"Lithuania restored her independence, after half a century of Soviet occupation, in the immediate aftermath of the failed Moscow coup of August 1991. As the multi-national Soviet state disintegrated Lithuania evolved, without war or violence, from a communist state and a command economy to a liberal democracy, a free market, and a society guaranteeing human and minority rights. Lithuania therefore offers a notable example of peaceful transition, all the more impressive in the light of the bloody conflicts elsewhere in the former Soviet Union or Yugoslavia, where the aspirations to independence of the constituent republics were either violently resisted or dissolved into inter-ethnic violence." "Equally remarkable has been Lithuania's evident determination to 'return to Europe' after half a century of separation, even at the price of submerging its recently-restored sovereign rights in the supranational European Union. The costs of membership of western economic and security organizations are judged to be worth paying to prevent the country being drawn once again into a putative Russian sphere of influence." "On the threshold of the new millennium, therefore, Lithuania has made a pragmatic accomodation of the demands of becoming a modern European state, while vigorously resisting the dilution of her rich cultural and historical traditions. These twin themes of accomodation and resistance are Lithuania's historical legacy to the current generation of Lithuanians as they integrate into European institutions and continue the modernization process."--BOOK JACKET.