Jan S. Krogh wrote:
"(...)Most Western countries never accepted the Soviet occupation,
neither did Norway. (...)"

Shame on the Netherlands. They _did_ accept the Soviet occupation. But
that was because the Netherlands, as one of very few countries, didn't
recognise the Soviet Union as the successor of the Russian Empire until
after WW2. And when they eventually did recognise the USSR, Lithuania
was already part of it. At least that's how I remember it (I read it
somewhere).

"(...)One can discuss the date, but usually it is accepted to regard
the
country's own independence declaration. (...)"

I'm not sure whether that is the normal procedure. Sometimes, these
dates (declaration of independence and recognition) can be rather far
apart in time.

I think that the declaration of independence of Indonesia was made in
1945, just after the end of the Japanese occupation, but that the
Netherlands only recognised the country in 1950 (correct me if I'm
wrong). There are probably much more, and more extreme, examples of
this. Maybe the question of who is actually exercising power on the
ground is important here as well. In the case of Lithuania: who held
power after the declaration of (regained) independence in the country:
the Lithuanian police backed by the Sejm, or the Soviet army backed by
their commanders and a mr. Shved?

Peter S.

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