Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic - wikipedia Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic Not to be confused with Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic ( 1918 -- 19 ). Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika Unrecognized Soviet Socialist Republic ( 1940 -- 1941, 1944 -- 1990 / 91 ) De facto sovereign entity ( 1989 -- 90 ) 1940 -- 1941 1944 -- 1990 / 91 Top flag ( 1953 -- 1988 ) Bottom flag ( 1988 -- 1990 ) State emblem ( 1978 -- 1988 ) Motto Visų šalių proletarai, vienykitės ! ( Lithuanian ) `` Workers of the world, unite ! '' Anthem Anthem of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic ( 1950 -- 1989 ) Tautiška giesmė ( 1989 -- 1990 / 91 ) Location of the Lithuanian SSR within the Soviet Union. Capital Vilnius Languages Lithuanian, Russian Demonym Lithuanian Soviet Government Unitary Marxist - Leninist one - party Soviet socialist republic First Secretary 1944 -- 1974 Antanas Sniečkus 1988 -- 1990 Algirdas Brazauskas Chairman of the Supreme Council 1990 -- 1991 Vytautas Landsbergis Historical era World War II Cold War Soviet occupation 16 June 1940 SSR established 21 July 1940 Illegally annexed by USSR, Lithuania continued de jure 3 August 1940 Nazi occupation June 1941 Soviet re-occupation SSR re-established September -- November 1944 Singing Revolution 1988 Sovereignty declared 18 May 1989 Restoration of Independence declared 11 March 1990 Independence recognized 6 September 1991 Area 1989 65,200 km ( 25,200 sq mi ) Population 1989 est. 3,689,779 Density 57 / km ( 147 / sq mi ) Calling code + 7 012 Today part of Lithuania The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic ( Lithuanian SSR ; Lithuanian : Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika ; Russian : Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Litovskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika ), also known as Soviet Lithuania or Lithuania was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 1940 to 1990. Established on 21 July 1940 as a puppet state, during World War II in the territory of the previously independent Republic of Lithuania after it had been occupied by the Soviet army on 16 June 1940, in conformity with the terms of the 23 August 1939 Molotov -- Ribbentrop Pact. Between 1941 and 1944, the German invasion of the Soviet Union caused its de facto dissolution. However, with the retreat of the Germans in 1944 -- 1945, Soviet hegemony was re-established, and existed for fifty years. As a result, many western countries ( including the United States ) continue to recognize Lithuania as an independent, sovereign de jure state subject to international law represented by the legations appointed by the pre-1940 Baltic states which functioned in various places through the Lithuanian Diplomatic Service. On 18 May 1989, the Lithuanian SSR declared state sovereignty within its borders during perestroika. On 11 March 1990, the Republic of Lithuania was declared to be re-established as an independent state and the declaration ( while considered illegal by the Soviet authorities ) was recognized by Western powers immediately prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Soviet Union itself recognized Lithuanian independence on 6 September 1991. Contents 1 History 1.1 Post -- World War I 1.2 World War II 1.2. 1 During World War II 1.3 Independence 2 Economy 3 In astronomy 4 See also 5 Notes 5.1 References 6 External links History Post -- World War i Main article : Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic ( 1918 -- 1919 ) There had been an unsuccessful attempt to establish a Soviet government in Lithuania by the Bolshevik Red Army in 1918 -- 1919. The Lithuanian SSR was first proclaimed on 16 December 1918, by the provisional revolutionary government of Lithuania, formed entirely by the Communist Party of Lithuania. The Lithuanian SSR was supported by the Red Army, but it failed to create a de facto government with any popular support as the Council of Lithuania had successfully done earlier. Two months later on 27 February 1919, it was joined by the Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia and they proclaimed the Lithuanian -- Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic ( LBSSR or Litbel ), which existed for only six months, until 25 August 1919. The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic officially recognized the Republic of Lithuania by signing the Soviet -- Lithuanian Peace Treaty on 12 July 1920, thus ending the existence of the fledgling Soviet Republic. It has been suggested that the failure to conquer Poland in the Polish -- Soviet War prevented the Soviets from invading Lithuania and re-establishing a Soviet republic at the time. World War II Main articles : Molotov -- Ribbentrop Pact and Occupation of the Baltic states The Molotov -- Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, stated