Apskritis

Apskritis (plural - apskritys) was the top-level administrative division of interwar Lithuania (since administrational reform). Since the revolution of 1926, each apskritis was ruled by a person (Vadovas) in theory appointed by prime minister; usually prime minister would appoint a person who was chosen by local members of the ruling Tautininkai party. Although in theory all apskritys were equal, in fact there were two different types of them: ones, where a civilian was appointed to rule them, and ones, where an army officer was. Usually army officers were appointed to rule the apskritys where there were disturbances recently; as the army officers remained in power in the army also, basically they had the possibility (and obligation) to use army to quell any disturbances.

Vadovas was responsible for many things in the apskritis, but could be changed any time by decree of prime minister. In tehory, the king as well had power in choosing vadovas, but in practice he used to respect the decitions of prime minister.

Apskritys in the interwar Lithuania were called after their capital city instead of historical names; this was done to prevent regionalism. Apskritys as well were not carved according to historical regions for similar reasons. In fact, they were frequently purposefully carved in a way where they would have different ethnicities and either Lithuanians in majority, or different non-Lithuanian ethnicities which it would be possible to play against each other.

The list of apskritys:

• Balstogės apskritis
• Baranavičių apskritis
• Bebrūnų apskritis
• Gardino apskritis
• Kauno apskritis
• Kūvalo apskritis
• Lietuvos Brastos apskritis
• Miniškio apskritis
• Mazūro apskritis
• Naujojo Vilniaus apskritis
• Panevėžio apskritis
• Piltiškio apskritis
• Rauno apskritis
• Salutiškio apskritis
• Smetoniškio apskritis
• Šiaulių apskritis
• Varnių apskritis
• Vilniaus apskritis

This page was created by Abdul-aziz.