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Lithuania, republic in northeastern Europe, bounded on the north by Latvia; on the east and south by Belarus; on the southeast by Poland and Russia�s Kaliningrad Oblast; and on the west by the Baltic Sea. With Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania is one of the Baltic states. Its name in Lithuanian is Lietuvos Respublika (Republic of Lithuania). Vilnius, the capital and largest city of Lithuania, is located in the southeastern portion of the country.

Lithuania is situated on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. Ethnic Lithuanians constitute a majority of the country�s population. Lithuania was an independent republic from 1918 until 1940, when it was annexed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In 1991 Lithuania regained its independence, and in 1992 it adopted a new constitution and held its first post-Soviet democratic elections. Since the early 1990s Lithuanians have been working to establish a free-market economy in place of the centralized economy of the Soviet period.

Lithuania is the largest of the Baltic states with an area of about 65,300 sq km (about 25,200 sq mi). The country consists primarily of a low-lying plain; nearly its entire territory is less than 200 m (less than 660 ft) in elevation. A centrally located lowland is broken in the extreme east and southeast by adjacent highlands. To the west of the central lowland, a hilly region gradually gives way to a low-lying coastal area. Lithuania�s Baltic coast extends 108 km (67 mi). The southern half of the coastline is buttressed by a long, narrow sandbar that forms an offshore lagoon. Lithuania has about 3,000 small lakes and many rivers. The country�s longest and largest river is the Nemunas (Neman), which flows north from Belarus to the center of Lithuania, and then west until it reaches the Baltic. Marshes and swamps are prevalent in Lithuania, especially in the north and west, although much of the original wetlands have been drained for agricultural purposes.

Forests, which occupy 31 percent of the country�s total land area, are most dense in the southeast. Pine trees are found in the coastal region and the south, while oak trees predominate in the central portion of the country. Spruce, birch, black alder, and aspen are less common. Lithuania�s nature reserves support a vast array of wildlife. There are 68 known species of mammal, including elk, deer, wolves, foxes, and wild boar. The country�s 305 bird species include white storks, herons, geese, ducks, and hawks.

Lithuania�s limited mineral resources include peat (a compact, high-carbon material used for fuel and mulch), sulfates, limestone, chalk, sand, and gravel. Amber, a fossil tree resin, is found along the Baltic shore. Minor oil and gas deposits are found in coastal and offshore areas.

The climate of Lithuania is dominated by marine influences, but conditions are more variable in the eastern portion of the republic. In the west, summers are cooler and winters are milder. Average annual precipitation ranges from less than 600 mm (less than 24 in) in the center of the country to more than 850 mm (33 in) in the west.

Like many countries of the former USSR, Lithuania has significant environmental problems related to pollution. Despite the growth of the country�s environmental awareness since its independence from the USSR in 1991, a lack of technology, equipment, and funds make it difficult to adequately treat industrial emissions and to replace old equipment. Mobile pollution sources, such as cars and trucks, contribute significantly to air pollution. Industrial centers such as Vilnius and Kaunas, with their power plants, fertilizer plants, and cement plants, have also contributed to the severe contamination of the air. Air pollution has resulted in acid rain, which further degrades water and soil quality.

Lithuania is struggling to upgrade its sewage treatment plants, because much of the country�s surface water is contaminated with bacteria. Agricultural runoff from fertilizers and pesticides also contributes to the pollution of the country�s groundwater and many of its rivers. Contamination of rivers, in turn, pollutes the coastal areas into which the rivers empty.

Lithuania depends almost entirely on nuclear power for electricity. The Ignalina nuclear plant supplies electricity to Lithuania and to some neighboring countries. Constructed in the 1980s, the plant poses a considerable environmental threat; its reactors are of the same design as those at the Chernobyl� nuclear power plant, which in 1986 suffered the worst nuclear disaster in history.

During the 1990s Lithuania focused on rebuilding its economy, but the country has been able to effect some environmental change as well. Environmental regulations passed in the early 1990s called for reduced pollution and a more effective monitoring system for environmental issues. These regulations also sought to end the government secrecy about environmental issues that characterized the Soviet era.

Lithuania has ratified agreements protecting biodiversity, the ozone layer, and wetlands. It is also party to international treaties concerning climate change and ship pollution.