that Lithuania was to be included into the German `` sphere of influence ''. However soon after World War II began in September 1939, and the agreement was amended to transfer Lithuania to the Soviet sphere. This was granted in exchange for Lublin and parts of the Warsaw province of Poland, originally ascribed to the Soviet Union, but by that time already occupied by German forces. Following the 1940 Soviet ultimatum to Lithuania and subsequent invasion of 15 June 1940, President Antanas Smetona fled the country. Before doing so, in accordance with the Lithuanian constitution, he turned over his duties on a provisional basis to Prime Minister Antanas Merkys. The day after Smetona 's departure, Merkys announced he had deposed Smetona and had taken over the presidency in his own right. On 17 June, at the behest of the Soviets, Merkys appointed a left - wing journalist, Justas Paleckis, as prime minister. Merkys then himself resigned, making Paleckis acting president as well. For all intents and purposes, Lithuania had lost its independence. Paleckis appointed a Communist - dominated `` people 's government '' with Vincas Krėvė - Mickevičius as prime minister. This government dissolved the Fourth Seimas and announced elections for a `` People 's Seimas '' on 14 July. Voters were selected with a single list provided by the `` Union of the Working People of Lithuania, '' which was merely a front for the recently re-emerged Communist Party of Lithuania. The new People 's Seimas met on 21 July and had only one piece of business -- a resolution that transformed Lithuania into the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and petitioned the Soviet Union to admit it as a constituent republic. This resolution carried unanimously. On 3 August, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR `` accepted '' the petition and admitted the Lithuanian SSR as the 14th republic of the Soviet Union. Lithuania now maintains that since Smetona never resigned, Merkys ' takeover of the presidency was illegal, and all actions leading to the Soviet annexation were therefore ipso facto void. Lithuania was subsequently invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in June 1941. With the 1944 Soviet Baltic offensive, Soviet rule was re-established in July 1944. After both Soviet occupations, mass deportation of the Lithuanians into gulags and other forced settlements ensued. 1940 Soviet map of the Lithuanian SSR During World War II The United States, United Kingdom, and other countries considered the occupation of Lithuania by the USSR illegal, citing the Stimson Doctrine, in 1940, but agreed not to forcibly violate frontiers of the USSR at post-World War II conferences. The United States refused to recognize the annexation of Lithuania or the other Baltic States, by the Soviet Union, at any time of the existence of the USSR. Independence Main article : Lithuania Flag of the Lithuanian SSR / Republic of Lithuania ( 1988 - 1991 ). Lithuania declared sovereignty on its territory on 18 May 1989 and declared independence from the Soviet Union on 11 March 1990 as the Republic of Lithuania, and was the first Soviet republic to do so. All legal ties of the Soviet Union 's sovereignty over the republic were cut as Lithuania declared the restitution of its independence. The Soviet Union claimed that this declaration was illegal, as Lithuania had to follow the process of secession mandated in the Soviet Constitution if it wanted to leave. Lithuania contended that the entire process by which Lithuania joined the Soviet Union violated both Lithuanian and international law so it was merely reasserting an independence that previously existed. The Soviet Union threatened to invade, but the Russian SFSR 's declaration of sovereignty on June 12 meant that the Soviet Union could not enforce Lithuania 's retention. While other republics held the union - wide referendum in March to restructure the Soviet Union in a loose form, Lithuania, along with Estonia, Latvia, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova backed out from the votes, it held an independence referendum earlier that month with the majority of 93.2 % voters accepted it. Iceland immediately recognised Lithuania 's independence. Most other countries followed suit after the failed coup in August, with the State Council of the Soviet Union recognising Lithuania 's independence on 6 September 1991. The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist on 26 December 1991. After independence, Lithuania joined the United Nations on 17 September 1991 and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004. Economy Further information : Eastern Bloc economies Collectivization in the Lithuanian SSR took place between 1947 and 1952. The 1990 per capita GDP of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was $8,591, which