The party was working illegally until 1940. During the same year, the party amalgamated with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). By the time of the formation of the Lithuanian SSR, the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP) was headed by Antanas Sniečkus. In 1940, the LKP merged into the CPSU(b). The territorial organisation of the party in Lithuania was called Communist Party of Lithuania (bolshevik) (LK(b)P). In the Lithuanian territorial organisation, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the party (always a Lithuanian) was de facto governor of the country. The second secretary was always a Moscow-appointed Russian. In 1952 the name of the old Lithuanian party, LKP, was re-adopted. On 24 December 1989,[1] during mass protests of the Singing Revolution against the Soviet Union in Lithuania, the party declared itself independent from Communist Party of the Soviet Union. By 1990, the main body of the CPL reorganized as the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania, which in turn by 2001 merged with Social Democratic Party of Lithuania under the latter's name; but with leadership dominated by ex-communists. A small portion of the party remained loyal to the CPSU, and reorganized as the Communist Party of Lithuania ('on platform of Communist Party of the Soviet Union') under the leadership of Mykolas Burokevičius after the "traditional" party declared independence from its Soviet Union counterpart. The party played a major role in the January 1991 Events in Lithuania and initiating the creation of the National Salvation Committee. The Communist Party of Lithuania was eventually banned on 23 August 1991.[2] The party remains illegal in Lithuania, and is affiliated with the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU) headed by Gennady Zyuganov.
