The most important day for Lithuania: Febraury 16
Exactly 100 years ago, in February 16th, 1918, was the most important day in Lithuanian history. On this day, Lithuania’s independence was declared! Group of 20 Lithuanian intellectuals, signed “Lietuvos nepriklausomybės aktas“ (Act of Independence).
After the declaration of independence was signed, the Germans still controlled the area. They demanded, that we would make an „Eternal Alliance“ with Germany, but, in November, when Germany fell into chaos, Lithuania was not connected to Germany and it‘s independence was recognized.
The soviets recognized the independence of Lithuania in July 12, 1920, and made a peace treaty.
When the Soviets annexed Lithuania in 1940, the Act of Independence went missing, nobody found until 2017. On March 29th, a professor from Vytautas Didysis University(VDU) named Liudas Mažylis, found the original Act in German archives(you can see him on the left)
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Lietuva, būk laisva!!
A very interesting snippet of information. For Liudas Mažylis finding that decleration must have been a career and life highlight.
Yeah, on that month he was "on the spotlight", everybody talked about it. When historians search for the Act about 27 years and some professor just checked the Archives and there it is :D