The original text of the Declaration of Lithuanian Independence, signed and proclaimed by the Lithuanian Council in Vilnius (Vilna) on February 16, 1918, was written in Lithuanian, a language which never before in the entire history of the Lithuanian nation had enjoyed the status of an official state language. The official documents of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been drawn up in Latin, White Russian, or Polish; and during the Russian domination of the nineteenth century the use of Russian was compulsory in all walks of life, while in Prussian Lithuania German held a similar though less brutally enforced position. Thus, the declaration of February 16, 1918, was not only an act of political but also linguistic liberation. Today the Lithuanians boast of a standard language in which everything interesting the human mind can be successfully discussed. A systematic catalogue of Lithuanian books published during the first two decades of Lithuanian independence was brought out in 1938 and contains about 7100 individual entries: Izidorius Kisinas, Lietuviškų knygų sistematinis katalogas (Kaunas, 1938). All the books listed in this catalogue are written in the standard language and bear testimony to the genius of the nation.