reliefs or sculpture in the round, which gained especially wide acceptance beginning in the second quarter of the 16th century, were executed primarily by foreign masters, who, however, were influenced by native traditions (for example, the typically Lithuanian ornamental treatment of clothing, background, and framing in the reliefs). In the first half of the 16th century, with the beginning of book publishing, woodcuts and wood engraving appeared. In the 17th and 18th centuries, baroque monumental decorative sculpture and painting were used extensively in palaces and churches—for example, the interior decor of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Vilnius (stucco; late 1670’s to early 1680’s) and the paintings in the Carmelite monastery in Pažaislis, near Kaunas (1677–84). Saturation with decorative motifs and plastic expression characterized the extremely large carved wooden altars, such as the altar of the Bernardine Church in Vilnius.

The development of Lithuanian art in the 19th century was greatly influenced by the teachers and graduates of the sub-departments of architecture, painting, graphic arts, and sculpture of the University of Vilnius (opened in 1793–1805; closed in 1832), who worked primarily in the spirit of classicism and romanticism (for example, the works of P. Smuglevičius and J. Rustemas). From the 1830’s to the 1850’s a leading role was played by the realistic portrait and landscape: the democratic aspirations of the artists were frequently manifested in the use of national types (K. Ruseckas) and Lithuanian natural scenery (V. Dmachauskas). In the second half of the 19th century the ties between Lithuanian and Russian art increased: many Lithuanian artists studied in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and exhibitions of Russian paintings were arranged in Lithuania. At the turn of the 20th century an important role in the formation of a national school of art and its democratic traditions was played by the Lithuanian Art Society (1907–35) and the national art exhibitions of 1907–14. A realistic trend that was frequently marked by critical tendencies that excoriated social and national oppression was predominant at the exhibitions (for example, the work of the sculptors J. Zikaras and P. Rimŝa). A special place in Lithuanian art in the early 20th century was occupied by the painting of M. K. Čiurlionis, in which symbolism characteristic of art nouveau was interwoven with the poetic fantasy of Lithuanian folklore.

During the bourgeois dictatorship the realistic artists, in striving to create a generalized image of the motherland and the Lithuanian nation in their landscapes and portraits, often used decorative solutions (J. Vienožinskis, P. Kalpokas, K. Ŝklėrius, J. Ŝileika, V. Eidukevičius, and A. žmuidzinavičius). The democratic trend was characteristic of the best works of small, monumental, and decorative sculpture (for example, the works of V. Grybas, J. Mikėnas, and B. Pundzius). The Kaunas Art School (founded 1922) exercised a great influence on the development of realistic Lithuanian art. The associations created by its graduates during the 1930’s—for example, the Ars group and the Society of Independent Artists—were opposed to the salon academism and naturalism of bourgeois art. The work of many young painters, among them V. Vizgirda, A. Galdikas, A. Gudaitis, and A. Samuolis, combined avant-gardist tendencies with the use of folk traditions. Theatrical set painting developed (V. Dubeneckis and M. V. Dobužinski), as did the graphic arts (M. Bulaka, M. Katiliūtė, J. Kuzminskis, D. Tarabildienė, and V. Jurkūnas). P. Vaivada, B. ž ekonis, S. ž ukas, and B. Motuza, who collaborated in the underground Communist press, including the satirical journal Ŝluota (Broom; 1934–36), were active in satirical graphic arts. The foundations of the modern monumental-decorative and applied art of Lithuania were laid during this period (the stained-glass panels of S. Uŝinskas, the mosaics of J. Mikėnas, the ceramics of V. Mik-nevičius, the small-scale ceramics of V. Manomaitis, and the furniture of J. Prapuolenis).

In the immediate postwar period Lithuanian artists mastered the method of socialist realism. The turn to Soviet subject matter has determined the development of historical and genre painting (the works of V. Mackevičius and V. Dilka). Portraits of contemporaries, as well as memorials, have been created by sculptors (P. P. Aleksandravičius, J. Mikėnas, and B. Pundzius). Illustrations for classical works of Lithuanian literature have predominated in book graphics. Since the second half of the 1950’s the link between the artists and the common people has been strengthened and the search for means to express an emotionally graphic interpretation of reality has become more profound and diverse. A striving for a decorative and rhythmic integral quality, at times a somewhat arbitrary composition, an expressiveness of stroke, and a tense interrelationship of large areas of color are characteristic of the dramatic, historical-revolutionary, and genre paintings of A. Savickas, S. Veiverytė, and S. Džiaukŝtas; the genre paintings and landscapes of V. Gečas, L. Surgailis, A. Stasiulevičius, and J. Ŝvažas; the portraits of V. Karataius; the landscapes of V. Kisarauskas; and the delicately colored works of A. Gudaitis and L. Tuleikis, who work in various genres. Expressive wall paintings have been executed by R. V. Gibavičius, J. žilytė, and A. Steponavičius. Creative reinterpretation of the traditions of folk woodcarving, expressive generalization of forms and outlines, and clarity of structure are characteristic of the best works of Lithuanian monumental and decorative plastic art and portrait sculpture (the works of A. V.

