Baltic Independence: The Baltic Way (August 23, 1989)


Figure 1.-Some two million Baltic people joined hands, forging a human chain from Tallinn in the north, through Riga, to Vilnius in the south (at 19:00 on 23 August 1989). This stretched some 600 kilometrs (400 miles). The campaign was called the Baltic Way--meaning a peaceful effort to obtain their freedom. The date chosen was significant. It was the 40th university of the infamous signing of the NAZI-Soviet Molotov-Ribentrop Pact launching World War II. The Balts were people that the NAZIs ans Soviets planned to murder in large numbers and destroy their very national existemce during the War. Click on the image to see the chain of humanity.

Some two million Baltic people joined hands, forging a human chain from Tallin in the north, through Riga, to Vilnius in the south (at 19:00 on 23 August 1989). This stretched some 600 kilometrs (400 miles). The campaign was called the Baltic Way--meaning a peaceful effort to obtain their freedom. The date chosen was significant. It was the 40th university of the infamous signing of the NAZI-Soviet Molotov-Ribentrop Pact launching World War II. The Balts were people that the NAZIs ans Soviets planned to murder in large numbers and destroy their very national existemce during the War. The Baltic Way was organised by the national movements of the three Baltic nations states: the Estonian Rahvarinne, the Latvian Popular front of Latvia, and the Lithuanian Sajūdis. Soviet officials at first did not take it seriously. The Baltic participants began gathered in the cities and villages during the early morning hours. The campaign was easy to organize in the populated areas, but participants had to be driven to less inhabited rural areas. Slowly as the sun rose, a chain of humanity began windingvthrough the Baltics from Talin in the north, through Riga, and finishing at Vilnus in the south. Some 2.2 million people joined hands: 700 000 people in Estonia, 500 000 in Latvia and 1 000 000 in Lithuania. The Soviet TASS New Agency claimed it was a mere 800,000 peoples from Estonia and Lithuania. (No estimate from Latvia.) The Baltic Way was the largest and most important campaign of the Baltic states to regain their freedom, but it was not the first. Unlike the earlier effirts, the KGB did not interfere.

The Event

Some two million Baltic people joined hands, forging a human chain from Tallin in the north, through Riga, to Vilnius in the south (at 19:00 on 23 August 1989). This stretched some 600 kilometrs (400 miles). The campaign was called the Baltic Way--meaning a peaceful effort to obtain their freedom. The date chosen was significant. It was the 40th university of the infamous signing of the NAZI-Soviet Molotov-Ribentrop Pact launching World War II. The Balts were people that the NAZIs ans Soviets planned to murder in large numbers and destroy their very national existemce during the War. The Baltic Way was organised by the national movements of the three Baltic nations states: the Estonian Rahvarinne, the Latvian Popular front of Latvia, and the Lithuanian Sajūdis. Soviet officials at first did not take it seriously. The Baltic participants began gathered in the cities and villages during the early morning hours. The campaign was easy to organize in the populated areas, but participants had to be driven to less inhabited rural areas. Slowly as the sun rose, a chain of humanity began windingvthrough the Baltics from Talin in the north, through Riga, and finishing at Vilnus in the south. Some 2.2 million people joined hands: 700 000 people in Estonia, 500 000 in Latvia and 1 000 000 in Lithuania. The Soviet TASS New Agency claimed it was a mere 800,000 peoples from Estonia and Lithuania. (No estimate from Latvia.) The Baltic Way was the largest and most important campaign of the Baltic states to regain their freedom, but it was not the first. Unlike the earlier effirts, the KGB did not interfere.

The Result

The peaceful Baltic Way was the opening step in what would lead to to independence for the three Baltic republics. At the timeas this process began, it was seen as Quixotic exercise, but when the movement began gathering steam, indepence movements began to stir in other Soviet republics. Few peoole saw this coming. It was a stunning surprise. The Soviets could have stopped Baltic independence, but Soviet Premimier Mikhail Gorbachev declined to use force at a time in which glasnost and peristroika were making it possible for Soviet citizens to freely express themselves. Gorbachev believed that this was part of reforming the Sovit Union. It proved to be the unraveling of the Soviet state. The Soviet Union was a superpower and seen by most as permanent fixture of the international system. Eventually it would not only be the baltics thatbwanted out of the sivier Union but the other republics as well-except the Russian Federation. The Baltic republics officially declared their independence in 1990, but these actions were crowned by the disolution of the Soviet Union (December 31, 1991).