The population of Lithuania (2001 estimate) is 3,610,535, giving it a population density of 55 persons per sq km (143 persons per sq mi). Lithuania is highly urbanized, with 74 percent of the population living in urban areas. Unlike most other republics of the former USSR, the country is not dominated by a single urban center. Vilnius, the capital, is the largest city, followed by Kaunas, an industrial and commercial center, and Klaipėda, an important seaport.

Ethnic Lithuanians constitute about 80 percent of the country�s population. The proportion of Lithuanians increased slightly in the first years after the dissolution of the USSR, as many Lithuanians immigrated from the USSR and abroad, while some Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians left Lithuania. Russians and Poles constitute the country�s largest minority groups, each accounting for roughly 8 percent of the population. Jews were the largest minority group before World War II (1939-1945), when German Nazis killed most of Lithuania�s Jewish residents. In contrast to Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania passed new citizenship laws in 1989 allowing all people who live within its borders to apply for naturalization, regardless of ethnic origin. Most residents among the minority populations have since been granted citizenship.

The country�s official language since 1988 has been Lithuanian, a language of the Baltic branch of Indo-European languages. The Lithuanian language is closely related to Latvian. Other languages spoken in the country include Russian and Polish. About 90 percent of Lithuanians are Roman Catholics. Most of the remaining inhabitants belong to the Lutheran Church or other Protestant denominations. During most of the Soviet period, religious practice and instruction were greatly restricted in Lithuania. The lifting of Soviet restrictions in the late 1980s and the restoration of independence in 1991 stimulated a revival of religious practice.

Lithuania has an adult literacy rate of 99.8 percent, reflecting the high value placed on universal education during the Lithuanian independence period that began in 1918 and also during the Soviet period. School attendance is compulsory from ages 6 to 16. State-run educational institutions provide free education at all levels. A number of private schools have also been established since the end of Soviet rule. Vilnius University (founded in 1579), located in Vilnius, is the most prestigious of Lithuania�s institutions of higher learning. The Vytautas Magnus University (1922) is located in Kaunas.

Lithuanian culture is noted for its vibrant oral tradition, consisting of folktales, legends, proverbs, and dainos (ancient songs). The country�s national literature began with the long poem Metai (�The Seasons�), by Kristijonas Donelaitis, written in the 18th century and published posthumously in 1818. Contemporary Lithuanian writers include the playwright Kazys Saja and the poets Tomas Venclova and Judita Vaičiūnaitė. The Soviet regime forced Venclova to emigrate in the 1970s, and he moved to the United States.

Lithuania holds many folk festivals each year, characterized by folk music and colorful traditional costumes. Other cultural events include ballet, theater, and opera performances. The Lithuania Chamber Orchestra, the Kaunas State Choir, and the Lithuanian State Symphony perform large concerts at the modern Opera and Ballet Theater, located in Vilnius. A major jazz festival is held annually in the capital. Lithuania has several museums, including the National Museum of Lithuania (founded in 1855 as the Museum of History and Ethnography of Lithuania; renamed in 1992) and the Lithuanian Art Museum (1940), both located in Vilnius.

Lithuania had a primarily agricultural economy before the USSR annexed the country in 1940. In the next 50 years the USSR fully integrated Lithuania into the Soviet system. The Soviets abolished private ownership in agriculture, replacing it with collective or state farms. They also forced rapid urbanization by relocating workers from other parts of the USSR to Lithuania, where they built massive factories to produce industrial goods for the entire Soviet bloc. The rapid reorientation of trade relationships following independence in 1991 sent the Lithuania economy into depression. The gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of all goods and services, decreased sharply every year until 1994. Price deregulation and higher costs for imported energy produced massive inflation. Yet by the mid-1990s, Lithuania ranked among the better performing economies of those transitioning from the old Soviet system to a free market.

A country without abundant natural resources, Lithuania possesses a highly skilled workforce and a developed infrastructure. Its strategic location is a principal asset, with an ice-free port on the Baltic Sea and its largest city a rail and highway hub connecting Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and other parts of Eastern Europe. Since independence, the country�s leadership has directed the transfer of state-owned enterprises to private hands and adopted measures such as reforms of the legal system to encourage foreign investment.