Ambraziunas, R. Antinis, V. Vildžiūnas, J. Kėdainis, K. Kisielis, and N. Petrulis). Among the best works of contemporary Soviet monumental art is the monument to the victims of fascism in the village of Pirčiupis (granite, 1960, G. Jokčbonis; Lenin Prize, 1963).

The school of Soviet Lithuanian graphic arts has certain unique characteristics (for example, the works of V. Valius, R. V. Gibavičius, J. B. žilytė, S. Krasauskas, J. Kuzminskis, A. Kučas, A. Makūnaitė, P. Rauduvė, A. Steponavičius, and V. Jurkūnas); many masters of the school are using the traditions of folk art and its expressive idiom and romantic perception of the world. Stained glass (for example, the works of A. Stoŝkus and K. Morkūnas) is of the greatest significance in the decorative art of Lithuania. In addition to stained-glass panels of traditional technique, Lithuanian masters are creating stained-glass panels made from thick-cut colored glass (mounted on steel frameworks using plastic cement), which have great depth and color tension and emotional expressiveness in the surface finish and spatial treatments. Ceramics (the works of J. Adomonis, M. Vrubliauskas, A. Ličkutė, I. Mikėnas, and L. Strolis), decorative fabrics (J. Balčikonis, V. Daujotas, and M. Dūdienė), and amberworking have developed.

Biennial exhibits of graphic art (since 1968, in Tallinn) and painting (since 1969, in Vilnius) have become traditional for the Baltic republics. Lithuanian artists also participate in all-Union exhibitions. J. Mikėnas, B. Pundzius, and others produced the sculptured part of a monument in Kaliningrad to the 1,200 guards who fell during the attack on Königsberg (bronze, 1945–46); G. Jokūbonis produced the monument to V. I. Lenin on Il’ich Square in Moscow (bronze, 1967, architect V. ėekanaus-kas), and the Moscow sculptor N. V. Tomskii produced monuments to I. D. Cherniakhovskii (bronze, unveiled in 1950) and V. I. Lenin (bronze, unveiled in 1952) in Vilnius.

The wooden folk architecture of Lithuania is essentially characterized by an emphasized functional quality, flexible power, and a unique monumentality of austere, simple forms. The buildings are ornamented with carving. The carved decor of memorial pillar-shrines is particularly rich. A unique feature of folk art is original wooden sculpture—small images of the patron saints of peasant labor, the meditative Christ (the Rapintojelis), and the lamentation of Christ—which are outstanding for the sharp expressiveness of the figures and their plastic expression, as well as wood engraving (which was widespread in žemaitija from the late 18th to the early 20th century).

The Artists’ Union of the Lithuanian SSR was founded in 1952.

REFERENCES

J. MINKEVIčIUS (architecture) and V. N. KULESHOVA (art)

Soviet Lithuania has a well-developed musical culture, based on the classical traditions of the past and a wealth of musical folklore. The folk song, with its primarily emotional content, is based on diatonic scales. Its metrical and rhythmic structure is often asymmetric. Of interest is the ancient sutartinės genre of songs, based on a canon-like melody with continuous parallel seconds or on vocal counterpoint. Folk wind instruments include the ragas (horn), daudytė (long pipe), skudu č iai (similar to a panpipe), lumzdelis (whistle), and birbynė; among plucked string instruments are the kanklės, and among percussion instruments, the skrabalai. An outstanding role in the study of musical folklore has been played by J. Čiurlionitė.

Western European music first reached Lithuania at the turn of the 14th century. In the 16th century music schools for singers in church choirs were established in Vilnius, secular music developed, and vocal and instrumental groups, as well as opera and ballet troupes, were organized at the courts of the princes and other feudal lords. The first music textbook, Musical Art and Practice by ž. Liauksminas (in Latin), was published in 1667. Beginning in 1785, operas and ballets by Western European composers were staged at the Vilnius Municipal Theater. A subdepartment of music theory and composition was established at the University of Vilnius in the early 19th century. From 1840 to 1858 a great influence on the musical culture of Vilnius was exerted by S. Moniuszko, who was living there. The Vilnius Division of the Russian Musical Society functioned from 1873 to 1915 (with interruptions); it established the Vilnius Music School, which existed during the same period. In the 19th century the courts of the Lithuanian aristocracy had orchestras and orchestral schools, and the Lithuanian professional musicians and organists J. Kalvaitis, M. Racevičius-Račas, and J. Dryja-Visockis were active.

The formation of Lithuanian professional music was closely associated with the national liberation movement. Folk choral groups became widespread. Small towns and villages arranged “barn” parties (the shows were presented in barns), at which Lithuanian choral music was also performed. Choral groups were created under the auspices of Lithuanian cultural societies in St. Petersburg, Odessa, Riga, Warsaw, and Moscow, and in many Lithuanian cities, particularly during the Revolution of 1905—07. Well-known organizers of such choral groups included S. Ŝimkus, A. Jasenauskas, J. Neimontas, and V. Vidūnas.

