Lithuania Minor Governorate

Lithuania Minor Governorate (Lithuanian: Mažosios Lietuvos gubernija) was an administrational unit that existed between years 1947 and 1949 in the Snorist Lithuanian State, a puppet state of Russia. Its capital was Tilžė with plans to move it southwards when possible. As the Second Great War was still on its full height by the time the governorate was formed and most of the territory was under German control, Tilžė, a city that was already conquered, became the capital. During the later years the armies of the Lithuanian State and the Russian armies advanced southwestwards and thus the territory of the governorate was expanded. As many of the inhabittants of the areas were Germans, Saxons or germanised Lithuanians and did not qualified as Lithuanians, it was planned to move many of them to Germany under the Act of Return while giving their homes to the Lithuanians who were expelled from Skuodia, Belarus, Ukraine and other formerly Lithuanian areas attached to the Slavic states during the Second Great War. Due to the war, the military rule stayed in most of the Lithuania Minor governorate until its dissolution in 1949 and the government of the governorate controlled only Tilžė and some surrounding areas (although gradually receiving more lands from the military). The territory of the governorate was heavily damaged by war.

It was never disclosed by the Russian authorities what the final borders of the governorate would have been. The Lithuanian State was promised that it would be permitted to keep all lands it would manage to conquer, but various documents of the time state that the Russians planned to establish additional state, the Prussian State, in certain parts of the area.

After the Treaty of Visby most of the territory of the Lithuania Minor Governorate became part of the Prusi province of Veneda.

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