Communist Party of Lithuania

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Former Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party

The Communist Party of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos komunistų partija) is a banned communist party in Lithuania, established in early October 1918.

[edit] History

The party was working illegally until 1940. In the same year the party was merged with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). By the time of the formation of the Lithuanian SSR, the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP) was headed by Antanas Sniečkus. In 1940 the LKP merged into the CPSU(b). The territorial organization of the party in Lithuania was called Communist Party of Lithuania (bolshevik) (LK(b)P). In the Lithuanian territorial organization, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the party (always a Lithuanian) was de facto governor of the country. The second secretary was always a Moscow-appointed Russian. In 1952 the name of the old Lithuanian party, LKP, was retaken.

In 1989, during mass protests of the Singing Revolution against Soviet Union in Lithuania the party declared itself independent from Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1990 the Communist Party of Lithuania was converted into the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania, which in turn was later merged with Social Democratic Party of Lithuania under the later's name, but with leadership dominated by ex-communists.

The remainder of the Communist Party of Lithuania ('on platform of Communist Party of the Soviet Union') existed in 1990-1991 under leadership of Mykolas Burokevičius after the "traditional" party declared its independence from its Soviet Union counterpart. The Communist Party of Lithuania was eventually banned in 1991. Although still illegal, the Communist Party of Lithuania is affiliated to the Union of Communist Parties — Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU) headed by Gennady Zyuganov.