At the turn of the 20th century Lithuanians could complete their professional education only outside Lithuania. In 1906 the efforts of the Vilniaus Kanklės Society made possible the production of the first national opera, Birutė by M. Petrauskas, in the creation of which not only opera but also the native musical comedy and Lithuanian revolutionary songs came into being. M. K. Čiurlionis, an outstanding Lithuanian painter, was the author of the first native symphonic poems (In the Forest, 1901, and The Sea, 1907), as well as a quartet and works for piano and organ. The organist and teacher J. Naujalis and the choral conductors Č. Sasnauskas and Petrauskas created the Lithuanian choral repertoire. Together with the classical composers of Lithuanian music Čiurlionis, J. Gruodis, and Ŝimkus, they laid the foundations of professional music.

During World War I (1914–18), Lithuania’s musical life began to die out. The Musical College of the People’s Commissariat of Education (J. Talat-Kelpŝa, K. Galkauskas, and others), which undertook active organizational work, was formed in December 1918 under the Provisional Workers’ and Peasants’ Government.

Under the bourgeois dictatorship, musical art was developed through the efforts of progressive musical figures. Musical life in Vilnius, which was occupied by bourgeois Poland, existed under difficult conditions; Kaunas became the center of Lithuanian music. An opera company was founded there in 1920, and in 1925 it was merged with drama and ballet troupes. Orchestras of the theater and the Kaunas Radio (founded in 1926), the V. Kudirka Orchestra (founded in 1934), and the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society gave concerts. The Kaunas School of Music (since 1933, the Conservatory) was founded in 1919, and the Klaipėda School of Music was founded in 1924. The first mass song festival was held in Kaunas in 1924 (the second was held in 1928, and the third, in 1930).

Theater activity was stimulated by the appearance of the Lithuanian operas Gražina (1933) and Radvila Perkūnas (1937) by J. Karnavičius, Three Talismans (1936) by A. Račiūnas, and Eglė, Queen of the Grass Snakes (1939) by Petrauskas and I. Dambrauskas, as well as ballets (see below: Dance and ballet). The principles of Lithuanian symphonic art, which was closely associated with folklore, crystallized in the work of Gruodis, who developed the traditions of ėiurlionis. Chamber works were composed, including a string quartet by Karnavičius and songs by Talat-Kelpŝ a. Choral music occupied an important place in the creative work of Ŝimkus, A. Kačanauskas, J. Karosas, J. Žilevičius, and N. Martinonis.

The Philharmonic Society (which included a symphony orchestra, a choral group, and a folk song and dance ensemble), the House of Folk Art, and musical educational institutions opened in Vilnius after the restoration of Soviet power (1940). An organizing committee was set up to guide the work of the composers.

During the fascist occupation, musical life came to a halt. The State Artistic Ensembles of the Lithuanian SSR (1942–44) were organized in Pereslavl’-Zalesskii from among the artistic leaders who had been evacuated.

After the liberation of Lithuania from fascist occupation forces by the Soviet Army, the work of musical groups and institutions was revived. The Vilnius Conservatory was founded in 1945 (in 1949 it was merged with the Kaunas Conservatory). In 1948 the Lithuanian Theater of Opera and Ballet was moved to Vilnius. Important works were composed in all genres. The first Soviet Lithuanian opera, Maritė by Račiūnas, was performed in 1953; subsequently operas with various subject matter, dramaturgy, and means of expression were performed, among them Pilėnai (1956), Vaiva (1958), The Daughter (1960), and Two Swords (1966) by V. Klova; Dalia by B. Dvarionas (1959); The Drowned Maiden (1959) and The Scarlet Roses Are Blooming (1966) by V. Baumilas; Frank Kruk by B. Gorbulskis (1959); City of the Sun by Raėiünas (1965); At the Crossroads by V. Paltanavičius (1967); and The Wandering Birds by V. Laurušas (1967). Important achievements in ballet have also been made by Lithuanian composers. The first Soviet Lithuanian musical comedy, The Golden Sea by A. Belazaras, was composed in 1955. J. Gorbulskis also wrote a number of musical comedies.

Works in the vocal and symphonic genre, like the operas and musical comedies, are marked by a realistic trend, a folk quality, and national color; they reflect the most important problems of the times. The first Lithuanian oratorio was Soviet Lithuania by Račiūnas (1948). Oratorios were later written by E. Balsis, A. Klenickis, J. Baŝinskas, Karoŝas, and V. Kairiukŝtis. Cantatas on important subjects were written by Klenickis, Račiūnas, J. Ŝvedas, J. Juzeliūnas, T. Makačinas, V. Barkauskas, and Paltanavičius.

In their symphonic works, Lithuanian composers in the 1950’s and 1960’s made a great qualitative leap from the simple use of folk-genre elements to bolder and more modem means of expression associated with the achievements of Soviet and progressive foreign music, while at the same time continuing and developing the classical traditions. Phenomena of contemporary life are profoundly reflected and philosophically generalized in the symphonies of S. Vainiūnas, Račiūnas, Dvarionas, Juzeliūnas, A. Bražinskas, A. Rekaŝius, Baŝinskas, and Barkauskas. In addition to the large forms, the genres of symphonic suites, poems, and variations are extensively represented in Soviet Lithuanian music. Since the late 1940’s the instrumental concerto with orchestra has become popular, as represented by the works of Dvarionas, Vainiūnas, Balsys, Bražinskas, Gorbulskis, Karosas, Klova, and Juzeliūnas. Among the works of instrumental chamber music are string quartets by Balsis and Juzeliūnas and a piano trio, two piano quintets, and other piano pieces by Vainiūnas.

