Geschichte der Litauen

Medieval history is certainly interesting, figures like Vytautas, Algirdas, Mindaugas and Gediminas are important, but I’d like to mention an important and overlooked figure from the interwar period, president Kazys Grinius

Well one very important thing to know is that Gediminas was not a King.

I know you probably marked it so it would be easier to understand what a Grand Duke is, but it is an important Historical distinction.

So the very first Grand Duke of Lithuania was Mindaugas (he is sort of seen like a uniter of Baltic tribes)

At that time there were a lot of wars against Teutonic Order, basically against Crusades. They wanted Lithuanian to become Christian while Lithuanians were mostly Baltic pagans.

As I said, Mindaugas was seen as a uniter but that also meant that there was a lot of internal turmoil between the tribes and there were also enemies to East (Slavic tribes) and North (Livonians).

So Mindaugas made a strategic decision to become baptized and be confirmed by the Pope as a King of Lithuania to stop Teutonic order and concentrate on these other problems.

Now why did I say that distinction between Grand Duke and King is important to the history of Grand Duchy of Lithuania?

Well..

It was an open secret that Mindaugas in public was a Christian King while at home he was praying to Baltic gods. Also he took no effort into converting any of the public.

The next ruler Treniota (who helped assassinate Mindaugas) immediately threw all that away and became again a Grand Duke.

Then for the next 100 years or more Lithuania was a Baltic pagan country and became THE LAST pagan country in Europe to become Christian with Grand Duke Jogaila who then went to become King of Poland (essentially he held both seats for a time)

So Lithuania only ever had one King.

King Mindaugas – only king of Lithuania.

Grand duke Vytautas – ruled the Grand Dutchy of Lithuania when it streched from the Baltic to the Black sea.

Žalgirio mūšis – while in dualistic state rule of Vytautas and Polish king Jogaila we were at war with teutonic knights which ended in the battle of Grunwald where Vytautas army feigned retrieted and came back with organized reserves to help the Polish army and win the battle and the war.

There are many more battles that are importnant to Lithuanias history – Saulės mūšis, Battle of Blue Waters, Battle of Ula, Battle of Kircholm.

Antanas Smetona – first president of free Lithuania in 1919 and 1926 he led a military coup to become an authoritarian leader, but people didn’t really care, calling Lithuania a ‚vilvet dictatorship‘ because Smetona didn’t overuse his power, wasn’t as opresive as some other Totalitarian leaders of that time like Lenin or Mussolini

War for freedom – in 1918 – 1920 Lithuania was at war with the Bolsheviks from Russia and Bermondt German force in now Latvia, we won, but Poland took Vilnius from us.

Partisan wars – after WW2 Soviets wanted to have influance in Europe so they wanted to ocupy our lands and after years of fighting, they defeatwd the Forest Brothers – orgonised militia, that hid in forests, setting up ambushes.