Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Vilnius Conference or Vilnius National Conference (Lithuanian: Vilniaus konferencija) met between September 18, 1917 and September 22, 1917, and began the process of establishing a Lithuanian state, based on ethnic identity and language, that would be independent of the Russian Empire, Poland, and German Empire. It elected a twenty-member Council of Lithuania that was entrusted with the mission of declaring and re-establishing an independent Lithuanian state.