LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Kaimas; Kaimo gyvenvietė; Posovietinis kaimas; Posovietmetis; Sovietmetis; Transformacijos; Virsmai; Post-soviet time; Rural settlement; Soviet time; Transformations; Village.
ENThe report reviews the changes in structure of Lithuanian rural settlements. The Lithuanian pre-soviet rural settlement system and structure of villages was formed in the first half of the 20th century. Statistics data allowed to investigate demographical changes in rural areas and define the dynamics of the rural settlements structure and tendencies of their development in Soviet and post-Soviet time. The main direction of transformation in rural settlements structure in Soviet time was a forced concentration of people in the urbanized settlements. Another tendency in the rural policy of the Soviet period, was intensive land-reclamation and destruction of individual farms. In Soviet time, results of settlements structural changes is the increasing number of small villages. Therefore, the results of transformations in structure of rural settlements in post-Soviet time remained concentration people in the urbanized settlements and a big number of small villages. [From the publication]