In 1864, the Russian empire placed a ban on all forms of the written Lithuanian language in order to subdue the people of Lithuania and to shape the country's culture into the Russian norm. The ban made a variety of Lithuanian books, as well as many other forms of Lithuanian communication, illegal. Over the next 40 years, Lithuanians resisted this Russian oppression in many ways, including finding loopholes in the law, starting secret schools, and smuggling books across the country's border. In time, the resistance would not only save the Lithuanian culture, but would set the foundation for independence by saving the Lithuanian language, separating Lithuania from foreign powers, and, most importantly, reforming the country's identity.