Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 11, 2007

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The Act of Independence of Lithuania was signed by the Council of Lithuania on February 16, 1918, proclaiming the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania, governed by democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital. The act was signed by all twenty members of the council, chaired by Jonas Basanavičius. The act of February 16 was the end result of a series of resolutions on the issue, including one issued by the Vilnius Conference and the act of January 8. The path to the act was long and complex because the German Empire exerted pressure on the council to form an alliance. The Council had to carefully manoeuvre between the Germans, whose troops were present in Lithuania, and the demands of the Lithuanian people. While the act's original document has been lost, its legacy continues. The laconic act is the legal basis for the existence of modern Lithuania, both during the interwar period and since 1990. The act formulated the basic constitutional principles that were and still are followed by all Constitutions of Lithuania. The act itself was a key element in the foundation of Lithuania's Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, adopted on March 11, 1990. Lithuania, breaking away from the Soviet Union, stressed that it was simply re-establishing the independent state that existed between the world wars and that the act never lost its legal power. (more...)

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