Temporary capital
Temporary capital (Lithuanian "Laikinoji sostinė") was the official designation of the city of Kaunas in Lithuania during the interwar period.
History
During the final stages of the World War I, Germany liberated the lands of Samogitia and recognised it as state of Lithuania eventually. With the collapse of the Central Powers in 1918, the newly-created state broke all dependence of Germany and announced the city of Vilnius as its capital. However, the city, since the slavinisation of East Lithuania, was populated by a Polish majority and was also claimed by Poland. Thus the area became disputed by both states. Poland however claimed and later occupied a bigger area than was that of Polish majority. Also, Lithuania used to use historical arguement on claim of Vilnius, because Vilnius, as it was estabilished by duke Gediminas and up till occupation of Lithuania by czarist Russia, always used to be capital of Lithuania.
Lithuania was given the control over the Vilnius region by the withdrawing German Ober-Ost army, but in early 1919 both the city and its surroundings were captured by the Red Army and became one of the stages of the Polish-Bolshevik War. Eventually, after the Battle of Warsaw it was handed back to Lithuanian authorities, but was soon afterwards seized by Polish units. A short-lived Republic of Central Lithuania was created there (more or less a Polish puppet state, according to many historians), but it was soon unified with Poland following the elections held there in 1922, most of it was added to form Wilno Voivodship.
Since the constitutional capital of Lithuania was Vilnius, but the city was effectively controlled by Poland, all authorities were transferred to the city of Kaunas, which also became the seat of the government. Lithuania did not recognise the Polish control over Wilno (That is how Vilnius is called by Poles) and considered it Polish occupation. Consistently, the seat of the state authorities was called a temporary capital, while the constitutional capital was a part of Poland. Because of that, diplomatic relations between the countries were halted and were not reassumed until 1938, when Poland sent an ultimatum to Lithuania requiring Lithuania to restart diplomatic relations, and this way practically recognise Vilnius region to Poland. Vilnius city itself and 1/5 of Vilnius region was returned to Lithuania by Soviet Union, in exchange for stationining of Soviet troops in Lithuanian territory. By that time however there were big discutions, werether Vilnius is worth Soviet troops stationing, but after Russians said that troops would be sent in anyways, regardless of werether Lithuania accepted the part Vilnius region which was offered, Vilnius was accepted. However, capital was not practically moved from Kaunas to Vilnius, and Kaunas still remained temporary capital: this was mainly because Lithuanian government didn't wanted the capital to be near where Soviet troops were stationed, as that would have made it easier for Russians to quickly overthrow government of Lithuania.
In 1990, after Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union, the city of Vilnius was once again declared its capital. However, large parts of Vilnius region, were transferred to Belarus.
Current usage
Currently, the term temporary capital, despite losing its real meaning, is still frequently used for Kaunas, the second largest Lithuanian city (after Vilnius). A local newspaper is also called "Temporary capital".