Login
Login

Communist Party of Lithuania

{{Short description|Banned political party in Lithuania}}

{{More citations needed|date=November 2017}}

{{Expand Lithuanian|topic=gov|date=November 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}

{{Infobox political party

| name = Communist Party of Lithuania

| native_name = {{Nobold|Lietuvos komunistų partija}}

| native_name_lang = lt

| colorcode = {{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}

| logo_size =

| first_secretary = {{nowrap|Antanas Sniečkus (first)}}
{{nowrap|Mykolas Burokevičius (last)}}

| foundation = 1 October 1918

| dissolution = 1991-01-15

| banned = {{nowrap|1918–1940 (first ban)

23 August 1991–present (second ban)}}

| successor = Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania
Socialist People's Front (not legal successors)

| newspaper = Tiesa

| youth_wing = Leninist Young Communist League of Lithuania

| colours = {{Color box|{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}|border=darkgray}} Red

| ideology = {{ubl|Communism|Marxism–Leninism|Soviet patriotism}}

| position = Far-left

| headquarters = Vilnius

| international = Communist International (1919–1943)

| affiliation1_title = Continental affiliation

| affiliation1 = UCP–CPSU

| national = Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1940–1989)

| website =

| symbol =

| flag = Flag of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (1953–1988).svg

| logo = Emblem of the Lithuanian SSR.svg

| country = Lithuania

}}

File:Gedimino 9 palace in Vilnius1.JPG

The Communist Party of Lithuania ({{langx|lt|Lietuvos komunistų partija}}; {{langx|ru|Коммунистическая партия Литвы|translit=Kommunisticheskaya partiya Litvy}}) is a banned communist party in Lithuania. The party was established in early October 1918 and operated clandestinely until it was legalized in 1940 after the Soviet invasion and occupation. The party was banned in August 1991, following the coup attempt in Moscow, Soviet Union which later led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Lithuanian SSR.

History

The party was working illegally from 1920 until 1940. Although the party was illegal, some of its members took part in the 1922 Lithuanian parliamentary election under title "Workers Groups". It managed to gather 5.0 per cent of vote (or around 40,000 votes) and elect five members. Due to political instability, Seimas was dissolved and new elections took place in 1923. In these elections, the party lost half of its support.

In 1940 the party amalgamated with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) (CPSU). By the time of the formation of the Lithuanian SSR, the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP) was headed by Antanas Sniečkus. In 1940, the LKP merged into the CPSU(b). The territorial organisation of the party in Lithuania was called Communist Party of Lithuania (bolshevik) (LKP (b)). In the Lithuanian territorial organisation, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the party (always a Lithuanian) was de facto ruler of the country. The second secretary for the most of Soviet era was a Moscow-appointed Russian. In 1952 the name of the old Lithuanian party, LKP, was re-adopted.

On 24 December 1989,{{Cite web|url=https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/video621878.html|title = 24.12.1989 |website= Tagesschau (Germany)|access-date=29 December 2016}} during mass protests of the Singing Revolution against the Soviet Union in Lithuania, the party declared itself independent from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. By 1990, the main body of the CPL reorganized as the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania, which in turn by 2001 merged with Social Democratic Party of Lithuania under the latter's name; but with leadership dominated by ex-communists.

A small portion of the party remained loyal to the CPSU, and reorganized as the Communist Party of Lithuania ('on platform of Communist Party of the Soviet Union') under the leadership of Mykolas Burokevičius after the "traditional" party declared independence from its Soviet Union counterpart. The party played a major role in the January 1991 Events in Lithuania.

The Communist Party of Lithuania was eventually banned on 23 August 1991.[https://www.interfax.ru/30years/784046 Деятельность компартии Литвы под запретом]

Membership

class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" |Party membership[1]

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

Governance

=First Secretaries=

File:AntanasSniečkus7-11-1970Vlns.jpg, the leader of the Communist Party of Lithuania from 1940 to 1974.{{cite book |last1=Motyl |first1=Alexander J. |title=Encyclopedia of Nationalism, Two-Volume Set |date=2000 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=0080545246 |pages=494–495 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pvHRNNk9hHEC&pg=PA494}}]]

