Despite today's difference in population and area between the countries, Lithuania (also as part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) and Russia (including its predecessor Principality of Moscow) were more equal regional powers in the past, competing for supremacy in Eastern Europe.

The Baltic states once again were permitted to use their native languages in schooling and public discourse, and Catholic churches were again built in Lithuania.

However, even Russian liberals were not prepared to concede autonomy similar to the degree it already existed in Estonia and Latvia, albeit under Baltic German hegemony.

[12] As open annexation could result in a public-relations backlash, the Germans planned to form a network of formally independent states that would in fact be dependent on Germany.

In the treaty, the Soviet Russia recognized fully independent Lithuania, including its claims to the disputed Vilnius Region.

To prevent further fighting, the Suwałki Agreement was signed by Poland and Lithuania on 7 October 1920; it left Vilnius on the Lithuanian side of the armistice line.

The "Republic" was a part of Piłsudski's federalist scheme, which never materialized due to opposition from both the Polish and Lithuanian nationalists.

It was sharply criticized for signing the Soviet–Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact, even though it affirmed Soviet recognition of Lithuanian claims to Poland-held Vilnius.

[citation needed] After months of intense propaganda and diplomatic pressure, the Soviets issued an ultimatum on 14 June 1940.

[27] By July 1944, the area around Vilnius came under control of the Polish Resistance fighters of the Armia Krajowa, who also attempted a takeover of the German-held city during the ill-fated Operation Ostra Brama.

The heaviest physical losses in Lithuania during World War II were suffered in 1944–45, when the Red Army pushed out the Nazi invaders.

However, the US, UK her Western governments did not recognize the seizure of Lithuania by the Soviet Union in 1940 and in 1944 de jure according to the Welles Declaration of 23 July 1940.

During the occupation of Lithuania, at least 130,000 people, 70% of them women and children,[33] were forcibly transported to labor camps and other forced settlements in remote parts of the Soviet Union, such as the Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai.

Soviet Lithuanian officials, including Antanas Sniečkus, drafted local administrative measures prohibiting deportee return and petitioned Moscow to enact national policies to that effect.

[36] In May 1958, the Soviet Union revised its policy regarding the remaining deportees: all those who were not involved with the Lithuanian partisans were released, but without the right to return to Lithuania.

All legal ties of the Soviet Union's sovereignty over the republic were cut as Lithuania declared the restitution of its independence.

President Boris Yeltsin and the Chairman of the Supreme Council Vytautas Landsbergis met to discuss economic ties.

[citation needed] Since the reestablishment of independence, only two Lithuanian leaders have visited Moscow: one by Algirdas Brazauskas in 1997 and Valdas Adamkus in 2001 and 2005.

The plan succeeded, while the vast majority are voluntary, with only about 10% by today (as of late 2010s) being drawn from compulsory conscription involuntarily.

[51] The Ministry of National Defence also published a 98-page manual for citizens to prepare them for a possibility of armed conflict or occupation.

[57] On 4 April, in response to the Bucha massacre, Lithuania expelled the Russian ambassador and closed the consulate in Klaipėda.

[1] In April 2022, the Russian government decided to withdraw its consent to the functioning of the Consulate-General of Lithuania in Saint Petersburg.

[58] On 10 May, Lithuania's Seimas voted unanimously to describe Russia's actions in Ukraine as constituting terrorism and genocide.

The motion claimed that Russian forces were targeting Ukrainian civilian sites for bombing and described Russia as a state which "supports and perpetrates terrorism".

"[62] Towards the end of June, Lithuania announced that it would be blocking the transport of Russian goods through their territory from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad.

[63] In September 2022, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have decided to close entry for the Russian citizens with Schengen visas, including those issued by third countries.

[67][68] In September 2023, following the new explanation of the EU sanctions by the European Commission, Lithuania together with the other Baltic States and Finland banned the vehicles with the Russian license plates from entering their territory.

[72] See ru:Список послов СССР и России в Литве (List of ambassadors of the USSR and Russia in Lithuania)