The first reference to the Lithuanian settlement dates back to the 13^th century. It belonged to the Teutonic Knights in the years 1362-1404. In 1398 a Hanseatic Office (Kontor) was established in there. The town was granted city privileges in 1408. From the 15^th century until the first half of the 16^th century the town developed economically. From the 16^th century onwards it became a home to a large Jewish community (expelled in 1761, the Kovno Jews settled in Słobudka, at the outskirts of the town). Since 1581 it had the staple right. It fell under the Russian rule in 1795; since 1842 it was a government town. Kovno was a centre of the Lithuanian National Revival and one of the uprising centres – the November Uprising of 1830-1831 and the January Uprising of 1863-1864. It was also a centre of Jewish cultural life in Lithuania (very active literary scene: e.g. J. Spektor, A. Mapu), a well-known yeshiva (1933 — ca. 38,000 Jews, ca. 30% of inhabitants.) The capital city of Lithuania in the years 1918-1940. In 1940-91 Kovno became part of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic; in 1941-1944 it was occupied by Germans. 7,000 people perished in pogroms and mass executions of Jews performed by Germans and the Lithuanian population supervised by the Germans in June and July 1941. There was a ghetto and a forced labour camp in the city until 1944 (part of the population was murdered in Fort VII, others were transferred to other ghettos, and the rest was taken away to concentration camps in Stutthof and Dachau).

The entry is written on the basis of source materials of the PWN printing house.