Lithuania�s GDP in 1999 was $10.6 billion, the largest of the Baltic states. Industry, which in 1999 was again expanding after the contraction following independence, contributed 32 percent of GDP. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing together produced 9 percent. The broad services sector, which includes trade and financial activities, produced 59 percent.

Livestock breeding and dairy farming are the dominant agricultural activities in Lithuania. The principal crops are potatoes, grains such as barley and wheat, and sugar beets. The collective farms of the Soviet era were divided and privatized as part of the country�s economic transition, resulting in many small and inefficient farms. Forests cover nearly one-third of the country, and the cutting and processing of timber is an important economic activity. The Lithuanian commercial fishing fleet catches mackerels, sardinellas, and herring. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing accounted for 24 percent of employment in 1995.

Based on the value of output, the most important manufactures in Lithuania are processed foods, petroleum products, and textiles, clothing, and beverages. Mineral resources include large reserves of peat and materials used in construction such as limestone, gravel, and clay. Lithuania has small deposits of petroleum and natural gas. In 1995 industry�including manufacturing, construction, and mining�accounted for 28 percent of employment.

Lithuania has a well-developed system for generating power, allowing it to export electricity. In 1998 the country produced 83 percent of its electricity in the Ignalina nuclear plant, 13.09 percent in thermal facilities burning petroleum products, and 4 percent in hydroelectric facilities. Lithuania supplies gas and electricity to the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. In 1997 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) began pressing for closure within ten years of the Ignalina plant, which it considers unsafe.

Russia is Lithuania�s main trading partner for both imports and exports. Other leading buyers of Lithuanian goods are Germany, Belarus, Latvia, Ukraine, the Netherlands, and Poland. Other leading suppliers of imports are Germany, Poland, Italy, Denmark, and Finland. In terms of value, leading exports are machinery and transportation equipment, mineral fuels and metals, and consumer goods. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia established a Baltic free trade area for agricultural goods in 1997.

After gaining independence, Lithuania began making plans to introduce its own currency, the litas, to replace the Russian ruble in circulation. Lithuanian officials decided to first introduce coupons to supplement rubles, which were in short supply. The talonas (Lithuanian for �coupon�) was issued freely, because it was assumed that a wide circulation of the coupons would aid Lithuanian consumers, with minimal negative economic consequences. But with energy price shocks and a policy of indexing wages and pensions, inflation became rampant, and the value of the talonas dropped steadily. The litas was introduced as the sole legal tender in 1993, after which the litas supply fluctuated. In March 1994 the parliament passed legislation that fixed the litas to the United States dollar at a rate of 4 litas per U.S.$1.

Lithuania is a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In May 1995 the country became an associate member of the European Union (EU). It subsequently submitted an application for full EU membership. In December 1997 Latvia and Lithuania were among five Eastern European countries invited to join the EU as part of its second round of expansion; no timetable was set for that expansion. Estonia was invited at that time to join the organization in its first round of expansion, with talks beginning in March 1998.

Lithuania is a democratic republic. According to its constitution, which was ratified in October 1992, a president is head of state. The president is elected by direct popular vote for a term of five years and may serve a maximum of two consecutive terms. With the approval of parliament, the president appoints a prime minister. The president also appoints members of the council of ministers on the nomination of the prime minister. For administrative purposes, the country is divided into 10 counties, which are subdivided into 44 regions and 11 municipalities.

The highest legislative authority in Lithuania is the Seimas, or parliament, a single-chamber body composed of 141 members elected to four-year terms. Seventy-one seats in the Seimas are determined by direct popular vote in single-member districts, while the remaining seats are allocated on a proportional basis to each party that receives at least 5 percent of the vote. All citizens age 18 and older may vote.

Lithuania�s judicial system, which is based on a civil law system, consists of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, and district and local courts. The Supreme Court is the highest court. Its judges are appointed by the Seimas on the recommendation of the president. The Seimas also appoints the members of the Constitutional Court, which rules on the constitutionality of legislation. The president appoints all other judges, with appointments to the Court of Appeal subject to approval by the Seimas.

Lithuania�s major political parties are the Homeland Union, the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party, the Lithuanian Center Union Party, the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party (DLP; formerly the Communist Party of Lithuania), and the Lithuanian Democratic Party. Parties representing ethnic minorities include the Union of Poles. In parliamentary elections held in 1996, the DLP lost most of its seats. The Homeland Union, a newly formed conservative party, emerged with the largest number of seats (70) and joined a ruling coalition with the Christian Democrats.

