ABSTRACT
Like Latvia and Estonia, during the two decades of 1918-40, Lithuania was an independent nation-state. Lithuania shares with the other two Baltic states the same experience of Soviet annexation and dominance. The limited demographic pressure has been an important factor behind the absence of major ethnic conflict in Lithuania. Since Lithuania’s incorporation into the USSR, the Russian share of the population had remained constant at the low level of around 8-10%, which is much the same as in the interwar period. During the last years of Soviet history, the conflict between separatist Lithuania and less than reformed Soviet federation was manifestly the most intense and dramatic. Lithuania pioneered proclamation of independence among former Soviet Union republics in 1990 and openly challenged the Soviet rule. The resulting crisis of recognition, in fact, was a manifestation of the crisis of stateness that had plagued the USSR during the last years of its existence.
