Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union on June 15, 1940. However, due to ensuring World War II the authorities did not introduce major changes to the administrative divisions, just elderates were renamed to "apylinkė". After the second occupation in 1944, the number of counties grew from 26 to 41: eleven counties were added in 1946–47 and four more were introduced in 1949. At the end of 1947 there were 37 counties subdivided into 320 townships that were further subdivided into approximately 2,900 apylinkės.