Lithuania

The Gate of Dawn is a city-gate of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. It was built between 1503 and 1522 as a part of defensive fortifications for... the city of Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It has also been known as the Medininkai Gate, as it led to the village Medininkai south of Vilnius as well as Aštra broma, which derivative for the Lithuanian language word aštra meaning sharp. Of the nine city gates, only the Gate of Dawn remains, while the others were destroyed by the order of the government at the end of the 18th century. In the 16th century city gates often contained religious artifacts intended to guard the city from attacks and to bless travelers. The Chapel in the Gate of Dawn contains an icon of The Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of Mercy, said to have miraculous powers. For centuries the picture has been one of the symbols of the city and an object of veneration for both Roman Catholic and Orthodox inhabitants. Thousands of votive offerings adorn the walls and many pilgrims from neighboring countries come to pray in front of the beloved painting.
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Kaunas Fortress is the remains of a fortress complex in Kaunas, Lithuania. It was constructed and renovated between 1882 and 1915 to protect the... Russian Empire's western borders, and was designated a "first-class" fortress in 1887. During World War I, the complex was the largest defensive structure in the entire state, occupying 65 km . The fortress was battle-tested in 1915 when Germany attacked the Russian Empire, and withstood eleven days of assault before capture. After World War I, the fortress' military importance declined as advances in weaponry rendered it increasingly obsolete. It was used by various civil institutions and as a garrison. During World War II, parts of the fortress complex were used by the governments of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union for detention, interrogation, and execution. About 50,000 people were executed there, including more than 30,000 victims of the Holocaust. Some sections have since been restored; the Ninth Fort houses a museum and memorial devoted to the victims of wartime mass executions. The complex is the most complete remaining example of a Russian Empire fortress.
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Kaunas Castle is located in Kaunas, Lithuania. Archeological evidence suggests that it was originally built during the mid-14th century, in the... Gothic style. Its site is strategic – a rise on the banks of the Nemunas River near its confluence with the Neris River. At the beginning of the 21st century, about one-third of the castle was still standing. The precise construction date of the first Kaunas Castle is unknown. Archeological data suggests that a stone castle was built on the site during the middle of the 14th century. Situated on an elevated bank near the river junction about 100 kilometers from the capital city of Vilnius, it served as a strategic outpost and guarded nearby cities as well as trade routes. A written account states that in 1361, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights Winrich von Kniprode issued an order to gather information about the castle, specifically the thickness of its walls, as preparation for an assault on the castle. During 1362, Kaunas Castle underwent a siege by the Teutonic Order. The siege of the castle lasted three weeks.
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The Baltic Assembly is an international organisation which aims to promote co-operation between the parliaments of the Republics of Estonia, Latvia... and Lithuania. It attempts to find a common position in relation to many international issues, including economic, political and cultural issues. The Baltic Assembly’s decisions do not bind the member governments but are only advisory. The organisation was formed after a decision to establish it was made in Vilnius on 1 December 1990. It works under regulations approved on 8 November 1991 in Tallinn. On 13 June 1994 the three nations agreed to the structure and rules of the organisation. The budget of the BA is funded by the three member governments. The official languages of the Baltic Assembly are Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian. The headquarters and secretariat of the organisation is in Riga, Latvia. The Baltic Assembly has its own flags and symbols. The BA meets in session twice yearly, once in the spring and once in autumn. The venue of these sessions rotates through the three Baltic member nations. The BA comprises sixty members.
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. The World Bank's official... goal is the reduction of poverty. According to the World Bank's Articles of Agreement all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment. The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group, in that the World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association , whereas the former incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation , Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency , and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes . The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The International Monetary Fund, a related institution, is the second. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference.
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The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organisation founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was... the first permanent international organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. However, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them.
