Lithuanian
Millennium – great and magic date…
The name of Lithuania for the first time was mentioned in Quedlinburg
Annals (Germany) in 1009. Over a thousand years ago Lithuania – the
state in the eastern Baltic Sea - again and again fought for its
survival, suffered dramatic occupation of other countries but only
one of the Eastern Baltic region nations stood up against the crusades.
In about 1235 Duke Mindaugas united Lithuania and
in 1253 he was crowned as a King of Lithuania. In 1387 Lithuania
was christened,
and in 1579 one of the oldest in Eastern Europe Vilnius University
was founded.
Until the restitution of Independence in 1990 03
11 Lithuania has been in the political conflict zone and occupied
by great neighbors
like Tsarist Russia (1795-1915), Soviet Union (1940-41 and 1944-90)
Nazi Germany (1941-44). Especially painful was occupation by
Soviet Union, where Lithuania has lost hundreds of thousands of its
best
sons and daughters killed in the resistance fighting after the
World War II, deported to Siberia and emigrated to the West.
Lithuania goes to the second Millennium counting
in its future, being the member of European Union and the NATO. We
believe that
this will
guarantee the irreversibility of the achievements of the independence
lasting by centuries.
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