[vil-nee-oo
s] 
| a city in and the capital of Lithuania, in the SE part: formerly in the Soviet Union and earlier in Poland. 582,000. |
[vyeel-nuh; Eng. vil-nuh] . [lith-oo-ey-nee-uh] | a republic in N Europe, on the Baltic: an independent state 1918–40; annexed by the Soviet Union 1940; regained independence 1991. 3,635,932; 25,174 sq. mi. (65,200 sq. km). Capital: Vilnius. |
| Vil·ni·us (vĭl'nē-əs) The capital and largest city of Lithuania, in the southeast part of the country. Founded in the 10th century, it was frequently devastated by plagues, fires, and invasions from the 15th to the 18th century. Vilnius passed to Russia in 1795 and became a provincial capital (1801-1815). A center of Jewish learning in the 18th and 19th centuries, the city was occupied by Soviet troops in 1939 and by German troops from 1941 to 1944, during which time it was heavily damaged and the Jewish population exterminated. It became the capital of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1944 and of independent Lithuania in 1991. Population: 543,000. |
Republic on the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and southeast, Poland to the south, and by an isolated segment of Russia to the southwest. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius.
Note: Lithuania was one of the largest and most powerful states in Europe from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, at which time it merged with Poland. In the late eighteenth century, it was absorbed by Russia. A nationalist movement that grew in strength throughout the nineteenth century finally bore fruit when the Russian empire collapsed during World War I. Lithuanians achieved their desired goal of an independent state during the interwar years, but their country was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, as were the neighboring countries of Estonia and Latvia.
Note: Occupied by German forces during World War II, at which time thousands of Lithuanian Jews were exterminated.
Note: As the communist system began to collapse and the Soviet Union began to dissolve, Lithuania became the first of the Baltic republics to reject Soviet rule, declaring its independence in March 1990.