Search Results - Lithuanians

The territory of the Balts, including modern Lithuania, was once inhabited by several Baltic tribal entities (Sudovians, Curonians, Selonians, Samogitians, Nadruvians and others), as attested by ancient sources and dating from prehistoric times. Over the centuries, and especially under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, some of these tribes consolidated into the Lithuanian nation, mainly as a defense against the marauding Teutonic Order and Eastern Slavs. One of the last Pagan peoples in Europe, they were eventually converted to Christianity in 1387.

The territory inhabited by ethnic Lithuanians has shrunk over centuries; once Lithuanians made up a majority of population not only in what is now Lithuania, but also in northwestern Belarus, in large areas of the territory of modern Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, and in some parts of modern Latvia and Poland.

However, there is a current argument that the Lithuanian language was considered non-prestigious by some elements in Lithuanian society, and a preference for the Polish language in certain territories of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, as well as a preference for the German language in territories of the former East Prussia (now Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia) caused the number of Lithuanian speakers to decrease. The subsequent imperial Russian occupation accelerated this process; it pursued a policy of «Russification», which included a ban on public speaking and writing in Lithuanian (see, e.g., «Knygnešiai», the actions against the Catholic Church). It was believed by some at the time that the nation as such, along with its language, would become extinct within a few generations.