About Lithuania. Sights Lithuania, country history of development, culture.

Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in northern Europe. It is bounded on the north by Latvia, on the east and south by Belarus, on the southwest by an exclave of Russia and by Poland, and on the west by the Baltic Sea.

Vilnius is the capital, largest city, and an important rail and highway center.

A period of intense political, economic, and military pressure by central Soviet authorities ensued in an attempt to force the nation to suspend or retract its declaration. Military maneuvers, seizure of public institutions by the armed forces, disruption of the supply of oil, natural gas, industrial raw materials, and food products eventually resulted in a compromise.

Lithuanian independence came swiftly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. By 1995, the transition to a full market economy had been more or less completed. The long-running border dispute with Poland was settled with the signing of a friendship and cooperation treaty in January 1992, and negotiations with Russia led to the withdrawal of the remaining Russian troops in Lithuania in August 1993. Such events led up to country joining the EU in May 2004.

EU membership has catapulted Lithuania onto the global stage, with more and more people becoming aware of country's rich panoply of castles, lakes and forests, and more people flocking to see Vilnius, one of Europe's most enchanting cities.