In October 2002, Lithuania was invited to join the European Union and one month later to affix the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; it became a member of both in 2004. During the nationwide referendum on February 9, 1991, greater than ninety% of those that took half within the voting (seventy six% of all eligible voters) voted in favor of an independent, democratic Lithuania. During the 1991 Soviet coup d’état try in August, Soviet navy troops took over a number of communications and different authorities facilities in Vilnius and other cities, however returned to their barracks when the coup failed. The Lithuanian authorities banned the Communist Party and ordered confiscation of its property.

In Lithuanian cuisine there is some emphasis on enticing presentation of freshly prepared foods. Later, some Lithuanians were relocated to work in other areas of the Soviet Union; a few of them didn’t return to Lithuania, after it became independent. Especially large Polish communities are located within the Vilnius District Municipality and the Šalčininkai District Municipality.

To stop being integrated into the German Empire, Lithuanians elected Monaco-born King Mindaugas II because the titular monarch of the Kingdom of Lithuania in July 1918. The tsarist regime made a variety of concessions as the result of the 1905 rebellion. The Baltic states as soon as again had been permitted to make use of their native languages in schooling and public discourse, and Catholic churches have been built in Lithuania.

The president oversees foreign affairs and national security, and is the commander-in-chief of the army. The president also appoints the prime minister and, on the latter’s nomination, the rest of the cupboard, in addition lithuanian ladies to a number of different top civil servants and the judges for all courts. The present Lithuanian head of state, Gitanas Nausėda was elected on 26 May 2019 by unanimously winning in all municipalities of Lithuania.

How do Lithuanians look?

At the time of Union of Lublin, King Sigismund II Augustus removed Ukraine and different territories from Lithuania and included them directly into the Polish Crown. The grand duchy was left with at present’s Belarus and elements of western Russia, along with the core ethnic Lithuanian lands. From 1573, the kings of Poland and the grand dukes of Lithuania had been all the time the identical particular person and have been elected by the nobility, who had been granted ever rising privileges in a unique aristocratic political system often known as the Golden Liberty.

Lithuania has one of many largest fresh water supplies, in contrast with different countries in Europe. Lithuania and Denmark are the one nations in Europe, that are absolutely geared up with contemporary groundwater.

Meanwhile, crimes in digital data and knowledge know-how safety fields noticeably increased by 26.6%. In the 2013 Special Eurobarometer, 29% of Lithuanians said that corruption affects their daily lives (EU common 26%).

One variation, which is implicated in familial hypercholesterolemia, has been dated to the 14th century, similar to the establishment of Ashkenazi settlements in response to the invitation prolonged by Vytautas the Great in 1388. In the past, the ethnic composition of Lithuania has diversified dramatically. The most outstanding change was the extermination of the Jewish inhabitants through the Holocaust. Before World War II, about 7.5% of the population was Jewish[citation needed]; they were concentrated in cities and cities and had a major influence on crafts and enterprise. Curonians were another tribe of Vikings of the Baltic Sea, that lived in territories that are parts of Latvia and Lithuania now.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–

Lithuania’s poverty line is about at LTL 811 ($265), and round 20 percent of the population lives under this measure. Cepelinai, a stuffed potato creation, is the most well-liked nationwide dish. Other nationwide foods embrace dark rye bread, chilly beet soup (šaltibarščiai), and kugelis (a baked potato pudding). Lithuanian cuisine is mostly unknown outdoors Lithuanian communities. Most Lithuanian eating places outdoors Lithuania are positioned in cities with a heavy Lithuanian presence.

During the Northern Wars (1655–1661), the Lithuanian territory and economy were devastated by the Swedish military. Almost all territory of Grand Duchy of Lithuania was occupied by Swedish and Russian armies. A 2004 analysis of mtDNA in a Lithuanian inhabitants revealed that Lithuanians are close to both Indo-European and Uralic-speaking populations of Northern Europe. Y-chromosome SNP haplogroup analysis confirmed Lithuanians to be closest to fellow Balts (Latvians), Estonians, Belarusians and Finnish individuals.

On March 11, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR proclaimed the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. The Baltic republics have been within the forefront of the wrestle for independence, and Lithuania was the first of the Soviet republics to declare independence.

The vote is open to all citizens of Lithuania, as well as residents of different EU international locations that completely reside in Lithuania, who are no less than 18 years outdated on the election day. To be eligible for election, candidates should be at least 21 years previous on the election day, citizen of Lithuania or citizen of one other EU nation completely residing in Lithuania.

Forty+ Fun Facts about Lithuania: A Lovely Country That’s Easy to Love

The Pale coincided largely with the territory of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, under Russia the western a part of the Empire. Vilnius was claimed and contested by Polish, Belarusian and Lithuanian communists earlier than being granted by Joseph Stalin to the Lithuanian SSR in 1944. This tiny fraction of Catholics within the early seventeenth century Grand Duchy is given by Kasper Cichocki ( ), a Catholic parish priest near Sandomierz, who wrote with reference to the extent of the heresies in the Commonwealth.

Vilnius was now the capital of the Lithuanian Soviet Republic, and soon of the mixed Lithuanian–Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Russian nationalists regarded the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania as an East Slavic realm that should be (and was being) “reunited” with Russia. The restoration of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania was not the objective of this motion, and the territorial ambitions of its leaders were limited to the lands they thought of historically Lithuanian. The predominantly East Slavic population of the Grand Duchy was largely Eastern Orthodox, and much of the Lithuanian state’s nobility also remained Orthodox.