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The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, short: Lithuanian SSR (in Lithuanian: Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika, short: Lietuvos TSR) was the name given on July 21, 1940 to Lithuania, after communist rule was forced upon Lithuania following the Soviet invasion of June 15 1940. Initially the Lithuanian SSR was proclaimed much earlier, on December 16 1918, by the 1st Congress of the Lithuanian Communist Party. It failed to create a de facto government with any popular support. Two months later on February 27 1919, it was joined by the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic to form the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (LBSSR, or "Litbel"), which existed for only six months, until August 25 1919. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of (1939), between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, stated that Lithuania was to be included into the "sphere of influence" of the USSR. On August 3 1940, a communist government, which had been hastily formed, announced that Lithuania would become a part of the Soviet Union, i.e. the 14th constituent republic of the USSR. Its territory was subsequently invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941, and the Soviet rule was reestablished there in July 1944. The United States, United Kingdom, and other western powers first considered the annexation of Lithuania by the USSR illegal, citing the Stimson Doctrine, in 1940, but recognized all borders of the USSR on post-WWII conferences. In addition to the human and material losses suffered due to war, thousands of civilians were killed and tens of thousands of people deported from Lithuania by the Soviet authorities until Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. In comparison with other parts of the USSR its economy fared better and today Lithuania remains one of the wealthiest of the formerly Soviet-controlled states. The Lithuanian SSR was renamed, the Republic of Lithuania again, and on March 11, 1990, all legal ties of sovereignty were cut with the Soviet Union as Lithuania declared the restitution of its independence. The government of the USSR recognised Lithuania's independence on September 6, 1991.
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