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Fourth Seimas
The Fourth Seimas of Lithuania was the fourth parliament (Seimas) elected in Lithuania after it declared independence on 16 February 1918. The elections took place on 9 and 10 June 1936, a bit less than ten years after the Third Seimas was dissolved by President Antanas Smetona. The Seimas commenced its work on 1 September 1936. Its five-year term was cut short on 1 July 1940 when Lithuania lost its independence to the Soviet Union. It was replaced by the People's Seimas in order to legitimize the occupation. Konstantinas Šakenis was the chairman of the Seimas. Background After a military coup d'état in 1926, Smetona assumed the power and continued to strengthen his position. In 1935–1936, Smetona's prestige was declining as a trial against 122 Nazi activists in the Klaipėda Region caused Nazi Germany to declare a boycott of Lithuanian imports of agricultural products. This caused an economic crisis in Suvalkija (Southern Lithuania), where farmers engaged in violent protes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seimas
The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendments to the Constitution, passing the budget, confirming the Prime Minister and the Government and controlling their activities. Its 141 members are elected for a four-year term, with 71 elected in individual constituencies, and 70 elected in a nationwide vote based on open list proportional representation. A party must receive at least 5%, and a multi-party union at least 7%, of the national vote to qualify for the proportional representation seats. Following the elections in 2020, the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats is the largest party in the Seimas, forming a ruling coalition with the Liberal Movement and the Freedom Party. The Seimas traces its origins to the Seimas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Sejm of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1926 Lithuanian Coup D'état
The 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état ( Lithuanian: ) was a military coup d'état in Lithuania that resulted in the replacement of the democratically elected government with a Nationalist regime led by Antanas Smetona. The coup took place on 17 December 1926 and was largely organized by the military; Smetona's role remains the subject of debate. The coup brought the Lithuanian Nationalist Union, the most conservative party at the time, to power. Previously it had been a fairly new and insignificant nationalistic party. By 1926, its membership reached about 2,000 and it had won only three seats in the parliamentary elections. The Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party, the largest party in the Seimas at the time, collaborated with the military and provided constitutional legitimacy to the coup, but accepted no major posts in the new government and withdrew in May 1927. After the military handed power over to the civilian government, it ceased playing a direct role in political life. Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legal History Of Lithuania
Lithuanian law is a part of the legal system of Lithuania. It belongs to the civil law legal system, as opposed to the common law legal system. The legal system of Lithuania is based on epitomes of the French and German systems. The Lithuanian legal system is grounded on the principles laid out in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and safeguarded by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. History The origins of Lithuanian law trace back to the first written source, the Casimir Code ( lt, Kazimiero teisynas), published in 1468 by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir Jagiellon with the Lithuanian Council of Lords. It is considered to be the first codified law of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Statutes of Lithuania, published three times (in 1529, 1566 and 1588) were the most influent legal codes of Lithuania. The third variant of the Statute was in force in the territory of Lithuania until 1840 when it got replaced by the Russian laws. However, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antanas Merkys
Antanas Merkys (; 1 February 1887 – 5 March 1955) was the last Prime Minister of independent Lithuania, serving from November 1939 to June 1940. When the Soviet Union presented an ultimatum to Lithuania demanding that it accept a Soviet garrison, President Antanas Smetona fled the country leaving Merkys as acting president. Merkys ostensibly cooperated with the Soviets, and illegally took over the presidency in his own right. After three days, Merkys handed power to Justas Paleckis, who formed the People's Government of Lithuania. When Merkys attempted to flee the country, he was captured and deported to the interior of Russia, where he died in 1955. Biography Merkys was born at Bajorai, near Skapiškis. Educated in law, he served in the Russian Army during World War I (1914–18). In 1919, he served as the newly independent Lithuania's Minister of Defence before serving with the Lithuanian Army until his decommissioning in 1922. He then practised as a lawyer. After the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Young Lithuania