was above the average for the rest of the Soviet Union of $6,871. This was still half or less than half of the per capita GDPs of adjacent countries Norway ( $18,470 ), Sweden ( $17,680 ) and Finland ( $16,868 ). Overall, in the Eastern Bloc, the inefficiency of systems without competition or market - clearing prices became costly and unsustainable, especially with the increasing complexity of world economics. Such systems, which required party - state planning at all levels, ended up collapsing under the weight of accumulated economic inefficiencies, with various attempts at reform merely contributing to the acceleration of crisis - generating tendencies. In astronomy A minor planet 2577 Litva discovered in 1975 by a Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh is named after the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. See also History of Lithuania Provisional Government of Lithuania Republics of the Soviet Union Notes Jump up ^ Ronen, Yaël ( 2011 ). Transition from Illegal Regimes Under International Law. Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 19777 - 9. Jump up ^ Snyder, Timothy ( 2004 ). The Reconstruction of Nations : Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569 -- 1999. Yale University Press. pp. 62 -- 63. ISBN 0 - 300 - 10586 - X. Jump up ^ Senn, Alfred Erich ( September 1962 ). `` The Formation of the Lithuanian Foreign Office, 1918 -- 1921 ''. Slavic Review. 3 ( 21 ) : 500 -- 507. ISSN 0037 - 6779. doi : 10.2307 / 3000451. Jump up ^ Christie, Kenneth, Historical Injustice and Democratic Transition in Eastern Asia and Northern Europe : Ghosts at the Table of Democracy, RoutledgeCurzon, 2002, ISBN 0 - 7007 - 1599 - 1 Jump up ^ O'Connor 2003, p. xx -- xxi ^ Jump up to : Maddison 2006, p. 185 Jump up ^ Hardt & Kaufman 1995, p. 1 Jump up ^ Hardt & Kaufman 1995, p. 10 Jump up ^ Dictionary of Minor Planet Names - p. 210 References Hardt, John Pearce ; Kaufman, Richard F. ( 1995 ). East - Central European Economies in Transition. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 1 - 56324 - 612 - 0. Maddison, Angus ( 2006 ). The world economy. OECD Publishing. ISBN 92 - 64 - 02261 - 9. O'Connor, Kevin ( 2003 ). The history of the Baltic States. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0 - 313 - 32355 - 0. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and Lithuania under Soviet occupation. 1978 Constitution of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( 1922 -- 1991 ) Principal Armenia Azerbaijan Byelorussia Estonia Georgia Kazakhstan Kirghizia Latvia Lithuania Moldavia Russian SFSR Tajikistan Turkmenia Ukraine Uzbekistan Short - lived Karelo - Finnish SSR ( 1940 -- 1956 ) Transcaucasian SFSR ( 1922 -- 1936 ) Not union republics SSR Abkhazia ( 1921 -- 1931 ) Bukharan SSR ( 1920 -- 1925 ) Khorezm SSR ( 1920 -- 1925 ) Nakhichevan ASSR ( 1920 - 1923 ) Pridnestrovian Moldavian SSR ( 1990 -- 1991 ) South Ossetian SR ( 1990 - 1991 ) The annexation of the Baltic republics in 1940 was considered as an illegal occupation and was not recognized by the majority of the international community such as the United States, United Kingdom and the European Community. The Soviet Union officially recognized their independence on September 6, 1991, prior to its final dissolution three months later. Years in Lithuania ( 1918 - present ) Pre-1918 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1984 1985 1986 1988 1989 1991 2017 2018 Soviet occupations Europe Austria Baltic states Estonia Latvia Lithuania Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina Bornholm Czechoslovakia Finland Germany East Prussia Hungary Poland Western Ukraine Romania Ukraine Asia Afghanistan Northern Iran Manchuria North Korea Italics indicate countries occupied while Soviet Union was a member of the Allies of World War II. Eastern Bloc Soviet Union Communism Formation Secret Molotov -- Ribbentrop Pact protocol Soviet invasion of Poland Soviet occupations Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina Baltic states Hungary Romania Yalta Conference Annexed as, or into, SSRs Eastern Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania Memel East Prussia West Belarus Western Ukraine Moldavia Satellite states Hungarian People 's Republic Polish People 's Republic Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Socialist Republic of Romania German Democratic Republic People 's Republic of Albania ( to 1961 ) People 's Republic of Bulgaria Federal People 's Republic of Yugoslavia ( to 1948 ) Annexing SSRs Russian SFSR Ukrainian SSR Byelorussian SSR Organizations Cominform COMECON Warsaw Pact World Federation of Trade Unions ( WFTU ) World Federation of Democratic Youth ( WFDY ) Revolts and opposition Welles Declaration Goryani Movement Forest Brothers Ukrainian Insurgent Army Operation Jungle Baltic state continuity Baltic Legations ( 1940 -- 1991 ) Cursed