Lithuania Declares Independence: Freedom From Empire

The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopted the Act of Independence on February 16, 1918, declaring Lithuania a sovereign democratic republic free from all previous political ties with other nations. The twenty signatories knew the declaration was largely symbolic: German troops still occupied the country, and neither Russia nor Germany recognized Lithuanian sovereignty. The declaration drew its legitimacy from the Lithuanian National Council's claim to represent the will of the people, expressed through a congress held in Vilnius in September 1917. Independence became a practical reality only after Germany's collapse in November 1918, when Lithuania formed its own army and government. The new state survived a Polish seizure of Vilnius in 1920 and a Bolshevik invasion, establishing itself as a functioning republic before Soviet occupation in 1940 extinguished its sovereignty for fifty years. Lithuania re-declared independence in 1990, explicitly citing the 1918 Act as its legal foundation.