Young Lithuania ( lt, Partija "Jaunoji Lietuva") is a nationalist political party in Lithuania. The party has no seats in the Seimas, European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ... or local municipalities. The leader of the party is Stanislovas Buškevičius. History The party was established in 1994 after Political Parties' Act was introduced. The newly formed organisation had its best performance in Kaunas. Here, it managed to elect its leader, Stanislovas Buškevičius, as member of Seimas between 1996 and 2004. Following the municipal elections in 2011, the party received 6.49% of the votes in Kaunas city municipality council and won 4 seats there. It had no seats in the other municipalities. In the municipal elections in 2015 the party failed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encyclopedia Lituanica
''Encyclopedia Lituanica'' (likely named after ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' or ''Encyclopedia Americana'') is a six-volume (about 3600-page) English language encyclopedia about Lithuania and Lithuania-related topics. It was published between 1970 and 1978 in Boston, Massachusetts by Lithuanian Americans who fled Soviet occupation at the end of World War II. To this day, it remains the only such comprehensive work on Lithuania in the English language. The encyclopedia was compiled and published by the same individuals who had published '' Lietuvių enciklopedija'', a 35-volume general encyclopedia in the Lithuanian language, in 1953-1966. Later, two volumes of additions and supplements were added and the 37th and last volume was published in 1985. The undertaking was made extremely complicated by the fact that most sources and resources were behind the iron curtain in the Soviet Union. Some of the entries in ''Encyclopedia Lituanica'' come from this earlier work, which had about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suvalkija
Suvalkija or Sudovia ( lt, Suvalkija or ''Sūduva'') is the smallest of the five cultural regions of Lithuania. Its unofficial capital is Marijampolė. People from Suvalkija (Suvalkijans, Suvalkians) are called (plural) or (singular) in Lithuanian. It is located south of the Nemunas River, in the former territory of Vilkaviškis bishopric. Historically, it is the newest ethnographic region as its most distinct characteristics and separate regional identity formed during the 19th century when the territory was part of Congress Poland. It was never a separate political entity and even today it has no official status in the administrative division of Lithuania. However, it continues to be the subject of studies focusing on Lithuanian folk culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of Lithuania's cultural differences blended or disappeared during the Soviet era (1944–1990), remaining the longest in southeastern Lithuania. The concept remains popular among Lithuanian peop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the head of gove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Klaipėda Region
The Klaipėda Region ( lt, Klaipėdos kraštas) or Memel Territory (german: Memelland or ''Memelgebiet'') was defined by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles in 1920 and refers to the northernmost part of the German province of East Prussia, when as Memelland it was put under the administration of the Entente's Council of Ambassadors. The Memel Territory, together with other areas severed from Germany (the Saar and Danzig) was to remain under the control of the League of Nations until a future day when the people of these regions would be allowed to vote on whether the land would return to Germany or not. Today, the former Memel Territory is controlled by Lithuania as part of Klaipėda and Tauragė counties. Historical overview In 1226 Duke Konrad I of Masovia requested assistance against the Prussians and other Baltic tribes, including the Skalvians who lived along the Neman (Memel) River. In March 1226, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II issued the Golden Bull of Rimini, which p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk ( Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Third Seimas
The Third Seimas of Lithuania was the third parliament (Seimas) democratically elected in Lithuania after it declared independence on February 16, 1918. The elections took place on May 8–10, 1926. For the first time the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party were forced to remain in opposition. The coalition government made some unpopular decisions and was sharply criticized. Regular Seimas work was interrupted by a military coup d'état in December 1926 when the democratically elected government was replaced with the authoritarian government of Antanas Smetona and Augustinas Voldemaras. The Third Seimas was dissolved on March 12, 1927 and new elections were not called until 1936. Elections For the first time since 1920 the Christian Democrats, which strongly supported the Catholic Church and clergy, did not obtain a political majority. Lithuanian people were disillusioned with the party as it was shaken by several financial scandals, did not cope with an economic crisis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
