Administrative divisions of Lithuania
When King Mindaugas (r. 1251–1263) unified the state, he killed, expelled, or subjugated most of the regional dukes.
For example, Mindaugas granted Black Ruthenia with its center in Navahrudak to his son Vaišvilkas, Grand Duke Gediminas (1316–1341) sent his brother Teodoras to Kiev.
[1] This system had major disadvantages: the principalities remained semi-independent with loose ties to the central government.
Rulers of these principalities could operate as powerful rivals to the Grand Duke, a situation that led to frequent power-struggles.
Major administrative reforms took place in 1564–1566 in preparation for the second Statute of Lithuania of 1566 and the overhaul of the judicial system.
Just before the Union of Lublin (1569), four voivodeships (Kiev, Podlaskie, Bracław, and Wołyń) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were transferred to the Polish Crown by direct order of Sigismund II Augustus while the Duchy of Livonia, acquired in 1561, became a condominium (joint domain) of both Lithuania and Poland.
Forty years later the word "Lithuania" was dropped from the two names and official maps of Europe.
[2] In 1837 Augustów Governorate was established in the territories of the Congress Poland, a state in personal union with Russia.
[6] Small areas in northernmost Grodno Governorate were given to Lithuania after it "joined" the Soviet Union in 1940.
According to a law passed in 1931 eleven first-class cities became independent of county administration and had their own government.
[10] In March 1939, after an ultimatum from Hitler, Lithuania lost the Klaipėda Region with its three counties.
In October Soviet Union returned one fifth of the Vilnius Region in exchange for Red Army stations in Lithuania.
Being almost the only link between the central government and the local population, governors were first responsible for a wide range of duties.
County councils (Lithuanian: apskrities taryba) were elected by local population for a three-year term.
[12] These were the counties, their territory and residents according to the 1923 census:[13] Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union on June 15, 1940.
However, due to ensuring World War II the authorities did not introduce major changes to the administrative divisions, just elderates were renamed to apylinkė.
In addition to districts, there were five (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Panevėžys) region-administered cities (Lithuanian: srities pavaldumo miestas).
Counties were ruled by apskrities viršininkas (officially translated as "governor") who was appointed by the central government in Vilnius.
Their primary duty was to ensure that the municipalities obey the laws of Lithuania and the constitution.
There were proposals to replace the counties with four or five lands, a new administrative unit, based on the ethnographic regions of Lithuania and centered on the country's five major cities.
