Laisva Lietuva - Lithuanian AAR

In the year 1831, a great event occurred in the Russian-controlled regions of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia known as the November Uprising. Thousands of nationalist rebels fought against the oppressive Russian government for freedom. The Russians made a strategical error when they focused their military mainly on Poland. The Baltic countries were able to establish independence. By the time the Polish rebels had been crushed, the Russians decided they wanted the war over with.

I took office in 1836. My name is Petras Antinis, current advisor to His Majesty Tomas V. This story is of the Lithuanian people's struggle for freedom while surrounded by hostile enemies. It is a well-known fact that the Russians will be back for vengance in the years to come. Can our government advance the country to a level where it may actually be able to sustain itself? Or will we end up as just another annexed territory, never to see the light of day again.

Chapter 2: The First Warning

It is early January of 1836. Lithuania is a small country bordered to the north by Latvia, to the east and south by the evil Russians, and to the west by the Prussians, who control the historically Lithuanian province of Memel.

A look at the Departments of the Kingdom:


Later on, I advised the King to seek alliances with the other Baltic nations. He was ecstatic when Estonia agreed, however Latvia appears to have no interest in alliance. (it said "impossible," I wasn't going to waste diplomatic points on that)


On February 26, 1836, the thieving Russians declared war on our Baltic allie:


Unfortunately, the military had not been a priority. Immediately, His Majesty commissioned two divisions of troops; all that Lithuania could muster:


Soon, the Russians had moved towards Vilnius:


While in Estonia, they seemed to be making a show of force:


The King and I immediately knew that there was no way Lithuania could win the war, let alone avoid the annexation of Estonia.

Soon, our first troops had been recruited in Vilnius. The following battle was as expected. Apparently we need to increase the education budget as our pathetic troops couldn't kill a single Russian:


The circumstance was repeated when our other division finished recruiting.


After the Russians had occupied all of Estonia and half of Lithuania, they sent us an offering of peace, which the King promptly declined.

About a month later, the Russians had completely occupied Lithuania and we had been forced into peace. Estonia was now lost again.

Shortly after the war ended, the King commissioned the recruitment of three new military divisions, and the upper house was re-arranged:

Oh dear....

It's not water! :wacko:

But anyway, I too think there is little chance for survival. I tried increasing relations with Sweden but to no avail. Prussia doesn't like me either, probably because I have a core on Memel. I'm thinking of conquering Latvia to gain status and power, then perhaps I will have a chance of gaining allies and fighting off the Russians. We'll see though.

Well, I didn't have a choice. Lithuania started out with exactly zero technologies, just like an uncivilized country.

Maybe you could remove Russian cores on the Baltic provinces? Or possibly you could put yourself in the SoI of the UK or something

Click to expand...

I would absolutely love to do this, but 1) it would completely ruin the whole point of this AAR and 2) I don't know how to edit the savegame files, just the normal text ones. That's how I got the Baltic countries to not be satellites in the first place, but I never bothered to remove Russian cores...

By January of 1837, the Lithuanian Government was in a state of terror. Rumors were spreading that Lithuania would be annexed by Russia before 1840. A feeling of imminent defeat had engulfed Vilnius, but had seemingly left His Majesty untouched.

Despite the dire circumstances, the King remained staunch, saying again that he would protect his people until the very bitter end. And, the King had just devised a plan that, while risky, could bring his people stability--for the meantime.

The plan was to take Latvia. Many of the Liberals were completely against the idea, but many of the others in the house recognized that it was necessary. And in this case, it was literally do or die. The King advocated that he had to do something to protect his people.


Early on in 1837, we received an interesting request:

I advised the King to decline; what use was a powerless city-state as doomed as us, if not more?

After that, I advised the King to raise relations with Russia:

It would be a long time before they got to zero.

As soon as the foreign office had acquired enough diplomacy points, Lithuania historically declared war on Latvia:

Latvia had an army of just two irregular divisions, stationed in Riga. They were soon defeated by our irregulars:

Soon our troops had spread to occupy most of Latvia:

While we gained control of Latvia, an interesting event occurred:
Although I advised the King to not support the movement, he decided to give the Liberals a run for their money.

