ABSTRACT

Situated on the Baltic Sea between Latvia, Poland, Russia and Belarus, Lithuania is a republic of some 3.7 million people with a land area of 65,200 square kilometres (25,170 square miles). About 20 per cent of the total population is composed of Polish, Russian, Jewish and other ethnic minorities with Lithuanian as the official state language. The capital city of Vilnius (577,000 inhabitants), the seaport Klaipeda (195,000) and the major cities Kaunas, Siauliai and Panevezys all have theatres and high schools and/or universities.