Baltic–Soviet relations military measures." In mid-June 1940, when international attention was focused on the German invasion of France, Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. State administrations were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres, Elections were held with single pro-Soviet candidates listed for many positions, with resulting peoples assemblies immediately requested admission into the USSR, which was granted by the Soviet Union. Germany invaded and occupied the territories of Baltic states in 1941 during "Operation Barbarossa". At the beginning the Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians hoped that the Germans would reestablish Baltic independence. Such political hopes soon evaporated and
Lithuanian long currency Lithuanian long currency The so-called Lithuanian long currency was a type of money used by the Baltic tribes and in the early Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 12th–15th centuries. It was commodity money in the form of silver ingots. Most often they were semicircular rods about in length and weighted between . Other trading centers, notably Kievan Rus' and Veliky Novgorod, developed their own version of such ingots which are known as grivna or grzywna. The ingots were replaced by minted coins in the middle of the 15th century. The currency was mentioned already by Tadeusz Czacki (1800) and