Sustainable development has become the main priority of contemporary global society, and it is
increasingly perceived not only in the context of environmental protection, but also as an entirety of processes
in ecosystems, the society and different countries.
Ecosystem stability and human well-being in an ecosystem, in the community, the society, and the
country are greatly influenced by political, economic, social and cultural processes in the countryside,
because rural territories make up a bigger part of the territories of contemporary countries.
The article analyses Lithuanian rural development reviewing the damage done by Russian (Soviet)
occupation to the Lithuanian countryside and assessing its development in the context of rural development
and contemporary sustainable development in Western European countries and the world. It is concluded that
the agricultural model in Lithuania as well as in all other countries that have freed themselves from the Soviet
Union is based on Socialist (communist) doctrine and is an extreme contrast to the European Model of
Agriculture