Subdivisions of Lithuania
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This article is about administrational division of Lithuania.
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Current division
Lithuania consists of 10 apskritys', (singular - apskritis), each named after their principal city. The counties are subdivided into 56 municipalities, both cities and districts (see: List of municipalities in Lithuania). Municipalities cosists of over 300 elderships. This administrative division was created in 1994. The most important unit is the municipality (some muicipalities are historically called "district municipalities", and thus shortened just to "district", others are called "city municiaplities", sometimes shotrtened just to "city", or leaving just the name of city, and some are called just "municipalities"). Each municipality has it's elected government, which is elected in elections of municipality councils, which previously used to be done every 3 years but now is done every 4 years. Then the municiaplity council elects mayor of the municipality and other required personell (larger municipalities has larger councils and more officials). Also, municipality council sends elders to the elderships in it's territory (small municipalities does not have elderships though). Now there is a proposal though that both mayors and elders would be elected in direct elections by people. As for apskritys, these are regions to which whole Lithuania is partitioned and they are ruled by people (called "Ruler of Apskritis") who are sent by the central government. Their job is to ensure that in the municipalities which are in territory of their apskritis are working according to the laws of Lithuania and the constitution. They do not have a big power vested on them, and so there is idea that 10 apskritys are not needed for Lithuania, because that puts that on average each of them has just 6 municipalities to look after (and in reality smaller ones has only 4 municipalities in their territory), therefore there is a proposal to change apskritys by 4 lands, a new administrative unit, which would be carved according to the ethnographic regions of Lithuania.
See: Apskritys of Lithuania, List of municipalities in Lithuania, Elderships.
Division of the late Soviet period and first independence years (until 1994)
Lithuania (and before that Lthuanian SSR) was divided into 44 districts ("rajonai", singlar - "rajonas") and 11 republican administered cities ("Valstybinio pavaldumo miestai", singular - "Valstybinio pavaldumo miestas") (note: 2 of these cities were actually ollections of small towns). After 1994, all these districts were made into district municipalities, some of the zones of smaller republican administered cities enlarged and formed into municipalities, some new municipalities carved out of largest districts, and the largest republican administered cities becoming city municipalities.
Districts were called after their capital cities, exceptions were:
- Klaipėda district - capital Gargždai
- Akmenė district - capital Naujoji Akmenė; at first capital was Akmenė but then it was moved.
Division at the early Soviet period
Lithuanian SSR was divided into 4 sritys (singular - sritis; it is local translation of Russian "oblast" and was corresponding to them by size and meaning). Each sritis had some districts (with more and smaller districts than later ones):
- Kauno sritis - 23 districts, capital - Kaunas
- Klaipėdos sritis - 16 districts, capital - Klaipėda
- Šiaulių sritis - 24 districts, capital - Šiauliai
- Vilniaus sritis - 24 districts, capital - Vilnius
Also, Šiauliai, Panevežys, Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Naujoji Vilnia and Druskininkai were the sritis administered cities ("Srities pavaldumo miestai", singular "Srities pavaldumo miestas").
This division was changed in the 1960ties, leaving district division only without division into oblasts. However, the later districts were way larger than districts under early Soviet occupation (there were 44 distrcits in late occupation and 87 under early occupation), therefore districts of both times despite of same name should not be compared.
Both districts and sritys were called after their capital cities, exceptions were:
- Smėliai district - capital Ukmergė, which was also capital of Ukmergė district
- Panemunė district - capital Garliava
- Klaipėda district - capital Gargždai
Partisan division
Organised partisan fight was divided into 3 sritys (singular - sritis), these were subdivided into counties, and these - into teams.
