Vilnius, previously known in English as Vilna, is the capital of and largest city in Lithuania and the second-most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated July 2024 population was 605,270, and the Vilnius urban area has an estimated population of 708,627.
Lithuanian is an East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are approximately 2.8 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 1 million speakers elsewhere. Around half a million inhabitants of Lithuania of non-Lithuanian background speak Lithuanian daily as a second language.
Vilnius University is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, it is Lithuania's leading research institution.
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis was a Lithuanian composer, painter, choirmaster, cultural figure, and writer in Polish.
Proto-Baltic is the unattested, reconstructed ancestral proto-language of all Baltic languages. It is not attested in writing, but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method by gathering the collected data on attested Baltic and other Indo-European languages. It represents the common Baltic speech that approximately was spoken between the 3rd millennium BC and ca. 5th century BC, after which it began dividing into West and East Baltic languages. Proto-Baltic is thought to have been a fusional language and is associated with the Corded Ware and Trzciniec cultures.
Mykolas Biržiška, a Lithuanian editor, historian, professor of literature, diplomat, and politician, was one of the twenty signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania.
The West Baltic languages are a group of extinct Baltic languages that were spoken by West Baltic peoples. West Baltic is one of the two primary branches of Baltic languages, along with East Baltic. It includes Old Prussian, Sudovian, West Galindian, possibly Skalvian and Old Curonian.
Vytautas Merkys was a Lithuanian historian and a professor at Vilnius University.
Vasilijus Safronovas is a Lithuanian historian. Throughout his writings he explores modern cultural and intellectual history of Lithuania and former region of East Prussia, with particular interest to former Territory of Memel/ Klaipėda.
The Prussian mythology was a polytheistic religion of the Old Prussians, indigenous peoples of Prussia before the Prussian Crusade waged by the Teutonic Knights. It was closely related to other Baltic faiths, the Lithuanian and Latvian mythologies. Its myths and legends did not survive as Prussians became Germanized and their culture went extinct in the early 18th century. Fragmentary information on gods and rituals can be found in various medieval chronicles, but most of them are unreliable. No sources document pagan religion before the forced Christianization in the 13th century. Most of what is known about Prussian religion is obtained from dubious 16th-century sources.
Vasily Seseman was a Russian and Lithuanian philosopher, a representative of Marburg school of neo-Kantianism. He is mostly remembered for his role in fostering philosophy in newly independent Lithuania and developing Lithuanian philosophical vocabulary. A close associate of Viktor Zhirmunsky and Lev Karsavin, as a prisoner of Gulag he was also an informal philosophy tutor and supporter of Buddhist writer Bidia Dandaron.
The Imperial Roman Catholic Theological Academy was an institution of higher education preparing Roman Catholic theologians in the Russian Empire. The academy granted master's and doctorate degrees in theology and was designed to prepare clergy for senior positions in the Catholic Church hierarchy. It originated at the Vilnius University, but was transferred to Saint Petersburg in the aftermath of the Uprising of 1831. The Tsarist authorities wanted to exercise greater control over the academy and implement Russification policies. After the October Revolution in 1917, the academy was moved to Poland where it became the Catholic University of Lublin. A new theological seminary was established in Moscow in 1993; it moved to the premises of the historical Saint Petersburg Academy in 1995.
Algis Uždavinys (1962–2010) was a Lithuanian philosopher and scholar. His work pioneered the hermeneutical comparative study of Egyptian and Greek religions, especially their esoteric relations to Semitic religions, and in particular the inner aspect of Islam (Sufism). His books have been published in Lithuanian, Russian, English and French, including translations of Plotinus, Frithjof Schuon and Ananda Coomaraswamy into Russian and Lithuanian.
Rūta Society was a Lithuanian cultural society in Vilnius, then part of the Russian Empire, active from 1909 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It organized various events, including lectures, literary evenings, and musical performances, but it is most noted for its contribution to the development of the Lithuanian theater. In total, Rūta staged about 50 plays.
Kailis forced labor camp was a Nazi labor camp for Jews in Vilnius during World War II. It was based on a pre-war fur and leather factory and mostly produced winter clothing for the German military. At its peak, after the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto in September 1943, the camp housed about 1,500 Jews. The camp was liquidated and its workers executed at Ponary on 3 July 1944, just ten days before Red Army captured the city.
The Union for the Liberation of Vilnius was an organization established in 1925 to support Lithuanian territorial claims to Vilnius Region then part of the Second Polish Republic. With 27,000 members and 600,000 supporters in 1937, it was one of the most popular organizations in interwar Lithuania. Its main goal was to mobilize the entire Lithuanian nation for cultural and educational work. It established an unofficial but highly popular national mourning day on 9 October. It organized numerous events, such as lectures and concerts, to promote the idea of Vilnius as an integral part of the Lithuanian national identity – the historical capital of Lithuania that was unjustly occupied by Poland, though the city itself had a minuscule Lithuanian population. It also developed a coherent narrative of suffering brothers Lithuanians under the oppressive Polish regime, giving Lithuanians a common enemy. The union promoted emotional, almost cult-like, national attachment to Vilnius. The union was disestablished after the Polish ultimatum in March 1938.
Juozas Miltinis’ Drama Theatre is a state theatre in the town of Panevėžys, Lithuania, approximately 130 km north of the capital Vilnius. It is the main place for drama in town with a permanent troupe of actors and large performing spaces. During the Soviet era the theater was well known across the Soviet Union for outstanding performances directed by Juozas Miltinis, a legendary personality, who led the theatre for decades. He worked with actors such as Donatas Banionis. Because of its noticeable impact on town's life and culture, the theater continues to maintain a distinct connection with its local audience. Since autumn 2017 a team of young theatre creators have been leading the theatre, who are focusing on developing the creative space, providing opportunities for experiments of emerging directors, allowing actors’ artistic abilities to evolve and creating new experiences for whole theatre team.
Lauras Bielinis is a Lithuanian political scientist and a professor at Vytautas Magnus University. His research topics include analysis of political text, election technologies, and political communication.
Adam Krupski was a professor of philosophy and Jesuit priest in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Legal expert in the legislation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, author of a school dialogue. His handwritten lectures on philosophy have survived. In his teaching activities, he adhered to the ideas of the Enlightenment.
Kyviškės airfield is a small regional airfield, opened in 1947, located in Kyviškės village, east of Vilnius. Runway, which is 540 meters in length and 23 meters in width, was thoroughly renovated in 2016. Traffic at the airfield is most intense during the summer months, with 200-300 daily lift-offs and landings. As of 2023, this airfield is primarily used for events and trainings, no domestic or international commercial routes operate here. Vilnius Airport located about 25 km away by car is the closest commercial airport.