Estonian Independence


Latvian Independence


Lithuanian Independence (March 1990)

The Soviet Union sought to destroy Lithuanian national sentiment. Stalin ordered the NKVD to murder and deport many ethnic Lithuanians. He also ordered the movement of ethnic Russians into Lithuania. After de-Stalinizatiin, the deport of Lituanians ceased, but ethnic Russians continued to move into Lithuania, atracted bybthe relatively high living stnadards. These were trendsthroughout all three Soviet baltic trpublics. The KGB which replaced the NKVD was less murderous but till brutally effective. Any expression of Lithi=janian nationalist sentiment got one arrested as well as exposure to other sanctions. KGB repression began to weaken with the Heksinki Accords and the Jewish Refusniks (1970s). Lithuanian nationalists began to test the waters, but continued to be arrested. This began to change when Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secreatry of the Soviet Communistb Party (1985). Brought up in the Soviet Union he actually believed that Communism was a superior system and could be reformned. And he though that natiinlist forces could be convinced with reasom--expaining glasnost and perestroika. He had no idea he was letting the genie out of the bottle. Once he realised what he had done, he was unwilling to use force to recork the bottle. The Reform Movement of Lithuania (Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sąjūdis), is the political organisation which led the Lithuanian struggle independence in the late-1980s and early-1990s. Sąjūdit was founded (1988), and was led by Vytautas Landsbergis. Its goal was to reinstate of the inter-War independent Lithuanian Republic. The Lithuanian independence movement reemerged from the shadows as Soviet leader Gorbechov instituted policies allowing greater freedom of speech and actual free elections (1980s). By all accounts he was surprised at the level of anti-Soviet feeling that was let loose. The NKVD/KGB had supressed the expresion of nationalist sentiment, but not the soul of the Lithuanian people. This was made apparent by the extrodinary Baltic Way demonstration (August 23, 1989). The date was significant--the 40th Anniversary of the infamous NAZI-Soviet Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Vytautas Landsbergis, the non-Communist head of the largest Lithuanian popular movement (Sajudis), was elected president (1990). On the same day that Landsbergis was elected, the Lithuanian Supreme Council rejected Soviet rule and declared Lithuania's independennt. The Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania or Act of March 11 (Aktas dėl Lietuvos nepriklausomos valstybės atstatymo) was the declaration by the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (March 11, 1990) signed by all the members of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania led by Sąjūdis. The Act emphasized restoration and legal continuity of the interwar Lithuanian republic (1919-40) which had been supressed by the Soviet Union (June 1940). The Supreme Council decided that Lithuania's original declaration of independence (1918) was still valid. The Act was presented as a reassertion of an independence that still legally existed under international law. It was based on the premise that Prsident Smetona's resignation was folrced by the Soviets and not valid. Merkys' Coomunist takeover of the presidency was thus illegal and unconstitutional. Lithuania thus took the position that all subsequent acts culminating in the Soviet 1940 annexation were ipso facto void. Lithunaia's act was the first time that an occupied state suceeded in declaring independence from the imploding Soviet Union. It was the first Baltic republic to declare independence. Confrontation with the Soviet Union ensued along with economic sanctions as Gorbachev rejected the use of force. The Soviets lifted the econonic sanctions after both sides agreed to a face-saving compromise. Lithuania's independence was confirmed with the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991).







CIH -- WW II






Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site Baltic Pages:
[Estonia] [Latvia] [Lithuania]



Navigate the CIH World War II Section:
[Return to Main NAZI-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact page]
[Return to Main Soviet communism page]
[About Us]
[Aftermath] [Biographies] [Campaigns] [Children] [Countries] [Deciding factors] [Diplomacy] [Geo-political crisis] [Economics] [Home front] [Intelligence]
[POWs] [Resistance] [Race] [Refugees] [Technology] [Totalitarian powers]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Return to Main World War II page]
[Return to Main war essay page]
[Return to CIH Home page]





Created: 12:24 PM 8/23/2019
Last updated: 12:24 PM 8/23/2019