Lithuania Minor

Lithuania Minor (Lithuanian: Mažoji Lietuva; Russian: Малая Литва́; Polish: Litwa Mniejsza; German: Kleinlitauen) or Prussian Lithuania (Lithuanian: Prūsų Lietuva; Russian: Пру́сская Литва́; Polish: Litwa Pruska; German: Preußisch-Litauen) is a historical region divided between Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, and one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is a subregion of Prussia, where Prussian Lithuanians (or Lietuvininkai) lived, and got its name from 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 depopulated during the incessant war between Lithuania and the Teutonic Order. The war ended with the Treaty of Melno and the land was repopulated 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 unified with Lithuania from 1923 to 1939, the area was part of the state of Prussia until 1945, which was a part and fief of the Kingdom of Poland until 1657 and later developed into the Kingdom of Prussia, from 1871 within the German Reich. Since 1945, a small portion of Lithuania Minor has been retained within the borders of modern-day Lithuania and Poland while most of the territory is part of the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, which was part of the Soviet Union until December 1991.

Although hardly anything remains of the original Lithuanian culture of the area due to the Germanisation policies of the German Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lithuania Minor has contributed significantly to Lithuanian culture overall. The standard written form of Prussian-Lithuanian provided the basis for modern Lithuanian, evolved from people close to Stanislovas Rapalionis and graduates from Lithuanian-language schools established in Vilnius, who were expelled from the Grand Duchy during Counter-Reformation years. Those include notable names like Abraomas Kulvietis and Martynas Mažvydas. During the years of the 19th-century Lithuanian press ban, most of the Lithuanian books printed using the Latin alphabet were published in Lithuania Minor.