Lithuania is not a very large country, but did you know that no fewer than 9 different Lithuanias claimed the territory of the present-day Lithuanian state during the course of the 20th century?

1. The proposed Kingdom of Lithuania was the first incarnation of an independent Lithuania after WW1, and lasted February-November 1918, when the invitation to 'King Mindaugas II' (a German prince) to become King of Lithuania was withdrawn

2. Lithuania adopted a republican constitution, with the original Republic of Lithuania existing from November 1918 until its territory was occupied in July 1940 (although the Republic continued in exile until the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1990)

3. But there were also other rival states in the chaotic period following the Bolshevik Revolution. The Belarusian People’s Republic also claimed the territory of Lithuania between March 1918 and November 1920

4. And the Bolsheviks set up a puppet state, the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, between December 1918 and February 1919

5. This then turned into the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (known as Litbel) between February 1919 and July 1920

6. Then, between 1920 and 1922, Polish forces set up the puppet Republic of Central Lithuania, with its capital at Vilnius, which was eventually absorbed into Interwar Poland

7. The USSR invaded Lithuania in July 1940, setting up the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, which continued (apart from Nazi occupation) as a constituent republic of the USSR until March 1990

8. During the Nazi occupation of Lithuania there was an attempt by Lithuanians to established a provisional government that briefly sought autonomy under Nazi rule between April and August 1941