 At the time when the poem Lietuva , <unk> mūsų was written , Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire . Kudirka , a medical student at the University of Warsaw , was writing as a columnist for the newspaper Varpas ( The Bell ) . In his Varpas columns , Kudirka urged Lithuanians to take pride in their heritage , discussed the problems the Russian Government was causing the Lithuanian population , and denounced those who wished to work for the <unk> <unk> . In the course of writing for Varpas , he wrote down his thoughts on what Lithuania was and what it should be , resulting in the fifty @-@ word poem Lietuva , <unk> mūsų ( " Lithuania , Our Homeland " ) . 
