In 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to break with the communist empire by declaring the restitution of political independence. Depicting a country at the crossroads of imperial designs, Vardys and Sedaitis trace the history, development, and ultimate triumph of the Lithuanian nation.They begin by exploring Lithuania's pagan ancestry and epochal struggles with Germanic and Russian states, with special emphasis on the first period of political independence between the two World Wars and on the effort to regain freedom in the wake of the perestroika reforms. The authors conclude by examining Lithuania's struggle with the legacy of Soviet rule as it strives to establish democracy and economic prosperity.