soldiers Rebellion of Cazin 1950 1953 uprising in Plzeň 1953 East German uprising 1956 Georgian demonstrations 1956 Poznań protests 1956 Hungarian Revolution Novocherkassk massacre 1965 Yerevan demonstrations Prague Spring / Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia Brezhnev Doctrine 1968 Red Square demonstration 1968 student demonstrations in Belgrade 1968 protests in Kosovo 1970 Polish protests Croatian Spring 1972 unrest in Lithuania SSR June 1976 protests Solidarity / Soviet reaction / Martial law 1981 protests in Kosovo Reagan Doctrine Jeltoqsan Karabakh movement April 9 tragedy Romanian Revolution Black January Cold War events Marshall Plan Berlin Blockade Tito -- Stalin split 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état 1961 Berlin Wall crisis Conditions Emigration and defection ( list of defectors ) Sovietization of the Baltic states Information dissemination Politics Economies Telephone tapping Decline Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Romanian Revolution Fall of communism in Albania Singing Revolution Collapse of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia January 1991 events in Lithuania January 1991 events in Latvia Post-Cold War topics Baltic Assembly CSTO Commonwealth of Independent States Craiova Group European Union ( expansion to Eastern Europe ) Eurasian Economic Union NATO ( expansion to Eastern Europe ) Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Visegrad Group European migrant crisis Lithuania articles History Early Balts Lithuania proper Grand Duchy 1219 -- 95 Duchy Kingdom Christianization Polish -- Lithuanian Commonwealth Revival and independence Press ban National Revival Great Seimas of Vilnius Act of Independence Wars of Independence Lithuanian -- Soviet War Polish -- Lithuanian War 1919 Polish coup d'état attempt First Soviet republic 1926 coup d'état WWII and occupations Occupation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union ( 1940 ) by Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union ( 1944 ) Holocaust Resistance Second Soviet republic Baltic states under Soviet rule ( 1944 -- 91 ) Government - in - exile Restoration Reform Movement ( Sąjūdis ) Singing Revolution Baltic Way Act of Re-Establishment January Events August Putsch Geography Cities capital Climate Extreme points Flora Forests Lakes Regional parks Rivers Towns Politics Administrative divisions counties municipalities elderships Constitution Constitutional Court Elections Foreign relations Government Prime Minister Law Law enforcement Seimas parliament Speaker Political parties President Military Land Force Naval Force Air Force Special Operations Force Economy Agriculture Banks Central bank Energy Euro Litas ( former currency ) Telecommunications Transport airports rail roads seaport Tourism Society Demographics Education universities Ethnic minorities Ethnographic regions Language Lithuanians Religion Culture Calendar Cinema Cuisine Cultural history Ethnographic Lithuania Literature Music Mythology Name Public holidays Sport Symbols anthem coat of arms flag Outline Index Book Portal Coordinates : 55 ° 30 ′ N 24 ° 0 ′ E ﻿ / ﻿ 55.500 ° N 24.000 ° E ﻿ / 55.500 ; 24.000 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lithuanian_Soviet_Socialist_Republic&oldid=798820271 '' Categories : Former countries in Europe States and territories established in 1940 States and territories disestablished in 1990 Former socialist republics Republics of the Soviet Union Soviet military occupations Communism in Lithuania Eastern Bloc Occupation of the Baltic states 1940 establishments in the Soviet Union Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic 1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union Former client states Former unrecognized countries Hidden categories : Former country articles requiring maintenance Pages using infobox country or infobox former country with the flag caption or type parameters Pages using infobox country or infobox former country with the symbol caption or type parameters Articles containing Lithuanian - language text Articles containing Russian - language text Coordinates on Wikidata Talk Contents About Wikipedia Languages Afrikaans Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Brezhoneg Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Gaelg Galego 한국어 Հայերեն Ido Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ქართული Кыргызча Latviešu Lietuvių Ligure Magyar Македонски मराठी Nederlands 日本 語 Нохчийн Norsk پنجابی Polski Português Română Русский Sardu Scots Shqip Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog Татарча / tatarça ไทย Türkçe Удмурт Українська اردو Tiếng Việt Žemaitėška 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 4 September 2017, at 00 : 56. 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Question: when did lithuania become part of the soviet union
Answer: 1940