Lithuanians
The term Lithuanian is used both for citizens of the Republic of Lithuania and for members of the Lithuanian ethnic group . In Lithuania this is 83.5% of the population.
The Lithuanians are a Baltic people . They speak the Lithuanian language , which belongs to the Indo-European language family . Most of the Lithuanians are Catholics .
history
The oldest known documented mention of this name as Litua comes from the Quedlinburg Annals of 1009. Litua was the name for a region in today's Lithuania . The Nestor Chronicle of 1116 names the two main tribes of the Lithuanians: Aukschtaiten (Upper Lithuanians) and Schemeites (Lower Lithuanians ). In the 13th century the Lithuanian principalities were united by the later king Mindaugas I , who converted to Christianity in 1253. But Christianity could not prevail until his death in 1263 and the kingdom fell apart. In the early 14th century , the Lithuanians conquered the area between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea under a new pagan ruling dynasty since Gediminas . 1385 of Lithuanian Grand Duke came Jagiello to Catholicism than to the husband as the Polish crown princess Hedwig of Anjou Polish to be crowned king. While the Grand Duchy of Moscow began to oppress the empire in the 15th and 16th centuries , the Lithuanian part of the country was increasingly Polonized to a province and nobility and clergy . In 1795 the core areas of Lithuania became part of Russia and southwest Lithuania became part of Prussia , which later became part of the Russian tsarist Poland . As a result of the Russification policy , more and more Lithuanians began to emigrate mainly to the United States of America . Before the First World War, for example, around a third of Lithuanians lived in the USA and Canada . After all, the Lithuanian Catholic Church was able to free itself from Polish supremacy and from around 1883 the awakening of the Lithuanian national consciousness began . Lithuania declared independence in 1918. But already in 1940 Lithuania fell victim to the Hitler-Stalin Pact . Over 38,000 Lithuanians were deported by the Soviets in 1941 alone, and more from 1944, so that finally 300,000 Lithuanians were deported. After the collapse of the Soviet Union , Lithuania regained its independence in 1990, which was confirmed by most countries by 1991.
Lithuanians outside Lithuania
Today Lithuanians and their descendants live all over the world: Argentina , Australia (especially in Brisbane ), Brazil , Germany , Great Britain , Ireland , Canada , Kazakhstan , Colombia , Latvia (1.4%), Poland , Russia , Scandinavia (before especially in Norway and Sweden ), Spain , Ukraine and USA .
There are over 3.1 million people who speak Lithuanian as their first language . Over four million consider themselves to be Lithuanians because of their origin and therefore have a legal right to Lithuanian citizenship under the Nationality Act of the Republic of Lithuania . These include B. also the numerous Lithuanians and their descendants who emigrated in various waves of emigration at the beginning of the 20th century and later to North and South America or were born there, who have taken on foreign citizenship and today even up to the fourth generation of theirs Self-image living here as a Lithuanian.
Well-known Lithuanians
Art & Literature
- Unė Babickaitė - film actress / Hollywood
- Donatas Banionis - actor
- Antanas Baranauskas - poet, 19th century
- Šarūnas Bartas - film director
- Charles Bronson, Karolis Bučinskis - actor, son of Lithuanian emigrants
- Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis - painter and composer
- Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė - actress
- Danutė Dirginčiūtė - singer
- Kristijonas Donelaitis - poet, 18th century
- Stasys Eidrigevičius - artist
- Daiva Gedvilaite - opera singer (mezzo-soprano)
- Laurynas Gucevičius - Architect of the Classicism Age
- Laurence Harvey - actor (real name: Laruschka Mischa Skikne)
- Oskaras Koršunovas - theater director
- Jacques Lipchitz - sculptor
- George Maciunas, Jurgis Mačiūnas - initiator of the Fluxus art movement
- Sabina Martinaitytė - opera singer
- Jonas Mekas - director
- Irena Milkevičiūtė - opera singer (soprano)
- Juozas Miltinis - theater director
- Eimuntas Nekrošius - theater director
- Virgilijus Noreika - opera singer
- Gabrielle Odinis - actress
- Kipras Petrauskas - opera singer (tenor)
- Saulius Sondeckis (1928-2016) - conductor
- Antanas Škėma - writer
- Violeta Urmanavičiūte-Urmana - opera singer
- Lena Valaitis, Anelė Luise Valaitytė - German-Lithuanian pop singer
- Vydūnas, Vilhelmas Storosta - writer and philosopher, leader of the Lithuanian cultural movement in East Prussia at the beginning of the 20th century
- Robert Zemeckis - film director with a Lithuanian father
politics
- Valdas Adamkus - former President of Lithuania
- Algirdas Brazauskas - former general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Lithuanian SSR , former President of Lithuania, Prime Minister of Lithuania
- Kazys Grinius - politician
- Vytautas Landsbergis - professor, first President of Lithuania since independence in 1990 , member of the European Parliament
- Stasys Lozoraitis - politician
- Rolandas Paksas - former President of Lithuania
- Antanas Smetona - first President of Lithuania since independence in 1919
science
- Jurgis Baltrušaitis junior - art historian, specialist in medieval art
- Birutė Galdikas - anthropologist
- Marija Gimbutas - archaeologist
- Algirdas Julien Greimas - linguist, researcher of Lithuanian mythology
Sports
- Virgilijus Alekna - discus thrower (Olympic and world champion)
- Deividas Česnauskis - football player
- Edgaras Česnauskis - football player
- Vitas Gerulaitis - US tennis player of Lithuanian descent
- Žydrūnas Ilgauskas - basketball player
- Valdas Ivanauskas - former football player, now coach
- Šarūnas Jasikevičius - basketball player
- Darius Wladowitsch Kasparaitis - former ice hockey player, now coach
- Šarūnas Marčiulionis - former basketball player
- Raimondas Rumšas - former cyclist
- Marius Sabaliauskas - cyclist
- Arvydas Sabonis - former basketball player
- Domantas Sabonis - basketball player
- Darius Songaila - basketball player
- Deividas Šemberas - football player
- Johnny Unitas - American football player
- Dainius Zubrus - ice hockey player
Other
- Jurgis Baltrušaitis senior (1873–1944) - art historian, poet, diplomat
- Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas - pilots
- Josifas Grigulevičius - Soviet secret agent in Western Europe and Latin America , later historian for the Catholic Church and Latin America
- Antanas Gustaitis - General of the Lithuanian Air Force, engineer, aircraft designer
- Jurgis Kairys - aerobatic pilot
- Benedictus Mikulis - Lithuanian freedom fighter
- Vytautas Putna (1893–1937), also Witowt Putna - General of the Red Army, military diplomat
- Jokūbas Smuškevičius (1902–1941), also Jakow Schuschkewitsch ( General Duglas ) - Commander in Chief of the Soviet Air Fleet (1939–1940)
- Rimantas Stankevičius - Soviet test pilot and cosmonaut
- Margarita Švėgždaitė - top model
- Jeronimas Uborevičius (1896–1937), also Jeronim Uborewitsch - Commander in Chief of the Red Army