The
Communist Party of Lithuania was a
communist partyA political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government. The name originates from the 1848 tract Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels...
in
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
, established in early October 1918. The party was banned in December 1926.
The party was working illegally until 1940. In the same year the party was merged with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). By the time of the formation of the
Lithuanian SSRThe Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union. It was established after the Soviet Annexation of Lithuania in 1940 and existed until 1990...
, the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP) was headed by
Antanas SniečkusAntanas Sniečkus was First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party from August 1940 to January 22, 1974.- Biography :...
. In 1940 the LKP merged into the CPSU(b).
The
Communist Party of Lithuania was a
communist partyA political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government. The name originates from the 1848 tract Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels...
in
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
, established in early October 1918. The party was banned in December 1926.
History
| Party membership |
| Year |
Members |
| 1930 |
650 |
| 1936 |
1,942 |
| 1940 |
1,741 |
| 1941 |
4,620 |
| 1945 |
3,540 |
| 1950 |
27,800 |
| 1955 |
35,500 |
| 1960 |
54,300 |
| 1965 |
86,400 |
| 1970 |
116,600 |
| 1975 |
140,200 |
| 1980 |
165,800 |
The party was working illegally until 1940. In the same year the party was merged with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). By the time of the formation of the
Lithuanian SSRThe Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union. It was established after the Soviet Annexation of Lithuania in 1940 and existed until 1990...
, the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP) was headed by
Antanas SniečkusAntanas Sniečkus was First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party from August 1940 to January 22, 1974.- Biography :...
. In 1940 the LKP merged into the CPSU(b). The territorial organization of the party in Lithuania was called Communist Party of Lithuania (
bolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
) (LK(b)P). In the Lithuanian territorial organization, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the party (always a Lithuanian) was de facto governor of the country. The second secretary was always a Moscow-appointed Russian. In 1952 the name of the old Lithuanian party, LKP, was retaken.
In 1989, during mass protests of the
Singing RevolutionThe Singing Revolution is a commonly used name for events between 1987 and 1990 that led to the restoration of the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania...
against
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
in Lithuania the party declared itself independent from
Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling and only legal political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the...
. In 1990 the Communist Party of Lithuania was converted into the
Democratic Labour Party of LithuaniaDemocratic Labour Party of Lithuania was a social democratic political party in Lithuania, that emerged out of the Lithuanian section of the CPSU in December 1990. LDDP was led by Algirdas Brazauskas, the first president of independent Lithuania. Because Brazauskas was elected as the first...
, which in turn was later merged with
Social Democratic Party of LithuaniaThe Social Democratic Party of Lithuania is a centre-left and social democratic political party in Lithuania. It led a minority government in the unicameral Seimas, Lithuania's Parliament from 2004-2008. The party's president and the current outgoing Prime Minister of Lithuania, is Gediminas...
under the later's name, but with leadership dominated by ex-communists.
The remainder of the Communist Party of Lithuania ('on platform of Communist Party of the Soviet Union') existed in 1990-1991 under leadership of
Mykolas BurokevičiusMykolas Burokevičius is a communist political leader in Lithuania. After the Communist Party of Lithuania separated from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , he established alternative pro-CPSU Communist Party of Lithuania in early 1990, and led it as the First Secretary of Central Committee...
after the "traditional" party declared its independence from its Soviet Union counterpart. The Communist Party of Lithuania was eventually banned in 1991. Although still illegal, the Communist Party of Lithuania is affiliated to the
Union of Communist Parties — Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Union of Communist Parties Communist Party of the Soviet Union is a group of communist parties in the former Soviet Union, comprising:*Communist Party of the Russian Federation...
(UCP-CPSU) headed by
Gennady ZyuganovGennady Andreyevich Zyuganov is a Russian politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union , deputy of the State Duma , and a member of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe...
.
First Secretaries of the Communist Party of Lithuania
- Antanas Sniečkus
Antanas Sniečkus was First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party from August 1940 to January 22, 1974.- Biography :...
July 21, 1940 - June 24, 1941
- Antanas Sniečkus
Antanas Sniečkus was First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party from August 1940 to January 22, 1974.- Biography :...
(again) February 18, 1944 - January 22, 1974
- Petras Griškevičius
Petras Griškevičius was a high-level government official in the Lithuanian SSR, who ruled from 1974 until his death.- Biography :Petras Griškevičius was born in Kriaunos, Rokiškis district, Lithuania....
February 18, 1974 - November 14, 1987
- Ringaudas Bronislovas Songaila
Ringaudas Bronislovas Songaila was an official of the Lithuanian SSR nomenclatura.He was Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1981 to 1985, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1985 to 1987, and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania in 1987–88...
December 1, 1987 - October 19, 1988
- Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas (Continued as First Secretary of Independent Communist Party to December, 1990) October 19, 1988 - December, 1989
- Mykolas Burokevičius
Mykolas Burokevičius is a communist political leader in Lithuania. After the Communist Party of Lithuania separated from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , he established alternative pro-CPSU Communist Party of Lithuania in early 1990, and led it as the First Secretary of Central Committee...
("Leading" role of the party abolished December 7, 1989) December, 1989 - August, 1991