During the Soviet period, Lithuania had no armed forces separate from those of the Soviet Union. Lithuania�s defense forces now include an army of 9,340, a paramilitary border guard, and a volunteer home guard reserve. The country also has a small navy (560 members) and air force (800 members). Men are conscripted for 12 months beginning at age 18.

Lithuania is a member of the United Nations (UN) and the Council of Europe. The country also participates in the Partnership for Peace program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Lithuania�s relations with its Baltic neighbors, Latvia and Estonia, are loosely coordinated through the Baltic Assembly, a consultative intergovernmental body established in late 1991. Like the other Baltic states, Lithuania has declined membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose alliance of most of the former Soviet republics.

The ancestors of Lithuanians came to the Baltic area most likely around 2500 bc. The first reference to them by name was in ad 1009 in a medieval German manuscript, the Quedlinburg Chronicle. With the rise of the medieval lords in Germany and Russia, Lithuania was constantly subject to invasion and attempted conquest. In the 13th century, when the Teutonic Knights, a German militaristic religious order, were establishing their power, the Lithuanians resisted. The various Lithuanian tribes united to form a loose federation under pagan chieftain Mindaugas. Mindaugas was baptized as a Christian in 1251 and subsequently crowned king of Lithuania under the authority of Pope Innocent IV. In about 1260 the Lithuanians defeated the Knights� attempt to capture Lithuanian territory. In 1263 Mindaugas was assassinated, probably by pagan Lithuanian princes, and Lithuania officially reverted to paganism.

In the 1300s Mindaugas�s successors began to expand their realm by incorporating, through conquest, Slavic lands to the east and south. Under Lithuanian ruler Gediminas, the empire was expanded in the south to include most of present-day Belarus, and Vilnius was established as the capital. Lithuanian grand duke Algirdas then expanded the Lithuanian realm east toward Moscow and south to the Black Sea. In 1386 Grand Duke Jogaila joined Lithuania in a dynastic union with Poland when he married Polish queen Jadwiga. Jogaila accepted Christianity, becoming a Roman Catholic, and was crowned Władysław II Jagiełło, king of Poland.

King Jagiełło and his cousin Vytautas, who became grand duke of Lithuania in 1392, led joint armed forces to decisively defeat the Teutonic Knights in 1410. Vytautas died without an heir in 1430. Beginning in 1447 the king of Poland also ruled Lithuania. In 1558 Russian tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible) invaded the northern Baltic region, thereby instigating the Livonian War. With Russian expansionism posing an increasing threat, Lithuania sought stronger ties with Poland. In 1569, by the terms of the Union of Lublin, the two states formed a political union with a common legislature and a jointly elected sovereign. The new confederated state was officially known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita). Although Lithuanian autonomy was guaranteed within the union, Poland assumed a dominant role. The Lithuanian gentry adopted Polish customs and language, while the Lithuanian peasantry was forced into serfdom and converted to Christianity.

In the last years of the Livonian War, which ended with Russia�s defeat in 1583, the commonwealth gained Livonia and other territory. In 1629, however, the commonwealth was forced to cede most of Livonia to Sweden. Conflict with Russia resumed in the early 1600s, culminating in Russia�s devastating invasion of the commonwealth in 1654. The commonwealth began to deteriorate as a political power, and in the late 1700s the Austrian, Russian, and Prussian empires conspired to partition its territory. Poland was divided among the three empires. Lithuania was annexed by Russia, except for a small section in the southwest that was awarded to Prussia; that too went to Russia in 1815.

Under Russian rule, Lithuanians became a completely subject people. Lithuanians joined with Poles in large-scale rebellions against Russian rule in 1812, from 1830 to 1831, and in 1863, but all were harshly suppressed and resulted in increased repression of Lithuanian culture. After the 1831 revolt, the University of Vilnius was closed and the imperial government mandated that Russian be the only language taught in Lithuanian schools. From 1865 to 1904 Lithuanian could only legally be printed in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, although books printed in Latin-script Lithuanian were smuggled in from Germany.

