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Archives in Lithuania began to take shape with the formation of the State of Lithuania, i.e. in the first half of the 13th century, but no documents relating to this period remain. The oldest extant archives is the collection of legal documents of the Office (Chancellery) of the Grand Duke of Lithuania (further on referred to as GDL), also known as Lithuanian Metrica: it has documents from the 14th to 18th centuries. In 1795, this collection was transferred from Vilnius to Russia as a war trophy, and now it is preserved in Moscow. The archives which existed in Vilnius and other towns of Lithuania (Archives of the Supreme Tribunal of GDL, archives of land courts and castle courts of Vilnius Region (Pavietas) of GDL, etc.) up to the middle of the 19th century were basically institutional archives.
The privilege by which Jesuit academy in Vilnius was turned into University signed by King of Poland and Grand duke of Lithuania Stephen Báthory in 1579 April the 1st. Document from Lithuanian State Historical Archives.The oldest Lithuanian archive building in Panevėžys was built in 1614. Photo taken in 2014.
The emergence of the Central Archives of the Old Record Books in Vilnius marks a totally new period in the history of Lithuanian archives. Vilnius Central Archives of the Old Record Books (later on referred to as the Archives) were established on 2 April 1852 (O.S.) on the grounds of the imperial decree of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia. The Tsar Administration was willing to store documents in one place, to safeguard them against forgery or destruction in order to meet the needs of state institutions as well as private persons, especially the nobility. In 1853, by choice of the authorities, the closed Vilnius University building was fitted to accommodate the Archives. The direct supervision of the Archives was assigned to the Educational Board of Vilnius District. However, the activities of the Archives were also under control of Vilnius military governor (Governor-General), i.e. the actual governor of the state.
The prayer for Poland in its struggle for independence by pope Pius IX. Inscriptions in Italian and polish Languages. Document from Lithuanian State Historical Archives.
According to the above-mentioned decree of 1852, old record books dating back to ancient times and up to 1799 were to be transferred from various offices in Vilnius, Minsk, Grodno, and Kaunas governorates (guberniyas) to the Vilnius Central Archives of the Old Record Books. Essentially, the Archives were completed as late as 1862 – at that time, the old record books kept there totalled 17,388. They were mainly documents produced by various institutions of GDL. In fact, the accumulation of documents continued: in 1887, documents of the liquidated Lublin Old Record Books Archives were transferred to the Vilnius Archives; documents of the cancelled Vitebsk Central Archives of the Old Record Books were also transferred to the Vilnius Archives in 1903.
The activities of the Archives did not restrict to the document accumulation. The old record books were managed (described, numbered, assigned to fonds) and bound up. There were also inventories of the old record books, as well as place-name indexes arranged. The stock of the accumulated documents served as a base to provide offices and private persons with archival certificates or legal document extracts. Some historical sources have been published. As a matter of fact, the selection of such documents for publication was rather slanted as they mainly served the purpose of leaving no doubt about the “North-western Krai” as an inherent part of Russia. Scientists and other outsiders were rarely admitted to the research of the historical sources – it was possible only with the permission of the highest or local authorities.
After the World War I broke out, nearly half of the documents – the oldest and the most valuable ones kept in the Archives – were exported to Russia. During the times of the occupation of Lithuania by German Empire in 1915–18, the Archives evaded any serious harm. After the German army retreated, in 1919–20, the administration and supervision of the Archives was under Lithuanian governance which was replaced by Polish governance and, later on, by Bolshevik rule. During a very difficult period of military actions in 1919–20, the Vilnius State Archives subordinate to the Polish authorities emerged. It took over the documents not only from the former Vilnius Central Archives of the Old Record Books, but also M. Muravjov museum, former General Archives of Vilnius Offices, and other archives.
For quite a long time the fonds of the Archives were kept in separate buildings in Vilnius, until the Archives moved into a new building situated in 8 Slovackio Street (now 8 Mindaugo Street). However, regular activities of the Archives were terminated by the World War II. After the Soviet army occupied Vilnius, during the period of 14–22 October 1939, approximately 14–18 railway vans loaded with archival documents left for Minsk. The damage that the Archives suffered was immense as it lost its most valuable and most significant sets of documents including approximately 20 thousand old record books and packages. After Lithuania regained Vilnius, the Archives were transferred under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. Juozapas Stakauskas was appointed Head of the Archives.
After the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in June 1940, the Archives were transferred under the jurisdiction the Commissariat of the Interior on 26 August 1940. At the beginning of 1941, after the numerous reorganisations, the Archives started functioning as the Central State Archives of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The teacher of Telšiai gymnasium Domas Andriulis states that nor he nor his wife has Jew relatives. Inscription in German and Lithuanian languages. Document from Telšiai county archive.
When the World War II broke out and Lithuania was invaded by the German army in the summer of 1941, the remaining archival documents were in great danger again. Nevertheless, thanks to the incredible luck, J. Stakauskas, Head of the Archives, managed not only to secure the Archives but also to recover the bulk of the documents that were taken to Minsk in 1939: over 20 railway vans of files were brought back to Vilnius in 1942–43.