Division in the interwar
In the interwar period, Lithuania consisted of 21 apskritys (singular - apskritis) - or 20 if excluding Joniškio Apskritis which was estabilished later. After Klaipėda region was acquired, it was carved into 3 apskritys (Klaipėdos apskritis, Šilutės apskritis and Pagėgių apskritis), and so Lithuania then consisted of 24 apskritys. Please note that actually Lithuania consisted of more apskritys, but some were occupied by Poland (see Vilnius region) and so 24 includes only those apskritys at least part of which was in Lithuania. After Lithuania acquired one fifth of Vilnius region, it took back 2 of formerly occupied apskritys (Vilniaus apskritis and Švenčionių apskritis), but at the time Lithuania had lost Klaipėda region, so overally there were 23 apskritys inside Lithuanian controlled lands. There were also 5 apskritys which were not ever retaken. So, overally in Lithuanian-claimed lands there were 31 apskritis, out of which 7 were fully in Vilnius region or Suvalkai region, 3 fully in Klaipėda region, 2 had their capitals in Vilnius region so temporary capitals for them were declared instead, and some other had parts of them in Vilnius region. Apskritys were subdivided into valsčiai (singular - valsčius).
These were apskritys of the interwar independent Lithuania:
Apskritys in Lithuania (capital in brackets):
- Alytaus Apskritis (Alytus) - part of this apskritis was occupied by Poland as part of Vilnius region, it gained some more territories in 1939
- Ašmenos Apskritis (Ašmena) - this apskritis was in Vilnius region, occupied by Poland, and was never reattached to Lithuania
- Augustavo Apskritis (Augustavas) - this apskritis was in Suvalkai region, occupied by Poland, and was never reattached to Lithuania
- Biržų Apskritis (Biržai)
- Gardino Apskritis (Gardinas) - this apskritis was in Vilnius region, occupied by Poland, and was never reattached to Lithuania
- Joniškio Apskritis (Joniškis) <==Proove existance please, then remove this - different sources says different things
- Kauno Apskritis (Kaunas)
- Kėdainių Apskritis (Kėdainiai)
- Klaipėdos Apskritis (Klaipėda) - this Apskritis was in Klaipėda region, therefore administered by Lithuania in years 1923-1939
- Kretingos Apskritis (Kretinga)
- Lydos Apskritis (Lyda) - this apskritis was in Vilnius region, occupied by Poland, and was never reattached to Lithuania
- Marijampolės Apskritis (Marijampolė) <==Proove existance please, then remove this - different sources says different things
- Mažeikių Apskritis (Mažeikiai)
- Pagėgių Apskritis (Pagėgiai) - this Apskritis was in Klaipėda region, therefore administered by Lithuania in years 1923-1939
- Panevežio Apskritis (Panevežys)
- Plungės Apskritis (Plungė)
- Raseinių Apskritis (Raseiniai)
- Rokiškio Apskritis (Rokiškis)
- Seinų Apskritis (Seinai, temporary - Lazdijai) - part of this apskritis was occupied by Poland as part of Suvalkai region; this included capital Seinai, therefore temporary capital of apskritis was in Lazdijai
- Suvalkų Apskritis (Suvalkai) - this apskritis was in Suvalkai region, occupied by Poland, and was never reattached to Lithuania
- Šakių Apskritis (Šakiai)
- Šiaulių Apskritis (Šiauliai)
- Šilutės Apskritis (Šilutė) - this Apskritis was in Klaipėda region, therefore administered by Lithuania in years 1923-1939
- Švenčionių Apskritis (Švenčionys) - this apskritis was in Vilnius region, occupied by Poland; part of Švenčionių Apskritis reattached to Lithuania in 1939
- Tauragės Apskritis (Tauragė)
- Telšių Apskritis (Telšiai)
- Trakų Apskritis (Trakai, temporary till 1939 - Kaišiadorys) - part of this apskritis was occupied by Poland as part of Vilnius region, it gained some more territories in 1939; up till 1939, capital Trakai was occupied too, so temporary capital was Kaišiadorys.