Lyricism and the theme of the struggle for peace have been expressed in vocal music. The songs and romantic pieces of Gruodis, Ŝimkus, Kačanauskas, K. Kaveckas, Karosas, Dambrauskas, Dvarionas, V. Jurgutis, and Lauruŝas have become popular. Songs for choir have been composed by Talat-Kelpŝ a, Ŝvedas, Karosas, Budriūnas, Račiūnas, Baŝinskas, and R. žigaitis. Lithuanian composers have devoted considerable attention to music for motion pictures and dramas, as well as to arrangements of folk songs and music for the variety stage.

Among Lithuanian musicologists are Honored Artist of the Lithuanian SSR J. Čiurlionitė and Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR J. Gaudrimas. The most important performers are, among conductors, People’s Artist of the USSR B. Dvarionas, People’s Artists of the Lithuanian SSR R. Geniuŝ as and J. Domarkas, and Honored Artists of the Lithuanian SSR S. Sondeckis and I. Aleksa; among choral directors, People’s Artist of the USSR J. Ŝvedas, People’s Artists of the Lithuanian SSR A. Budriūnas and K. Kaveckas, and Honored Artist of the Lithuanian SSR L. Abarius; among pianists, People’s Artist of the USSR B. Dvarionas and People’s Artist of the Lithuanian SSR S. Vainiūnas; among violinists, People’s Artists of the Lithuanian SSR A. Livontas and J. Palauskas; among organists, Honored Artist of the Lithuanian SSR L. Digrys; among singers, People’s Artists of the USSR K. Petrauskas, J. Stasiunas, and V. Noreika and People’s Artists of the Lithuanian SSR V. Daunoras, E. Chudakova, J. Saulevičiutė, R. Siparis, R. Marijoŝius, and N. Ambrazaitytė.

Since 1946, Lithuania has had seven republic-level song festivals, assemblies of men’s choral groups (since 1963), and song festivals for schoolchildren (since 1964), all of which have become important events in the republic’s cultural life. Lithuania also holds all-Union festivals of chamber music; international festivals of organ music have been held since 1968, and the M. K. Čiurlionis Interrepublic Performance Competitions, since 1965.

Groups functioning in the Lithuanian SSR as of 1976 included the Lithuanian Theater of Opera and Ballet, the Kaunas Musical Theater (1940), the Philharmonic Society (1940), the symphony orchestra of the Philharmonic Society (1940), the chamber orchestra of the Philharmonic Society (1960), the Lithuanian Quartet (1946), the Vilnius Quartet (1965), the choir of the Lithuanian Radio and Television (1963), the choir of the Philharmonic Society in Kaunas (1969), four vocal and instrumental ensembles of the Philharmonic Society, and the Lietuva Song and Dance Ensemble (1940). Institutions included the Composers’ Union of the Lithuanian SSR (First congress held in 1948), a conservatory (1949), two music departments of the Lithuanian Conservatory in Klaipėda (1971), five schools of music (in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Ŝiauliai, and Panevėžys), two specialized secondary schools of the arts with music divisions (in Vilnius and Kaunas), and 64 music schools.

REFERENCES

J. GAUDRIMAS [section updated]

The art of folk dancing has existed in Lithuania since remote antiquity; it is one of the richest areas of folk art. The most widespread dances are work dances (the Mill, the Blacksmith, and the Spinner), seasonal dances (Jarov Bridge), family ceremonial dances (the Matchmaker and Saturday Holiday), and celebration dances. Lithuanian folk dances are characterized by a rigidly fixed metrical and rhythmic structure. The meter is usually 2/4, 3/4, or 3/8. The dances are marked by restraint, a lyrical quality, symmetrical design, complexity of composition, and an abundance of figures. They are performed by groups of several dancers. A special group—dances for older persons—is slower, with simple figures (for example, Rye). Young people’s dances, particularly the girls’ dances, are graceful and lyrical. The most ancient dances are the sutartinės, which are dances for women, accompanied by songs. In the mid-19th century the sung accompaniment of the dances was replaced by instrumental music. The “little circles” (rateliaï), a new type of folk choreography, became widespread in the early 20th century.

Folk dances were first performed on stage in the early 20th century at amateur theatrical shows. The first public presentation of folk dances was held in 1938. After the establishment of Soviet power, folk dances became one of the most popular mass types of amateur artistic activity. Such dances have been popularized by a professional group, the Lietuva Song and Dance Ensemble. Since 1950 numerous dance groups have performed at republic-level song festivals. New folk dances have appeared (for example, the Poultry Farmers’ Polka and the Dance of Youth). Among the arrangers and creators of new folk dances are J. Lingys, J. Gudavičius, E. Morkūnienė, K. Poŝkaitis, and M. Vaitulėvičiutė.

