Samogitia - Politics

Politics

Samogitia historically was an autonomous region in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, although it lost this status once Lithuania was annexed by the Russian Empire following the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 as a part of the Vilna Governorate. In 1843, the region was incorporated into the Kovno Governorate, with a minor part of it being attached to the Courland Governorate. Since then the region has not had a separate political status, but there were tries to create the separate Samogitian state during the uprising on February 1831.

Currently Samogitia is represented by the Samogitian cultural society, a group interested in preserving Samogitian culture and language, and the Žemaitijos parlamentas (literally Parliament of Samogitia), which concerns itself with regional autonomy based on historical claims. These claims often include the Klaipėda region in the interwar and would claim Klaipėda rather than Telšiai as the capital.