During Nazi occupation in 1941–44, the Lithuanian Archives were made subordinate to the Reichcommissariat Ostland Adviser for Archival Affairs, so it was mainly Germans who could make use of the archives. Besides, special permits were required to get access to the archives. It is even more amazing that J. Stakauskas, Head of the Archives, and several of his colleagues were sheltering 12 Jewish people in the premises of the Archives for nearly a year at the risk of their lives – and saved life to these people.
Christmas postcard of Lithuanian partisans. Confiscated by Soviet authorities from partisan supporter in 1950. Lithuanian Special Archives.
In 1944, when the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania again, both the former name and the former subordination were returned to the Archives in Vilnius. The newly appointed authorities were mainly focused on the selection of the loyal employees, handling inquiries of “operational bodies” about private persons, restricting access to historical sources for the public, and absolutely irresponsibly destroyed a certain amount of documents “of little value”; besides, they exported some archival fonds to Belarus without any justification whatsoever.
The idea of establishing separate, independent historical archives was first generated in 1949. The documents compiled in the years before 15 December 1918 were to form the base for the Archives. In 1951, the Division of the Historical Documents Fonds was established in the Archives. The Central State Historical Archives of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic as a separate institution were established on 1 January 1957. After the former subordination of the Archives was abolished in 1960, they became more open to the society, Lithuanian and foreign scientists.
During this period, a fair amount of the microfilms of historical sources dating back to the 13th to 19th centuries and of great significance to Lithuania (including the Lithuanian Metrica) were added to the fonds of the Archives. They were previously kept in Latvia, Poland, Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine. A growing number of documents were being published and presented to the public. After the former secret fonds were declassified and starting with 1989, all documents were made accessible to researchers.
Present day
Independence declaration of Lithuania. Signed in 1990 March the 11th. Document from Lithuanian State Modern Archives.
The documents kept in the Lithuanian Archives comprise 8 large sets:
Documents of various offices of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 15th to 18th centuries
Fonds of offices and organisations of Vilnius, Kaunas and Suvalkai governorates of Russian Empire, and fonds of commissions responsible for the liquidation of offices to be evacuated to the Soviet Russia (1792–1918)
Fonds of offices in Lithuania relating to the period of occupation by German Empire (1915–18)
Fonds of confessional institutions and communities operating in Lithuania (15th – 20th centuries)
Fonds of private persons and families (15th century – 1941)
Document collections (15th – 20th centuries)
Collections of microfilms of documents and collections of digital images of documents (13th – 20th centuries)
Recordings of the civil state (1940 – 15 August 2007)
As of 2013[update] the total amount of the items preserved is 1,360 million, or over 17,500 linear metres and shelving space.
The history of Lithuania dates back to settlements founded about 10,000 years ago, but the first written record of the name for the country dates back to 1009 AD. Lithuanians, one of the Baltic peoples, later conquered neighboring lands and established the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century. The Grand Duchy was a successful and lasting warrior state. It remained fiercely independent and was one of the last areas of Europe to adopt Christianity. A formidable power, it became the largest state in Europe in the 15th century spread from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, through the conquest of large groups of East Slavs who resided in Ruthenia.
Demographic features of the population of Lithuania include population density, ethnicity, level of education, health, economic status, and religious affiliations.
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.
The lands of Belarus during the Middle Ages became part of Kievan Rus' and were split between different regional principalities, including Polotsk, Turov, Vitebsk, and others. Following the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, these lands were absorbed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which later was merged into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century.
The culture of Lithuania, dating back to 200 BC, with the settlement of the Balts and has been independent of the presence of a sovereign Lithuanian state.
Eastern Borderlands or simply Borderlands was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic with a Polish minority, it amounted to nearly half of the territory of interwar Poland. Historically situated in the eastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, following the 18th-century foreign partitions it was divided between the Empires of Russia and Austria-Hungary, and ceded to Poland in 1921 after the Treaty of Riga. As a result of the post-World War II border changes, all of the territory was ceded to the USSR, and none of it is in modern Poland.
The city of Vilnius, the capital and largest city of Lithuania, has an extensive history starting from the Stone Age. The city has changed hands many times between Imperial and Soviet Russia, Napoleonic France, Imperial and Nazi Germany, Interwar Poland, and Lithuania.
The history of the Jews in Belarus begins as early as the 8th century. Jews lived in all parts of the lands of modern Belarus. In 1897, the Jewish population of Belarus reached 910,900, or 14.2% of the total population. Following the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1920), under the terms of the Treaty of Riga, Belarus was split into Eastern Belorussia and Western Belorussia, and causing 350,000-450,000 of the Jews to be governed by Poland. Prior to World War II, Jews were the third largest ethnic group in Belarus and comprised more than 40% of the urban population. The population of cities such as Minsk, Pinsk, Mogilev, Babruysk, Vitebsk, and Gomel was more than 50% Jewish. In 1926 and 1939 there were between 375,000 and 407,000 Jews in Belarus or 6.7-8.2% of the total population. Following the Soviet annexation of Eastern Poland in 1939, including Western Belorussia, Belarus would again have 1,175,000 Jews within its borders, including 275,000 Jews from Poland, Ukraine, and elsewhere. It is estimated 800,000 of 900,000 — 90% of the Jews of Belarus —were killed during the Holocaust. According to the 2019 Belarusian census, there were 13,705 self-identifying Jews in Belarus, of which most are of Ashkenazi origin. However, the Israeli embassy in Belarus claims to know about 30-50 thousand Belarusians with Jewish descent.