Professional ballet has been well known in Lithuania since the 16th century, when ballet troupes existed at the courts of the magnates. Ballet artists subsequently performed in operas at the Vilnius Municipal Theater (founded 1785).

The formation of a national professional ballet is associated with the artist and ballerina O. Dubeneckiené-Kalpokienė, who in 1921 founded a private ballet studio in Kaunas and produced the first staging of dances in A. G. Rubinstein’s opera The Demon at the opera theater in Kaunas. In 1925 the choreographer P. Petrov staged L. Delibes’ ballet Coppėlia there (the performers included students from the ballet studio, as well as dramatic actors); later he produced P. I. Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, P. Hertel’s La Fille mal gardėe, and Delibes’ Sylvia. The choreographers G. Kiakŝtas, V. Karali, and F. A. Vasil’ev worked in the troupe from 1929 to 1931. From 1931 to 1934 the company was headed by N. Zverev, V. Nemchinova, and A. Obukhov, who also performed the leading roles. Their creative activity facilitated the establishment on the Lithuanian stage of the best traditions of the Russian school of ballet, as well as the professional growth of the troupe. Among Zverev’s productions were the first Lithuanian one-act ballets— In the Whirlwind of the Dance by V. Bacevičius, Jūratė and Kastytis by J. Gruodis, and Matchmaking by B. Dvarionis (all in 1933). In 1935, A. Fedorova became head of the troupe, and she organized a private ballet studio, which she directed until 1938. Members of the troupe included the dancers O. Malėjinaitê, M. Juozapaitytė, B. Kelbauskas, J. Jovaisaitė-Olekienė, G. Jag-minas, E. Bandzevičius, and V. Aukŝčiūnas.

In 1936, Kelbauskas began his career as a choreographer. He staged the ballets The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (1938) and The Prisoner of the Caucasus (1939) by B. V. Asaf’ev, The Red Poppy by R. M. Gličre (1940), and The Bride by J. Pakalnis (1943). Intensive development of the art of ballet began after the liberation of Lithuania from the fascist occupation forces. Among the choreographers working in the Lithuanian Theater of Opera and Ballet were F. V. Lopukhov (Swan Lake, 1948), M. L. Satunovskii (Laurencia by A. A. Krein, 1950), V. Grivickas (Svetlana by D. L. Klebanov, 1951), and M. F. Moiseev and K. I. Sal’nikova (The Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky, 1955).

From 1954 to 1971 the troupe was headed by People’s Artist of the Lithuanian SSR Grivickas. He produced On the Seashore by J. Juzeliūnas (1953, in collaboration with A. M. Messerer), the first Lithuanian ballet on a modern theme, and the ballets Audronė by J. Indra (1956), and Eglė, Queen of the Grass Snakes by E. Balsys (1960 and 1969); he also added Giselle by A. Adam (1956 and 1970), La Esmeralda by C. Pugni (1962), Spartacus by A. I. Khachaturian (1964), and Don Quixote by L. Minkus (1954 and 1968) to the repertoire. Among the new productions of Lithuanian ballets are The Failing Cross and Passions by A. Rekaŝius (1966–70).

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the troupe included People’s Artist of the USSR G. Sabaliauskaitė; People’s Artists of the Lithuanian SSR T. Svėntickaitė, H. Kunaviči us, and H. Banys; Honored Artist of the RSFSR C. žebrauskas; and Honored Artists of the Lithuanian SSR R. Janavičiutė, A. Ruzgaitė, L. Aŝkelovičiūtė, and R. Minderis. Among the younger performers are S. Masaneva, S. Vabalevičiutė, R. Krugiskytė, V. Kudžma, T. Sakalauskaitė, and V. Sasnauskas, as well as the choreographer E. Bukaitis.

Since 1952 a division of choreography has been functioning at the M. K. Čiurlionis Secondary School of Arts in Vilnius. Since 1970 a ballet troupe directed by A. Kondratavičius has existed at the Kaunas Musical Theater. Since 1965 a division of choreography has been functioning at the J. Naujalis Kaunas Secondary School of the Arts. A. Ruzgaitė and L. Motiejunaitė have worked on problems of the study of ballet.

There is a creative exchange among the ballet leaders of the Baltic republics. Grivickas staged the ballet On the Seashore by J. Juzeliūnas at the Latvian and Estonian theaters of opera and ballet (1954 and 1958). At the Estonian Theater of Opera and Ballet he also produced the ballet Northern Dream by L. Auster (1960). The Estonian balletmaster A. Koit staged Auster’s ballet Tüna (1959) at the Lithuanian Theater of Opera and Ballet, where the Latvian choreographer E. Tangijeva-Bīrzniece staged the ballet Rigonda by R. Grīnblats (1960).

