Lithuania (World of Imperial Russian Glory)

Principality of Lithuania Литовское княжество Litovskoye knyazhestvo (Russian) Лиетувос Кунигаикштыстė Lietuvos Kunigaikštystė (Lithuanian) - Principality of Russia - OT equivalent: Lithuania
Motto:  "Море и рыцарство, земля благородства" "More i rytsarstvo, zemlya blagorodstva" ("Seas and Knighthood, Land of Nobility")
Capital		Vilnius
Official languages		Russian (lingua franca) Lithuanian (co-official)
Government		Constitutional monarchy
-	Crown Prince	Feodor I
-	Governor General	Svetlana Karmazinas (DSP)
-	Head Minister	Mikhail Gaida (DSP)
Population
-	census	3.8 million

The Principality of Lithuania (Russian: Литовское княжество, Litovskoye knyazhestvo; Lithuanian: Лиетувос Кунигаикштыстė, Lietuvos Kunigaikštystė) is one of the principalities of Russia located in the Grand Principality of the Baltics. It is the only Baltic principality named in Western sources, after the original native ethnic group, the Lithuanians, though ethnic Russians now comprise of the majority.

For millennia the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, founding the Kingdom of Lithuania on 6 July 1253. In the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest country in Europe; present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia were all lands of the Grand Duchy. With the Union of Lublin of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state personal union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighbouring countries dismantled it in 1772–1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania's territory.

As World War I ended, Lithuania's Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, founding the modern Republic of Lithuania. Out of fears of a Russian invasion, the republic sided with Nazi Germany, on the contrary - actually triggering a Russian re-occupation and a disastrous ethnic cleansing of ethnic Lithuanian Catholics that made them a minority, the worst of Russian pogroms in the Baltics after World War II. Half of the remaining ethnic Lithuanians were bribed into becoming Eastern Orthodox. A final attempt was made in the 1990s to restore the impendent republic, one which failed, due to a lack of motivation on behalf of the ethnic Lithuanians still inside Lithuania after the pogroms.

Lithuania is also one of the most important territories in Russia in terms of the nobility, inheriting half of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's history, it has the largest concentration of nobilities in Russia, and many of Russia's famous noble families also hailed from Lithuania. Its Coat of Arms is also the same as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Lithuania is a developed principality, with a high income advanced economy; ranking very high in the Human Development Index. It has however, very questionable ranks in terms of civil liberties, press freedom and internet freedom.

World War II

During the Second World War, Lithuania joined the Axis powers in their invasion of Russia, and partook in the Baltic Operations against Russia. Although in spite of experiencing initial successes, the invasion was reversed and Lithuania found itself under a Russian military invasion and occupation.

Russian re-conquest and Formation of Principality 1946-present

Lithuanian Holocaust

From 1944 and on, Lithuania experienced a brutal post-war repression. All of Lithuania was occupied by Russia, and the Russians made no attempts to restore the republic. The Governorate of Lithuania (Губернаторство Литвы) was established with a Russian Governor-General as the Head of the Local Senate. Similar to what the Soviets did to the Konigsberg Germans after World War II, in 1946, the Russian Senate approved for a massive ethnic cleansing campaign against the native Lithuanian and Catholic population, as Sergey Taboritsky, the Commissar-General of Russia based from Petrograd, argued that the history of war and rivalry between Polonized Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Russians can never be healed, and that the two communities would never be able to live side by side, though he considered Lutherans and Muslims as brothers and sisters.

However, both Tsar Vladimir I and Generalissmo Vladimir P. Rennenkampf were quite dismayed at what the Commissar General was hinting towards (ethnic pogroms) but understood why Commissar-General Taboritsky would recommend such a thing, felt that a balance needed to reached. Therefore, Stavka decided it was best to deport the Lithuanians into Poland, albeit they'd still be around Catholics and Poles, but under the watchful eye of a Russian ally. This pogrom is often compared to the deportation of Turks from western Anatolia in 1948 by the Greek government.

Therefore, in the time-frame occupied by the Israeli pogroms against Palestinians in our OTL, instead, we have Russian pogroms against Lithuanians. The Russian government began to re-populate entire depopulated towns. By the time the 1970s came, Russians made up the majority of Lithuania, as Commissar-General Taboritsky had recommended the "30%" rule, keeping the Lithuanian population below 30%. This era also came with intense pressure to convert the remaining Lithuanians into Eastern Orthodox, to which many did out of mercy. The new converts were given amenities, perks, and even land and royal titles in the case of high-ranking people, garnering in a form of spiritual bribery. This would form the basis of the Catholic-Orthodox divide between ethnic Lithuanians around the world, similar to the Irish Protestant vs. Catholic rivalry.

The real true nature or brutality of these pogroms is a matter of debate. While human rights activists tend to portray it in a brutal Holocaust-like manner, there have been surviving journals and diaries describing it was a bloodless deportation, deportees were given food and shelter and the Polish government helped them adopt to their new lives.

For the Lithuanians who were chosen to stay, the high-ranking peoples or those of prominence were bribed to become Eastern Orthodox and often-not, while the governments advocated no such law requiring conversions, a huge stigma was attached to those who refused and hearsay often discouraged citizens from shopping at Catholic-owned businesses. Not being able to withstand the pressure, many became Eastern Orthodox converts.