During the Russian Revolution of 1905 (a widespread revolt for political reform), a congress of elected Lithuanian representatives demanded that the Russian government allow for Lithuanian self-government, but the demand was rejected. The revolution brought about some minor concessions, however, and restrictions on the Lithuanian language were lifted. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Russian Empire collapsed and militant socialists called Bolsheviks seized control of the Russian government.

During World War I (1914-1918), the German army occupied Lithuania. In February 1918 Lithuanian nationalists declared Lithuania�s independence. When the war ended in November and German forces withdrew, the Lithuanian Taryba (Council) established a provisional government. The new government barely had a foothold, however, when Bolshevik forces invaded Vilnius and installed a pro-Bolshevik regime in the city. The provisional government fled to Kaunas and organized the Lithuanian National Army. The army eventually drove Bolshevik forces out of Lithuania, but in 1920 Polish forces occupied Vilnius and established a puppet government there. The Polish parliament subsequently annexed the Vilnius area.

In Kaunas, meanwhile, a Lithuanian constituent assembly was elected in April 1920, and in August 1922 it approved a new constitution that officially established Lithuania as an independent republic. The new constitution, which replaced the temporary constitution of 1920, provided for a democratic system of government, including a president as head of state and a unicameral (single-chamber) parliament, or Seimas. Later in 1922, the Bolsheviks founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Two countries that today border Lithuania, Russia and Belorussia (now Belarus), were among the USSR�s constituent republics.

In 1922 the Lithuanian Seimas implemented a program of land reform. Land from large estates was expropriated and redistributed among Lithuania�s peasantry. Although the land reform was initially successful, in the 1930s many peasants abandoned their farms to seek employment in the cities. In the Seimas, meanwhile, conservative and liberal factions could not reconcile their differences. On December 17, 1926, Lithuanian nationalists led by conservative statesman Antanas Smetona, working with the support of the Lithuanian army, engineered a coup d�état. All liberals and leftists were expelled from the Seimas, which then elected Smetona as president. In 1928 a new constitution was passed that formalized the new government structure in which Smetona ruled by decree.

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in the 1930s, Nazi Party propaganda agitated Germans to rise up against Lithuania over the territory of Memel (now Klaipėda), located on the Baltic coast. Largely Lithuanian-inhabited Memel was part of Germany before World War I, but the Allied Powers put it under Lithuanian administration, and in 1923 Lithuania annexed it to gain a seaport. In March 1939 Hitler reannexed the territory. On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland (an act that marked the outbreak of World War II) after signing a nonaggression pact with the USSR. The pact contained a secret protocol that assigned Lithuania to the German sphere of influence; however, later that month the pact was amended to add most of Lithuania to the territories assigned to the USSR. This in effect sanctioned the USSR to annex Lithuania. In October the Soviet government forced Lithuania to agree to a mutual-assistance treaty by which Lithuania was compelled to admit 20,000 Soviet troops on its territory. The USSR in turn granted Lithuania its historic capital of Vilnius, which Soviet troops had released from Polish occupation.

In June 1940 the Soviet Red Army invaded Lithuania. Smetona fled the country, and a new pro-Soviet government was installed. Only the Communist Working People�s Bloc, a party organized and led by Soviet Communists, was allowed to participate in the parliamentary elections held in July. The following month Lithuania formally became the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), a constituent republic of the USSR. However, the United States and other democratic powers refused to recognize the legality of the Soviet annexation.

Despite the earlier nonaggression pact, Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941. Large-scale anti-Soviet uprisings then took place in Lithuania. Unable to contend with both the revolt and the German onslaught, Soviet forces withdrew from Lithuania. During the Nazi occupation, Lithuanian resources were systematically pillaged and more than 200,000 Lithuanians, including an estimated 165,000 Jews, were killed. The Nazis nearly exterminated the entire Jewish population, which had constituted Lithuania�s largest minority group before the war.

In the summer of 1944 the Soviets reoccupied most of Lithuania and reestablished it as a Soviet republic; however, the Germans held out in western Lithuania until early 1945. Under the Soviets, all non-Communist social and political organizations were prohibited. Only the Communist Party of Lithuania (CPL), a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the party that replaced the Communist Working People�s Bloc after Lithuania�s 1940 elections, was allowed to function. In the late 1940s the Soviet regime abolished private ownership of land, and all of Lithuania�s farmland was incorporated into large state-controlled farms. The regime also closed most of Lithuania�s churches, deported many priests, and prosecuted people who were openly religious. Strong resistance against the Soviet occupation lasted until 1952 and involved more than 100,000 people. Soviet officials sent as many as 350,000 Lithuanians to labor camps in Siberia as punishment for holding anti-Communist beliefs or resisting Soviet rule. Lithuania settled into relative calm in the mid-1950s, and most nations tacitly accepted its status as a Soviet republic.