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The Council of Europe is an international organization promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human... rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It was founded in 1949, has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens, and is an entirely separate body from the European Union , which has only 27 member states. Unlike the EU, the Council of Europe cannot make binding laws. The two do however share certain symbols such as the flag of Europe. The Council of Europe has nothing to do with either the Council of the European Union or the European Council, which are both EU bodies. The best known bodies of the Council of Europe are the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Pharmacopoeia Commission, which sets the quality standards for pharmaceutical products in Europe. The Council of Europe's work has resulted in standards, charters and conventions to facilitate cooperation between European countries.
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Kaunas University of Technology is a public research university located in Kaunas, Lithuania. Initially established on January 27th, 1920, the... school was known as "Higher Courses". With an increased rate of staffing and attendance, the school was instituted as the first independent higher education institution within Lithuania by the government on February 16th, 1922. Renamed Vytautas Magnus in 1930, the university specialized in four areas: civil engineering, mechanics, electrical engineering, and chemical technology. The turmoil of World War II brought combinations of Soviet, then German, and finally Soviet re-occupation, numerous name changes and an eventual closing of the university in 1943. After re-occupation by the Soviets in 1944, the University reopened and eventually reformed into Kaunas Polytechnic Institute and Kaunas Medical Institute in 1946. Under the influence of Perestroika, the Soviet Lithuanian government reinstated the schools university status, and it was renamed the Kaunas University of Technology .
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Vilnius Gediminas Technical University is a state higher academic school which has the rights of legal entity. The University is a non-profit... institution, which was established by the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania. It is one of the largest schools of higher education in Lithuania, which strives for leading position among Baltic countries in technical and engineering education as well as the field of scientific research. Vilnius Gediminas Technical University pursues to foster highly qualified, creative and socially active specialists, who would be able to successfully adapt to both Lithuanian and foreign markets of education and labour.
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Vytautas Magnus University is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an... alternate national university. Initially it was known as the University of Lithuania, but in 1930 the university was renamed to Vytautas Magnus University, commemorating 500 years of death of Vytautas the Great, the Lithuanian ruler, well known for the nation's greatest historical expansion in the 15th century. It is one of the leading universities of Lithuania, has now about 8,700 students, including Master and Ph.D. candidates. There are a little less than 1000 employees, including approximately 70 professors. The beginnings of higher education in Lithuania go back to the 16th century when, in 1579, the college founded by Jesuits in Vilnius became a higher school of education - Academia et Universitas Vilnensis. In 1832 in the aftermath of the November Uprising Czar Nicholas I closed the university. However, in 1918, with the establishment of the independent Republic of Lithuania, the State Council decided to reestablish the Vilnius University.
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Czesław Miłosz ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004 was a Polish poet, prose writer and translator of Lithuanian origin. His World War... II-era sequence The World is a collection of 20 "naive" poems. He defected to the West in 1951, and his nonfiction book The Captive Mind is a classic of anti-Stalinism. From 1961 to 1998 he was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. Miłosz later became an American citizen and was awarded the 1978 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. Czesław Miłosz was born on June 30, 1911 in the village of Szetejnie , Kaunas Governorate, Russian Empire on the border between two Lithuanian historical regions of Samogitia and Aukštaitija in central Lithuania. He was a son of Aleksander Miłosz , a civil engineer, and Weronika, née Kunat , descendant of the Siručiai noble family. Miłosz was fluent in Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, English and French.
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Lena Valaitis is a Lithuanian-German Schlager singer. She had her greatest success during the 1970s and 1980s and competed in three Eurovision Song... Contests. Valaitis was born in Memel , in 1943 part of the Memel Territory of East Prussia, Germany, now in Lithuania. Her father, a soldier of the Wehrmacht, was killed during World War II. At the end of the war, Valaitis, her mother, and her brother arrived as refugees in West Germany. She first attended Volksschule in Memmingen and then the Litauisches Gymnasium Hüttenfeld in Hüttenfeld, Hesse. Valaitis left for training with the Deutsche Bundespost in Frankfurt, where she received private singing instruction. Valaitis has one son, Marco , from her first marriage. In 1979 she married actor Horst Jüssen, with whom she had her second son, Don David . Valaitis currently lives in Munich, Bavaria. Valaitis began her musical career by joining the band Frederik Brothers. She signed a record contract with Philips in 1970 and released her first single, "Halt das Glück für uns fest", on June 13, 1970.