- Ukmergės Apskritis (Ukmergė) - part of this apskritis was occupied by Poland as part of Vilnius region, it gained some more territories in 1939
- Utenos Apskritis (Utena)
- Vilkaviškio Apskritis (Vilkaviškis)
- Vilniaus Apskritis (Vilnius) - This apskritis was in Vilnius region, occupied by Poland; part of Vilniaus Apskritis reattached to Lithuania in 1939
- Zarasų Apskritis (Zarasai) - part of this apskritis was occupied by Poland as part of Vilnius region, it gained some more territories in 1939; during some time it was called Ežerėnų Apskritis and it's capital -- Ežerėnai
Division of Lithuania under German rule during World War 1
The subdivision used to change then. In 1915 most of Lithuanian territories (except for Lithuania Minor and Palanga) became a part of newly established Oberostland. In July of 1918 the Lithuanian province was established. It consisted of 3 government precincts (Valdžios nuovada, plural - Valdžios nuovados):
- Kaunas (Kowno in German)
- Southern Lithuania (Pietinė Lietuva in Lithuanian; Litauen Sud in German)
- Vilnius (Wilna in German)
The government precincts were subdivided into apskritys.
Division of Lithuania in the Russian Empire
During the occupation of Russian Empire, there was one Lithuanian Governorate (Gubernya) initially, but later it was divided into smaller parts, therefore there was no unit representing Lithuania since that time. Inoficially however, three governorates considered to be Lithuanian: Vilnius Governorate, Kaunas Governorate and Suvalkai Governorate. Also, some parts of Courland Governorate and Grodna Governorate coud be considered as Lithuanian too. Governorates were subdivided into counties.
- Kaunas Governorate had 7 counties
- Suvalkai Governorate had 6 counties
- Vilnius Governorate had 7 counties
Because of similar number of subdivisions it could seem that the governorates were of about similar size, this was not true however, Suvalkai Governorate was clearly the smallest and it's territory was about one third of size of Kaunas Governorate or Vilnius Governorate, and counties in Suvalkai Governorate were smaller too.
Division of late Grand Duchy of Lithuania
In its later years, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was divided into 8 voivodships (plural - vaivadijos, singular - vaivadija) and one eldership (plural - seniūnijos, singular - seniūnija). Prior to Union of Lublin, there were 13 voivodships (four southern ones and one western voivodship were demised to Poland later). These first line administrative units and those subdivided into powiats (plural - pavietai, singular - pavietas). The later had more meaning.
Divisions (voivodships are called after their capital, unless specified otherwise):
- Brasta Voivodship - 2 powiats
- Minskas Voivodship - 3 powiats
- Mstislavlis Voivodship - 1 powiat
- Naugardukas Voivodship - 3 powiats
- Polockas Voivodship - 1 powiat
- Samogitian Eldership (capital - Raseiniai) - 1 powiat
- Trakai Voivodship - 4 powiats
- Vilnius Voivodship - 5 powiats
- Vitebskas Voivodship - 2 powiats
Voivodships lost to Poland prior to Union of Lublin:
- Kijevas Voivodship - 1 powiat
- Palenkė Voivodship (capital - Drohičinas) - 3 powiats
- Podolė Voivodship (capital - Braclavas) - 1 powiat
- Voluinė Voivodship (capital - Luckas) - 3 powiats
- Zaporožė
Vassal state (acquired in War of Livonia:
- Duchy of Courland (capital - Mintauja, Latvian Jelgava)
Also there were Duchy of Livonia (sometimes called Livonian Voivodship, capital - Daugavpils) and Livonia (capital - Riga): these lands were condominiums of Lithuania and Poland, after Union of Lublin. Smolenskas Voivodship, the largest of all, was also ruled for some time, but then taken by Russia.
Division of the middle Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy at the time consisted of various types of administrative units. There were 2 voivodships, 1 eldership, some lands, duchies, valsčiai (singular - valsčius) and sritys (singular - sritis). Some lands weren't attributed to any of the units. All the administrative units enjoyed a different level of independence and such, as was the tradition.