Rapid industrialization, a high priority of Soviet economic policy, began in Lithuania in the late 1950s. The influx of workers into Lithuania�s cities transformed the traditionally agrarian society into a predominantly urbanized one. New industrial workers also included Russians and other Soviet immigrants, although Lithuania was less affected by immigration than its Baltic neighbors. Russian immigrants were at first disproportionately represented in the CPL, but in the 1950s and 1960s more Lithuanians joined the ranks of the Lithuanian party apparatus. Antanas Sniečkus, a native-born Lithuanian, continuously held the highest post of CPL first secretary from the 1940s until 1974.

In the 1960s and 1970s an extensive movement developed in Lithuania in opposition to Soviet rule. In May 1972 many Lithuanian students and workers held demonstrations in Kaunas calling for religious and political freedom. The opposition movement also began producing a number of underground anti-Communist publications, including a prominent publication called The Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church.

In the mid- and late 1980s rapid political changes in Eastern Europe and the USSR created a new political climate that strengthened Lithuanian nationalism. In the USSR, these changes were brought about by the political and economic reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev�s calls for glasnost (Russian for �openness�) and perestroika (�restructuring�) led to the formation of thousands of nationalist groups throughout the USSR. In Lithuania, a special commission was formed in May 1988 to propose amendments to the republic�s constitution in order to accommodate Gorbachev�s reforms; members of the commission founded the coalition Sjūdis (the Lithuanian Movement for Reconstruction) in October. The CPL lost its monopoly of power in 1989, as other political parties were allowed to function, and in February 1990 candidates aligned with Sjūdis won an overall majority in Lithuania�s first open parliamentary elections. The new governing coalition led the struggle for Lithuanian independence. During this period, the CPL broke with the CPSU, a move that aided the CPL�s later resurgence.

In March 1990 Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare restoration of its independence. However, the USSR used economic, political, and military pressure to keep Lithuania within the union. Then in August 1991 the CPSU lost all credibility after a failed coup attempt by Communist hard-liners in Moscow, and in September the Soviet government conceded the independence of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. All three Baltic republics were admitted to the United Nations (UN) later that month. The USSR officially ceased to exist in December.

Sjūdis could not maintain political leadership in the period following independence. Its popularity dropped as a result of political infighting; a severe economic crisis caused by the disruption of trade ties with the former Soviet republics; and a worsening of international relations with neighboring countries, including a dispute with Latvia over sea borders. Meanwhile, former Communist officials began to stage a political comeback in Lithuania. In February 1992 elections the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), which had replaced the CLP, won a majority of seats in the Seimas. In November DLP leader Algirdas Brazauskas was elected president with 60 percent of the vote. Popular support for the new DLP government soon declined, however, in part because of a decline in standard of living resulting from the country�s transition to a market economy.

In 1993 Lithuania became the first of the Baltic states to be free of a Russian military presence. In February 1994 the country joined the Partnership for Peace program, which was set up by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to allow for limited military cooperation between NATO and non-NATO countries.

In December 1995 Lithuania was rocked by a major banking scandal when two of its largest commercial banks, Innovation Bank and Litimpeks Bank, were shut down by the government after widespread embezzling was discovered. The parliament ousted the prime minister, Adolfas Slezevičius, in February 1996 when it was revealed that he had withdrawn his personal savings from Innovation Bank two days before it was closed. President Brazauskas appointed Mindaugas Stankevičius as acting prime minister until elections could be held. After a runoff general election in November 1996, the center-left DLP was replaced by a conservative coalition comprising the Homeland Union and the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party. Gediminas Vagnorius, the chairperson of the Homeland Union, was named prime minister. President Brazauskas decided not to seek reelection in January 1998, and Valdas Adamkus, a Lithuanian-American ecologist, won the presidency by a narrow margin. Although nominally affiliated with the Lithuanian Center Union Party, Adamkus campaigned as an independent intent on leading Lithuania to economic success along Western lines.