In 1950, local Commissariat under the lead of Marshal Konstantin Nechaev instituted the Noah Shamley Law, requiring Lithuanian to be written in the Cyrillic script. The local Lithuanian population was clearly being Russified. In addition, the remaining Lithuanians were pressured into adopting Russian names.

However after the war, the local economy became stimulated as new Russian and German migrants moved in. Reconstruction of railroads, public infrastructure and shopping centers, and housing continued, connecting not only with the rest of the Baltics, via the Trans-Baltic Railway, but also Poland. They established strong links and encourage business growth among the Lithuanians population who became Orthodox. Persecution against Lithuanian Catholics gradually ceased, as the local Russian Senate finally started encouraging Lithuanians to form strong bonds. Many Lithuanian families also became ennobled, both Orthodox and Catholic at this point.

A new generation of Lithuanians started to form, local Russian propaganda portraying the deportees as Nazi German collaborators. The Principality developed a middle to high-income economy in the country.

Tumultuous 1990s and on

During the Tumultuous 1990s, self-proclaimed "President" Franko Korkunov apologized to the Lithuanian community in Poland, and lifted the Cold War-era repressions. This was marked by the Pope's first visit to Moscow ever since ???, and ventually Vilnus where he did a prayer for peace. However, this only encouraged another rebellion, stemming from descendants of deportees fro World War II, as these migrants attempted to garner Western sympathies in an attempt to restored the Republic of Lithuania. This was quashed, thanks to the fact that Lithuania was already majority-Russian, and the majority of Lithuanians still born in Lithuania were Orthodox and pro-Russian. The quashing of this rebellion only soured any hopes for the Lithuanian independence movement, the government remained in exile and Russian forces provided protections for the Lithuanian nobility and ethnic Russians alike. Catholic churches across Lithuania were shut down, and used by Russian troops as propaganda centers and more Lithuanians migrated out of the region.

After 1995, Lithuania began rebuilding from the ashes of internal conflict. The Democratic Socialists, known for catering to ethnic minorities and especially Lithuanians, having dominated the local Assembly for decades. Thanks to their work, the economy of Lithuania became interconnected to that of the other Principalities of the Baltics, known for heavily-embracing technological progress.

In 2001, Head Minister Vladislav Markunas, along with Head Minister Artur Mikelsone of Livonia and Head Minister Johann "Ivan" Ojamaa of Courland signed the Baltic Economic Protocol (Балтийский экономический протокол), encouraging for the formation of a unified local Baltic economic zone, a move heavily supported by the Russian government.

This has significantly contributed to the progress and success of the local Baltic economy, as it encouraged heavy foreign investment in the Baltics, particularily from Germany and Poland. This had led to the resurgence of Polish culture and language in Lithuania, to which Russian leaders supported.

Noble significance

Of the entire Grand Principality of the Baltics, Lithuania is the most significant, since it has the heaviest concentration of nobilities, mainly of native Lithuanian, Russian, Ruthenian (Old Russian/Old East Slavic) and Polish origin.

Currently, while the Gediminids has "generally" been successful as most of the reigning Crown Princes, the huge number of nobilities had led the Lithuanian Senate to establish a Noble Senatorial Elections similar to other constitutional local monarchies across the Empire.

The Gediminids of Lithuania today are now Russian Orthodox, thanks to the extremely anti-monarchist of the Catholics during the Russian Civil War, however there has been proven claims that these were Russian false flags meant to convince the Gediminids to become Orthodox and side with the Tsarist state.

Only the Polish nobilities have remained Roman Catholic.

Demographics

Religion

According to the 2011 census, 60.2% of residents of Lithuania are Eastern Orthodox. Prior to the anti-Lithuania pogroms, Catholicism was the main religion since the official Christianisation of Lithuania in 1387. The Catholic Church was persecuted by the pre-1921 and the post-World War II Russian Empire as part of the Russification policies, as a result of Lithuania's participation on the side of the Axis powers. The majority of Lithuanian Catholics left and/or were deported, and the majority of those who remained became Eastern Orthodox.

Today only 19.5% of the population is still Roman Catholic, with Jews, Lutherans and irreligious forming the rest, mainly among the nobility, who despite being of Ruthenian descent and Orthodox, had for a long-time, been Polonized and Catholicized until the Cold War when they were bribed into becoming Eastern Orthodox. As for the ethnic Lithuanians who are Eastern Orthodox, who comprise 55.5% of the ethnic Lithuania population, the Autonomous Lithuanian Church is a faction of the Russian Orthodox Church catered towards ethnic Lithuanians who follow it,

Protestants are 0.8%, of which 0.6% are Lutheran and 0.2% are Reformed. The Reformation did not impact Lithuania to a great extent as seen in East Prussia, Courland, or Livonia. However, the Lutherans are 3.3% of the total population. They are mainly Baltic Germans and Prussian Lithuanians in the Klaipėda Oblast (Memel territory).

Judaism also has a large prescence in Lithuania, there are recorded 105,310 Jews in Lithuania.

Romuva, the neopagan revival of the ancient religious practices, has gained popularity over the years. Romuva claims to continue living pagan traditions, which survived in folklore and customs. Romuva is a polytheistic pagan faith, which asserts the sanctity of nature and has elements of ancestor worship. According to the 2001 census, there were 1,270 people of Baltic faith in Lithuania. That number jumped to 5,118 in the 2011 census.