REFERENCES

Z. POCIUS and L. MOTIEJUNAITĖ

Elements of theatrical art are contained in Lithuanian folk rituals and festivals, folklore, and dances. Until the mid-20th century various improvised sketches from everyday life were performed in villages. School theater existed in the 16th to 18th centuries. Shows were presented in Latin—and later in Polish— at the University of Vilnius and Kražiai Collegium. Only comical and satirical episodes were performed in Lithuanian. There were theatrical troupes on the estates of the great feudal lords; shows were staged primarily for the clergy and rich burghers.

A professional troupe organized by the actor and director V. Boguslavskii worked in Vilnius from 1785 to 1790. It became the basis of the Vilnius Municipal Theater, the first public theater in Lithuania (its activity was gradually curtailed after the 1863 uprising). Troupes directed by D. Morawski, M. Każiński, M. Korwell-Morawska, K. Skibiński, W. Schmithof, and K. Ŝliogeris worked at the theater in the 18th and 19th centuries. Until 1904, under the tsarist regime, theatrical presentations in Lithuanian were staged secretly. The first public show in Lithuanian, Keturakis’ America in the Bathhouse, was presented in Palanga in 1899. During and after the Revolution of 1905–07, Lithuanian amateur theatrical societies and dramatic circles were established in Vilnius, Kaunas, Ŝiauliai, and other cities. The careers of the directors G. Landsbergis-žemkalnis, L. Jakavičius, J. Misius, and A. Rucevičius took shape in those societies and circles. Graduates of the St. Petersburg and Moscow theatrical schools—among them K. Glinskis, J. Vaičkus, and A. Vitkauskas—also worked there. Amateur theater followed the traditions of the Lithuanian folk theater; it developed under the influence of the progressive ideas of Russian theatrical culture and acquired a mass nature.

After the proclamation of Soviet power in Lithuania (1918), a theatrical section was organized under the administration of the People’s Commissariat of Education, and a decree was promulgated providing for the nationalization of the theatrical facilities in Vilnius. The directors Glinskis and Vaičkus were entrusted with the task of organizing professional theaters in Vilnius, and favorable conditions were created for the operation of the “Flying Theater” (organized by Vaičkus in 1905; performed during 1917–18 in St. Petersburg and in Vilnius after 1918). The formation of the first national Lithuanian theaters in Vilnius was cut short in 1919, when the city was captured by bourgeois Poland.

From 1919 to 1940, Kaunas was the center of theatrical life; the National Theater (1919 and 1923–25) and the Vilkolakis Satire Theater (1919–25) were located there. A drama troupe was formed in 1920, at the same time as an opera company, under the sponsorship of the Society of the Creators of Lithuanian Art. In 1925 the troupe merged with the opera and ballet company, thus forming the State Theater.

Under the bourgeois dictatorship a struggle was waged in the theatrical art of Lithuania between progressive and reactionary forces. Censorship controlled the repertoire and encouraged the production of plays of a nationalist and petit bourgeois nature. Progressive figures staged the classics and the best plays of the Lithuanian dramatists V. Krėvė, V. Mykolaitis-Putinas, S. Čurlionienė, P. Vaičiūnas, and K. Binkis. Successful work was done by the directors Glinskis, Vaičkus, A. Sutkus, B. Dauguvietis, and A. Oleka-žilinskas and the actors A. Vainiūnaitė, T. Vaičiūnienė, V. Dineika, J. Stanulis, J. Petrauskas, P. Kubertavičius, O. Kurmytė, J. Laucius, P. Pinkauskaitė, O. Rymaitė, and M. Chadaravičius. The Ŝiauliai Drama Theater was opened in 1931 (from 1935 to 1939 it operated in Klaipėda). The Young People’s Theater, which was founded by progressive actors under the direction of Oleka-žilinskas, existed during the 1933–34 season. A theater that existed from 1939 to 1945 under the name Vaidila was formed from amateur circles in Vilnius. In the late 1930’s the productions of a number of Lithuanian theaters (particularly those directed by Dauguvietis, as well as by R. Juknevičius and A. Jaksavičius) took on a distinctly expressed progressive social tendency; the directors and actors turned increasingly to the ideas of K. S. Stanislavsky, V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, and E. B. Vakhtangov.

A new phase in the development of the Lithuanian theater began after the overthrow of the bourgeois dictatorship and the establishment of the Lithuanian SSR (1940). In 1940–41 several new theaters opened, including the Vilnius State Theater and the Panevėžys Theater. An important place in the repertoire was occupied by plays written by Soviet dramatists, assimilation of the method of socialist realism began, and the actors created vivid images of Soviet people. The heroic and romantic shows Armored Train 14–69 by V. Ivanov and The Break by B. A. Lavrenev (both 1941) represented great achievements.

The vigorous growth of the Soviet Lithuanian theater was interrupted by the aggression of fascist Germany (1941). However, under the difficult conditions of the fascist terror, theatrical leaders strove to preserve the democratic traditions of national art, staging artistically significant plays by Lithuanian and foreign authors.

