FACT BOX
WWII & POSTWAR LITHUANIA

WWII: Occupied by Russia in 1940, Germany in 1941 and Russia in 1944
In June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Lithuania in accordance to the secret protocols of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.  

200,000 Jews murdered during Lithuanian Holocaust, 1941-1944
A year later the Soviet Union was attacked by Nazi Germany, leading to the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. The Nazis and their collaborators murdered around 200,000 Jews of Lithuania (more than 90% of the pre-war Jewish community) during the Holocaust.  

300,000 deported to Siberia, 1940-1953
After the retreat of the German armed forces, the Soviets re-established the annexation of Lithuania in 1944. It followed with massive deportations of around 300,000 citizens to Siberia, complete nationalisation and collectivisation and general sovietisation of everyday life.  

Tens of thousands Lithuanians fled to the West, 1940-1944
During World War II many fled west to escape the Russian reoccupation of Lithuania. Eventually 30,000 Dipukai (war refugees or displaced persons) settled in the United States, primarily in cities in the East and the Midwest. These immigrants included many trained and educated leaders and professionals who hoped to return someday to Lithuania. The heightening of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union—known as the Cold War—dampened these expectations, and many Lithuanians sought to create a semi-permanent life in the United States.  

By 1990 the U.S. Bureau of the Census listed 811,865 Americans claiming "Lithuanian" as a first or second ancestry. 

Europe’s longest and bloodiest guerrilla war in modern times, 1944-1953
From 1944 to 1953 approximately 100,000 Lithuanian partisans fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet system. An estimated 30,000 partisans and their supporters were killed, and many more were arrested and deported to Siberian gulags. Around 70,000 Soviet soldiers were killed by the partisans. 

It is estimated that Lithuania lost almost one million people during and after World War II, one third of its population. 

Regained freedom and independence, 1990-1991
The advent of perestroika and glasnost in the late 1980s allowed the establishment of Sąjūdis, an anti-communist independence movement. After a landslide victory in elections to the Supreme Soviet, members of Sąjūdis proclaimed Lithuania's independence on 11 March 1990, becoming the first Soviet republic to do so. The Soviet Union attempted to suppress the secession by imposing an economic blockade. Soviet troops killed 14 Lithuanian civilians on the night of 13 January 1991.   

Worldwide recognition of independence and member of the UN, 1991
After the Moscow Coup in August 1991, independent Lithuania received wide official recognition and joined the United Nations on 17 September 1991. The last Soviet troops left Lithuania on 31 August 1993 – even earlier than they departed from East Germany.  

Member of EU and NATO, 2004
Lithuania, seeking closer ties with the West, applied for NATO membership in 1994. After a transition from a planned economy to a free market one, Lithuania became a full member of NATO and the European Union in the spring of 2004 and a member of the Schengen Agreement on 21 December 2007.