And soon, we received word that we had won the complete occupation of Latvia:

Thus, they accepted our peace terms:

And in 1838, our Upper House was rearranged. Fortunately, there was an encouraging amount of Liberal loss:

We decided to use the foreign office to increase our relations with Prussia:

To celebrate the victory and entrance into a new league, the King commissioned a new Liquor Distillery in Letuva:

The decision quickly put Lithuania in major debt:

Later, our research on Freedom of Trade, which had started in 1836, was complete:

This soon provided an exponential increase in profit, which we used to decrease taxes and increase spending: (note the how over 50% of the middle class can't get their needs :S )

Again the foreign office was tasked with raising relations with the Bear:

And an event:
Again, the King decided to increase the amount of liberals. Perhaps he didn't realize what they would do to him if they took power?

And in 1839, the Upper House was rearranged:

Lithuania had managed to make significant gains after conquering Latvia. They were now ranked the best of the worst, number 17. Now, the question was, what would Russia do once the peace treaty between her and Lithuania was over? The King had until November of 1841 to raise relations to a point where they hopefully wouldn't declare war.

Thanks everyone for the wishes of luck!
NOTICE: Before I begin, I must confess that I scripted an event similar to the Treaty of London, in which Russia lost all cores on the Baltic states. This is because, after playing from chapter 3 on, I was annexed by Russia every time. No matter what I did (I did quite a bit), I was always annexed. Thus, to provide Lithuania with a fighting chance and my readers with mildly entertaining sustenance, Russia has lost all cores on the Baltic (besides Finland).

Chapter 4: Toil and Broil

My King had successfully annexed the Latvians (God bless them for not rising against us) by this point, and Lithuania was well on its way to gaining world-wide recognition. The King dreamed of the day when Lithuania would become a Great Power, and show those Russians and Prussians who's boss. For now, however, he had to deal with problems back at home. The two factories; a winery and a liquor distillery, were rapidly losing money. The winery in Latvia had closed, and the other factory was being subsidized, with an average profit of around -£20. Lithuania was also lacking in the field of technology, and had a while to go before she caught up to her neighbors.

Some recent events:


To aid in Lithuania's ascension to greatness, I advised the King to build a new factory in Latvia to replace the bankrupt winery.
Unfortunately, the King chose a rather unlikely-to-be-profitable factory, which I advised against. Despite the unprofitability of the factory, it was sure to bring jobs to the Latvians and reduce their tendency to revolt against us.

The King then decided to raise the relations between Lithuania and Russia:


And soon, 1841 had arrived:

Yet again, there was an increasingly disturbing gain of Liberals in the upper house.

Apparently, the Latvians were refusing to give up their national identity, failing to see that without the unification of the two countries (no matter how they were unified) would save both of them, not just Lithuania, from the Russians:


I have forgotten to mention that a while back, the King had commissioned the construction of a Man-o-War and a Clipper Transport to serve as the Lithuanian 1st Fleet, in case we should ever need transport by water:

The Liberals were once again making themselves known:

Finally, the Department of Research presented some very important news:
The development meant that the Lithuanian Royal Expeditionary Force could now train infantry equal to that of the Great Powers of the world. Over the next couple of years, the current irregular military force was replaced, one division at a time, by the new infantry.

I 1841, a terrible disease of potato struck Lithuania:

And another year passed:
This year showed encouraging loss of Liberal and Reactionary parties, replaced by the Royalty-sponsored Conservative party.

An interesting event which will certainly be useful in the future occurred early into the year:

The year passed with relative ease as the Lithuanian people toiled in the unprofitable factories and the marginally profitable farm fields:
A small gain in the Liberal party, but nothing alarming.

A quick look at the population of Lithuania (which is now more Latvian than Lithuanian):

It was discovered soon that Lithuania was neck-and-neck with its rival nation of Prussia:
If Lithuania could retain number 8, it may have a chance at Greatness.

And the Department of Research again produces good results:

Apparently, the recent change in the Upper House did not reflect changes in the populace's ideology:

The rebellion was quickly crushed by the new and improved infantry:

Will Lithuania be able to maintain status at number 8 long enough to become a Great Power? Will it be able to ally itself with other major powers in the future???

OOC: I forgot the World Map at the end, too late to get it. Nothing much has changed, besides Austria acquiring Posen (I think, that or Schleisen) in the Austrian Brother's War.