Works by Soviet Lithuanian dramatists on the fight against fascism and the hard life in the old Lithuanian village appeared after the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). The process of mastering the method of socialist realism continued; many productions were distinguished for the realism of their stage portrayals, their faithfulness to everyday life, and the realistic vividness of the acting. Among the best productions were The Daughter-in-law and Petras Kurmelis, after žemaitė, and The Cherry Orchard by A. P. Chekhov (all in 1945); Enemies by M. Gorky (1946); The Roosters Are Beginning to Crow by J. Baltuŝ is and The ž aldokas Estate by B. Dauguvietis (both 1948); and A Bit of Money by S. Čiurlionienė (1953).

Since the second half of the 1950’s, the theatrical art of Lithuania has been characterized by a diversity of stage forms and styles. Heroic-monumental, romantic, vividly theatrical, and philosophical productions have been staged. Among them have been The Drowned Maiden (after A. Vienuolis), Predawn Fate by B. Sruoga, and Fortress on the Bug River by S. S. Smirnov (all 1956); The First Cavalry Army by V. V. Vishnevskii (1957); Herkus Mantas (1957) and Barbara Radvilaitė (1972) by J. Grūŝas; Death of a Salesman by A. Miller (1958); Hamlet (1959), Macbeth (1961), and Coriolanus (1972) by Shakespeare; The Alarm by K. Saja (1962); The Virgin Soil Upturned, based on M. A. Sholokhov’s novel (1964); Blood and Ashes, based on a work by J. Marcinkevičius (1961); Mindaugas (1969) and The Cathedral (1971) by Marcinkevičiu s; Skirgaila by V. Krėvė (1966); and The Dance of Death by J. A. Strindberg (1973). Artistic collaboration with theatrical groups of other Union republics, exchanges of touring companies, and participation in the Baltic Theatrical Spring festivals (1956–58), as well as festivals of friendship and festivals of young people’s and puppet theaters (since 1966) and theaters of port cities, have exerted a great influence on the Lithuanian theater. Theaters of the fraternal republics have staged the plays of J. Grūŝas, J. Marcinkevičius, V. Palčinskaitė, and K. Saja. Graduates of the Lithuanian Studio of the State Institute of Theater Arts joined the troupe of the Kaunas Drama Theater in 1952.

As of 1973, the republic had the Drama Theater of the Lithuanian SSR and the Young People’s Theater (founded in 1965) in Vilnius; the Kaunas Drama Theater; theaters in Ŝiauliai, Panevėžys, and Klaipėda (founded in 1935); the Vilnius Russian Theater (founded in 1946); and puppet theaters in Vilnius and Kaunas (both founded in 1958). Actors and directors are trained at the theatrical division of the Vilnius Conservatory (opened in 1952) and at the dramatic studio of the Panevėžys Theater (organized in 1940). The Theatrical Society of the Lithuanian SSR was founded in 1947.

Among those who have made important contributions to the development of Lithuanian stage art are People’s Artists of the USSR B. Dauguvietis and J. Siparis and Honored Art Workers of the Lithuanian SSR V. J. Golovėineris and R. Juknevičius. Leading theatrical figures as of 1973 included People’s Artists of the Lithuanian SSR B. Babkauskas, D. Banionis, E. Bindokaitė, N. Vosyliütė, B. A. Krasil’nikov, L. Kupstaitė, J. Laucius, J. Miltinis, M. Mironaitė, S. Paska, P. Pinkauskaitė, S. Jukna, and G. Jackevičiutė and Honored Art Workers of the Lithuanian SSR G. Vancevičius, P. Gaidis, J. Kavaliauskas, and R. Staliliūnaitė (directors and actors), as well as the artists J. Malinauskaitė, F. Navickas, R. Songalaitė, J. Surkevičius, and L. Truikys.

REFERENCES

A. IA. SHNEER

The first motion pictures in Lithuania (By the Nemunas River and others) were made in 1909 by the cameraman and director V. Starevičius. From 1909 to 1913 the Lithuanian-American A. Radžiūnas (Raėiünas) made some short newsreel films in Lithuania. Lithuanian newsreels first appeared on local screens in 1921; they were made on a regular basis beginning in 1932 by amateur cameramen (S. Uzdonas, S. Vainalavičius, A. žibas, and others). The joint-stock companies of film-lovers and film actors’ studios that originated in 1926 were ruined because of the lack of a national motion-picture industry. Only the Akis (Eye) Studio made a short comedy, The Doctor in Spite of Himself (1927), and the full-length comedies The Lithuanian Soldier (1928) and Onytė and Jonelis (1931). In 1932, J. Vaičkus (one of the founders of the Lithuanian professional theater) created a joint-stock company of film-lovers and opened a film actors’ studio; after his death in 1935 the company broke up. From 1935 to 1940, J. Linartas held a franchise for the production of news-reels. The first Lithuanian puppet film, A Fat Man’s Dream (cameraman A. žibas, artist S. Uŝinskas), was made in 1935.

