People's Seimas Liaudies Seimas | |
|---|---|
 Lithuanian SSR | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Established | July 1940 |
| Disbanded | August 1940 |
| Preceded by | Fourth Seimas of Lithuania |
| Succeeded by | Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR |
| Elections | |
Last election | 1940 (Rigged) |
| Meeting place | |
| Kaunas | |
The People's Seimas (Lithuanian: Liaudies Seimas) was a puppet legislature organized in order to give legal sanction the occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union.[1] After the Soviet ultimatum in June 1940, a new pro-Soviet government was formed, known as the People's Government. The new government dismissed the Fourth Seimas and announced elections to the People's Seimas. The elections were heavily rigged, and resulted in a chamber composed entirely of Communists and Communist sympathizers (the electorate had no choice as 79 candidates were offered to the 79 seats).[2] The new parliament unanimously adopted a resolution proclaiming the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and petitioned for admission to the Soviet Union as a constituent republic.[2] The Supreme Soviet of the USSR accepted the Lithuanian petition on 3 August 1940.[2] The People's Seimas adopted a new constitution, a close copy of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, on 25 August and renamed itself to the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR.[2]
According to Lithuanian and Western sources, these events were merely a cover to create an illusion of constitutional legitimacy of the forcible Soviet occupation. When Lithuania declared its independence in 1990, it argued that it did not need to follow the process of secession from the Soviet Union outlined in the Soviet constitution. It took the line that the actions of the People's Seimas—and indeed, the entire process of annexation—violated both Lithuanian and international law, and it was merely reasserting an independence that legally still existed. According to Soviet sources, the election of the People's Seimas marked the culmination of a socialist revolution that the Lithuanian people had carried out independent of Moscow's influence. Thus, according to the Soviet line, the People's Seimas—as did legislatures elected under similar circumstances in Estonia and Latvia—represented the legitimate will of the Lithuanian people to join the Soviet Union.