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Vlado Perlemuter was a Lithuanian-born French pianist. Vlado Perlemuter was born to a Polish Jewish family, the third of four sons, in Kovno, Russia... . At the age of three, he lost the use of his left eye in an accident. His family settled in France in 1907. In 1915, only 10 years old, he was accepted by the Conservatoire in Paris, studying first with Moritz Moszkowski then, later, with Alfred Cortot. At 15, he graduated from the Conservatoire, where he won the First Prize playing Gabriel Fauré’s Thème et variations before the composer . In 1925 he met Maurice Ravel, and in 1927 he studied all of Ravel's solo works for piano with the composer himself for a period of six months. Thereafter, he became one of the leading exponents of Ravel's music. In 1929 in two public recitals both attended by the composer, Perlemuter played Ravel's complete piano works, a feat he repeated in 1987 at London’s Wigmore Hall to mark the 50th anniversary of Ravel’s death. He never played contemporary music other than Ravel's, except for Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3.
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Virgilijus Kęstutis Noreika is a Lithuanian tenor. Noreika graduated with honors from the Lithuanian State Conservatory in 1958. A year... earlier, while still a student, he was engaged as a performer at the National Opera and Ballet Theater of Lithuania. In 1959, Noreika sang the part of Alfredo Germont in Verdi's La traviata, one of Noreika's favorite and most frequently performed roles. Later in 1965, he continued his career at the La Scala, in Milan. There he mastered six new roles, and also sang the part of Pinkerton, from Puccini's Madame Butterfly, at the famous Opera House. Noreika's creative biography comprises more than 40 operatic roles: Cavaradossi from Tosca by Puccini, Faust from Faust by Gounod, Rudolfo from La bohème by Puccini, Otello from Otello by Verdi, to name a few. Noreika has performed in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre, in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón, in Paris at the Opéra National de Paris, and many other famous Opera houses. Noreika has sung in more than 30 foreign theaters, participated in more than 1000 performances, given approximately 600 solo concerts, recorded some 20 phonographic records and CDs.
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The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history... in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was created in 1918, in the aftermath of World War I. It continued to exist until 1939, despite both internal and external pressures, when Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Slovak Republic, marking the beginning of World War II. When the borders of the state were fixed in 1922 after several regional conflicts, the Republic bordered Czechoslovakia, Germany, Free City of Danzig, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and the Soviet Union, plus a tiny strip of the coastline of the Baltic Sea, around the city of Gdynia, which itself was built in the 1930s. Furthermore, in the period March 1939 – August 1939, Poland bordered then-Hungarian province of Carpathian Ruthenia. It had an area of 388,634 km² , and 27.
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Russia /ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in... northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland , Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres , Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms.
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Latvia /ˈlætviə/ , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the... north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus , and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden. With 2,067,887 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km it is one of the least populous and least densely populated countries of the European Union. The capital of Latvia is Riga. The official language is Latvian and the currency is called Lats . The country has a temperate seasonal climate. The Latvians are a Baltic people, culturally related to the Lithuanians. Together with the Finno-Ugric Livs , the Latvians are the indigenous people of Latvia. Latvian is an Indo-European language and along with Lithuanian the only two surviving members of the Baltic branch. Indigenous minority languages are Latgalian and the nearly extinct Finno-Ugric Livonian language.
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Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to... the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mogilev and Vitebsk . Over forty percent of its 207,600 square kilometres is forested, and its strongest economic sectors are agriculture and manufacturing. Until the 20th century, the lands of modern-day Belarus belonged to several countries, including the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Belarus became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic . The borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939 when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were incorporated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland.
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