On June 17, 1940, Antanas Merkys appointed Justas Paleckis, a journalist with Soviet sympathies, as prime minister and confirmed a new cabinet known as the People's Government. Its formation was supervised by Vladimir Dekanozov, Vyacheslav Molotov's deputy, sent from Moscow. The move followed the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop protocols assigning Lithuania to the Soviet sphere, and it opened the way to formal annexation into the USSR that August.
Lithuania had enjoyed just over two decades of fragile independence since 1918, wedged between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The secret protocols of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had already assigned it to the Soviet sphere of influence.
On June 14, 1940, Moscow delivered an ultimatum demanding a new, Soviet-friendly government and free passage for more Red Army units. Lithuania, with no real capacity to resist, accepted, and President Antanas Smetona fled the country. Dekanozov arrived from Moscow to oversee the formation of an acceptable government, and on June 17 Paleckis's People's Government was installed. Paleckis soon took over the presidency and appointed the writer Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius as prime minister.
Staged elections in July produced a rubber-stamp People's Seimas that petitioned for admission to the USSR, formalised in August 1940. Similar People's Governments were set up in Latvia and Estonia under other Soviet envoys. Mass deportations followed within a year, and Lithuania would not regain independence until 1990.
Key people: Justas Paleckis, Vladimir Dekanozov, Antanas Merkys