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

!{{Abbr|No.|Number}}

!Picture

! width="150" |Name

{{small|(Birth–Death)}}

! width="150" |Took office

! width="150" |Left office

! width="150" |Political party

colspan="6" align="center" |First Secretary
style="background:{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}; color:white;" |1

|105x105px

|Antanas Sniečkus
(1903–1974)

|21 July 1940

|22 January 1974

|CPL/CPSU

bgcolor=#E6E6AA

! style="background:{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}; color:white;" |—

|105x105px

|Valery Khazarov{{-}}{{small|acting}}
(1918–2013)

|22 January 1974

|18 February 1974

|CPL/CPSU

style="background:{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}; color:white;" |2

|

|Petras Griškevičius
(1924–1987)

|18 February 1974

|14 November 1987

|CPL/CPSU

bgcolor=#E6E6AA

! style="background:{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}; color:white;" |—

|105x105px

|Nikolai Mitkin{{-}}{{small|acting}}
(1929–1998)

|14 November 1987

|1 December 1987

|CPL/CPSU

style="background:{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}; color:white;" |3

|

|Ringaudas Songaila
(1929–2019)

|1 December 1987

|19 October 1988

|CPL/CPSU

rowspan=2 style="background:{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}; color:white;" |4

|rowspan=2|105x105px

|rowspan=2|Algirdas Brazauskas
(1932–2010)

|19 October 1988

|23 December 1989

|CPL/CPSU

23 December 1989

|8 December 1990

|CPL (independent)

colspan=6 |"Leading role" of the party abolished 7 December 1989
colspan="6" align="center" |First Secretary (of pro-Moscow breakaway faction)
style="background:{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}; color:white;" |5

|105x105px

|Mykolas Burokevičius
(1927–2016)

|23 December 1989

|23 August 1991

|CPL/CPSU

=Second Secretaries=

=Congresses=

class="wikitable"

!Congress

!Date

!Delegates

Voting + advisory

!Notes

1st

| 1–3 October 1918

|34

|Took place illegally in Vilnius

2nd

| 4–6 March 1919

|159 + 10

|Joint congress with the Communist Party of Byelorussia; Established the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Lithuania and Belorussia

3rd

| 24–29 October 1921

|12

|Took place illegally in Königsberg

4th

| 17–21 July 1924

|11 + 4

|Took place in Moscow; after the 5th World Congress of the Comintern

5th

| 5–9 February 1941

|294 + 66

|Took place in Kaunas; First congress after establishment of the Lithuanian SSR

6th

| 15–18 February 1949

|471 + 74

|First congress after World War II

7th

| 22–25 September 1952

|517 + 75

|Elected 9 delegates to the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

8th

| 16–19 February 1954

|541 + 44

|

9th

| 24–27 January 1956

|578 + 101

|Elected 9 delegates to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

10th

| 12–15 February 1958

|572 + 108

|

11th

| 14–16 January 1959

|596 + 126

|Elected 9 delegates to the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

12th

| 1–3 March 1960

|593 + 103

|

13th

| 27–29 April 1961

|688 + 119

|Elected 36 delegates to the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

14th

| 9–10 January 1964

|765 + 99

|

15th

| 3–5 March 1966

|789 + 90

|Elected 42 delegates to the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

16th

| 3–5 March 1971

|748 + 47

|Elected 45 delegates to the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

17th

| 20–22 January 1976

|904

|Elected 49 delegates to the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

18th

| 29–30 January 1981

|933

|Elected 42 delegates to the 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

19th

| 24–25 January 1986

|947

|Elected 55 delegates to the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

20th

|19 December 1989

|1033

|Voted to separate from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

See also

References

{{reflist}}

{{Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}

{{Lithuanian political parties|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Organizations of the Revolutions of 1989

Category:Communist parties in the Soviet Union

Category:Banned communist parties

Lithuania

Category:Parties of one-party systems

Category:Communist parties in Lithuania

Category:Lithuanian collaborators with the Soviet Union (1940–41)

Lithuania

Category:Political parties established in 1918

Category:Political parties disestablished in 1991

Category:Defunct political parties in Lithuania

Category:1918 establishments in Lithuania

Category:1991 disestablishments in Lithuania

Category:Political parties in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic

Category:Singing Revolution