Lithuania Minor

Lithuania Minor (Lithuanian: Mažoji Lietuva; German: Kleinlitauen; Polish: Litwa Mniejsza; Russian: Máлая Литвá) or Prussian Lithuania (Lithuanian: Prūsų Lietuva; German: Preußisch-Litauen, Polish: Litwa Pruska) is a historical ethnographic region of Prussia, later East Prussia in Germany, where Prussian Lithuanians or Lietuvininkai lived. Lithuania Minor enclosed the northern part of this province and got its name due to the territory's substantial Lithuanian-speaking population. Prior to the invasion of the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century, the main part of the territory later known as Lithuania Minor was inhabited by the tribes of Skalvians and Nadruvians. The land became depopulated to some extent during the warfare between Lithuania and the Order. The war ended with the Treaty of Melno and the land was resettled by Lithuanian newcomers, returning refugees, and the remaining indigenous Baltic peoples; the term Lithuania Minor appeared for the first time between 1517 and 1526. With the exception of the Klaipėda Region, which became a mandated territory of the League of Nations in 1920 by the Treaty of Versailles and was annexed to Lithuania from 1923 to 1939, the area was part of Prussia until 1945. Today a small portion of Lithuania Minor is within the borders of modern Lithuania and Poland while most of the territory is part of the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia.

Although hardly anything remains of the original culture due to the expulsion of Germans after World War II, Lithuania Minor has made an important contribution to Lithuanian culture as a whole. The written standard form of Prussian-Lithuanian provided the "skeleton" of modern Lithuanian, evolved from people close to Stanislovas Rapalionis and graduating from Lithuanian language school established in Vilnius, who were expelled from Grand Duchy during counter-reformation years. Those include notable names lake Abraomas Kulvietis and Martynas Mažvydas. During the years of Lithuanian press ban most of the Lithuanian books in Latin alphabet were printed in Lithuania minor.

It was the home of Kristijonas Donelaitis, pastor and poet and author of The Seasons, which is considered asan landstone in Lithuanian literature, and Vydūnas, a prominent writer and philosopher.