In 1940, after the restoration of Soviet power, the Feature and Documentary Film Studio was established in Kaunas, and in 1941 a newsreel correspondents’ office was set up in Vilnius. They were both closed during the fascist German occupation. In 1944, after the liberation of Kaunas, the studio was reestablished; it released the newsreel The Liberated Land, produced by the documentary film-makers V. Staroŝas and L. Maculevičius. The newsreel Soviet Lithuania (Tarybų Lietuva) has been produced since March 1945. In 1949 the studio was moved to Vilnius. In 1947 the Mosfil’m motion-picture studio produced the picture Maritė about the Lithuanian partisan Maritė Melnikaitė, in which Lithuanian actors played. The Lithuanian Film Studio released the motion-picture dramas Dawn Over the Nemunas River (1953) and Ignotas Has Returned Home and The Bridge (both 1956) with the participation of master film-makers from the Mosfil’m and Lenfil’m studios, including the directors A. E. Razumnyi and A. M. Faintsimmer and the cameramen A. N. Moskvin and N. D. Vasil’ev.

During the mid-1950’s the studio’s production facilities were expanded, and the Lithuanian film industry was joined by graduates of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (the directors V. ž alakevičius and V. Mikalauskas and the cameraman I. Gricius). Among the motion pictures produced by the studio were Julius Janonis (1959; directed by B. Bratkauskas and V. Dabaŝinskas), Adomas Wants to Be a Man (1959, directed by ¿alakevičius), Living Heroes (1960; collection of brief pieces, under the artistic supervision of žalakevičius and directed by M. Giedrys, Bratkauskas, and A. žebriūnas), attesting to the emergence of a national school characterized by a search for a broad, graphic film idiom, the embodiment of uniquely original, profoundly national characters, civic-mindedness, and an acute sense of social reality. Major achievements were represented by the motion pictures A Chronicle of One Day (1963) and Nobody Wanted to Die (1965) by the director and screenwriter žalakevičius, Steps in the Night (1962) and Stairway to the Sky (1967) by the director R. Vabalas, and The Little Girl and the Echo (The Last Day of Vacation, 1964) and The Beauty (1969) by žebriūnas, as well as the work of the cameramen Gricius, A. Mockus, D. Pečiura, and J. Tomaŝevičius, which is marked by professional mastery of skills and by an individual, creative hand.

Lithuanian cinematography in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s has been characterized by a broadening of the range of problems dealt with, by diversity of genre, and by an increase in the number of films about present-day Lithuania: Let There Be Life! (Ave, vita!, 1969; directed by A. Grikevičius), June, the Beginning of Summer (1969; directed by Vabalas), and A Small Confession (1971; directed by A. Araminas). Film versions of classical Lithuanian literature were made (This Accursed Submissiveness, 1970, based on themes from J. Turnas-Vaižgantas’ work Uncles and Aunts), as were films about the historical past (Stone on Stone, 1971, directed by Vabalas, and Herkus Mantas, 1972, directed by Giedrys). Actors appearing in such films came from the Panevėžys Drama Theater (D. Banionis, B. Babkauskas, A. Masiulis, K. Vitkus, V. Blėdis, and G. Karka) and from other Lithuanian theaters (J. Budraitis, R. Adomaitis, G. Kurauskas, L. Noreika, E. Pleŝkytė, A. Ŝurna, and A. Chadaravičius). They have made films in Lithuanian studios and have appeared in joint productions by the USSR and other countries.

The zenith of the Lithuanian documentary motion picture is associated with the film journalism of V. Staroŝ as, L. Tautrimas, and L. Maculevičius, who during the 1950’s and 1960’s made the short films In the Motherland, Ten Days in Poland, Neringa, A Flower in the Trenches, Why the Stones Are not Silent, and The Youth of Song. Documentary films were made concerning the various phases of the Lithuanian people’s struggle for Soviet power: They’re From Kaunas, My Friends, Dreams and Destinies, and Don’t Lose Heart, Virginius (all directed by Staroŝas). During the 1960’s the graduates of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography R. Verba, A. Dausa, A. Tumas, A. Grikevič ius, and A. Digimas devoted their efforts to making documentary motion pictures. The search for an emotional conception of reality has marked their works, including The Night Before the Opening of the Exhibition, Tales of the Sun, Three Measures, Behind the Door, and Time Travels About the City. A mastery of cinematic control marks the films of Verba (The Old Man and the Land, Both Old and Young, Thoughts of Centenarians, and Loyalty).

Film festivals and week-long festivals of motion pictures from the Union republics, foreign films, and films from the socialist countries are held in Vilnius. Motion pictures from Lithuanian studios are shown at film festivals held in the USSR and abroad, as well as during special week-long festivals of Lithuanian motion pictures in other Union republics. The Lithuanian cameramen I. Gricius and A. Mockus have made motion pictures in the studios of Lenfil’m (Hamlet and King Lear) and Tallinfil’m (Drift of the Ice and A Forest Legend). The director V. žalakevič ius, working with the screenwriter V. I. Ezhov, made the picture Liberty Is a Sweet Word at the Mosfil’m Studio.

Each year the studio dubs 20 films into Lithuanian. The news-reel Novosti ekrana (Screen News) was produced from 1959 to 1972; in 1972 its name was changed to Kino(in Lithuanian and Russian). The Lithuanian Cinematographers’ Union was founded in 1958. At the end of 1972 there were 1,545 motion-picture projection units in Lithuania.

REFERENCES

M. MALCIENĖ