The 1st Lithuanian–Belarusian Division was a volunteer unit of the Polish Army formed around December 1918 and January 1919 during the Polish–Soviet War. It was created out of several dozen smaller units of self-defence forces composed of local volunteers in what is now Lithuania and Belarus, amidst a growing series of territorial disputes between the Second Polish Republic, the Russian SFSR, and several other local provisional governments. The Division took part in several key battles of the war. According to Paulius Pacevičius around 15-18% of the division were ethnic Lithuanians.
The Lithuanian Metrica or the Metrica of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is a collection of the 14–18th century legal documents of the Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). Maintained systematically since the 2nd half the 15th century, metrica consisted, initially and primarily, of the copies of the documents issued by the Grand Duke, Lithuanian Council of Lords, and Seimas.
Medininkai is a village in Lithuania. Administrationwise it is centre to the Medininkai Eldership, which forms part of the Vilnius District Municipality; the district itself is in turn part of the Vilnius County. Beginnings of the village are related to the 14th century. The local castle was among the key ones in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; in 1387, upon christening of the country, the grand duke Jogaila founded one of the first 7 churches here. Medininkai enjoyed its golden era in the late 15th century. In the early modern period the settlement reached the status of a town, but it failed to develop into a major urban centre. Over time the place was losing importance, and at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries it was reduced to a village. The area has retained its traditionally rural character, though during recent decades it started to host transport and spedition businesses, related to the nearby Lithuania-Belarus border crossing at the Vilnius-Minsk highway. Since the early 21st century Medininkai is home to a major compound which educates border-control officials. The place enjoys some appeal among tourists; visitors are attracted by ruins of the castle, now turned into a museum, and the highest natural point in Lithuania, named Aukštojas. The village and the eldership are populated mostly by members of the Polish national minority.
The Poles of Lithuania, also called Lithuanian Poles, estimated at 183,000 people in the Lithuanian census of 2021 or 6.5% of Lithuania's total population, are the country's largest ethnic minority.
Tadeusz Stanisław Wróblewski was a Polish noble, politician, lawyer, bibliophile and cultural activist. He supported the democratic wing of the Krajowcy movement and founded the Wróblewski Library in Vilnius.
Latvia–Lithuania relations are bilateral international relations between Latvia and Lithuania. Latvia has an embassy in Vilnius, and Lithuania has an embassy in Riga. The two states share 588 kilometres (365 mi) of common border. Both countries are full members of the NATO and European Union.
Belarus and Lithuania established diplomatic relations on 24 October 1991, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The two countries share 680 kilometres (420 mi) of common border. Lithuania's border with Belarus is the country's longest border. For Belarus it is its 3rd-longest border.
The Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in Vilnius, is dedicated to showing artifacts and records from the 50-year period of Soviet occupation of Lithuania.
The Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania is a government agency in Lithuania, which participates in the shaping of national policy in the field of management and use of documents and archives, as well as implements this policy, supports the Chief Archivist of Lithuania in the carrying-out of state administration of the field of documents and archives.
The Museum of Antiquities in Vilnius was a museum of archaeology and history established by Count Eustachy Tyszkiewicz in 1855 at the premises of the closed Vilnius University. It was the first public museum in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and is considered a predecessor of the National Museum of Lithuania even though only a handful of items from the Museum of Antiquities ended up at the National Museum. Together with the Archaeological Commission which functioned as a de facto learned society, the museum was the most prominent cultural and scientific institution in all of Lithuania and displayed many historical items that reminded of the old Grand Duchy and served romantic nationalism of Lithuanian nobles at the time when Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire. The museum collections rapidly grew to over 67,000 items in 1865 by absorbing large collections of minerals and zoological specimens from the closed Vilnius University, libraries of various closed Catholic churches and monasteries, and various donations from local nobles.
Litvinism is a pseudohistorical branch of nationalism, philosophy and political current in Belarus, which bases the history of its state on the heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and emphasizes the Baltic component of the Belarusian ethnic group. According to this branch of Belarusian nationalism, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a Slavic or Belarusian state, the medieval Lithuanians were Belarusians, and modern Lithuania is a consequence of a falsification of history. On the other hand, some Russian Litvinists refer to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a Slavic Russian state.
The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences is a major research library in Vilnius, Lithuania. The library was established by Tadeusz Wróblewski in 1912. It became part of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 1941. The library houses more than 3.7 million documents and has an extensive collection of old and rare manuscripts and publications.
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