People's Government of Lithuania

The People's Government of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Liaudies vyriausybė) was a puppet cabinet installed by the Soviet Union in Lithuania immediately after Lithuania's acceptance of the Soviet ultimatum of June 14, 1940. The formation of the cabinet was supervised by Vladimir Dekanozov, deputy of Vyacheslav Molotov and a close associate of Lavrentiy Beria, who selected Justas Paleckis as the Prime Minister and acting President. The government was formed on June 17 and, together with the People's Seimas (parliament), transitioned independent Lithuania to a socialist republic and the 14th republic of the Soviet Union thus legitimizing the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. The People's Government was replaced by the Council of People's Commissars of the Lithuanian SSR on August 25. Similar transitional People's Governments were formed in Latvia (Prime Minister Augusts Kirhenšteins supervised by Andrey Vyshinsky) and Estonia (Prime Minister Johannes Vares supervised by Andrei Zhdanov).

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. The Baltic states became part of the Russian sphere. Instead of outright military invasion, the Soviet Union followed semi-legal procedures to legitimize its occupation of Lithuania. The plan of action was developed by the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in September–October 1939 when the Soviet Union annexed territories of Poland. The first step was the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty of October 1939: Lithuania agreed to station up to 20,000 Soviet troops in exchange for a portion of the Vilnius Region. Next was the Soviet ultimatum of June 14, 1940 that demanded the formation of a new government more capable of adhering to the Mutual Assistance Pact and to allow a "sufficiently large" number of Soviet troops to enter Lithuanian territory.