The spirit of the strive for freedom prevailed. And when the situation became different, due to failures and bankruptcy of Soviet Union in the ´80s of the last century — the liberation movements appeared or had been established in the three Baltic countries. Which never recognized or understood themselves as part of Soviet Union or Soviet republics. Sometimes falsely called, even, such terms. And that only as occupied countries (occupied by Soviet Union) and to share the hope that it is not forever.
So in the ´80s, after the Soviet Union began to seek some reform, some change, how to avoid total bankruptcy– there were the so-called reforms of Gorbachev. [Mikhail Gorbachev (1931 – ) served as the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 – 1991 and as President of the Soviet Union from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991.] We used that opportunity [to form] freedom movements, liberation movements. In Latvia and Estonia, [it was] called the Popular Front. In Lithuania, it was called Lithuanian Sajudis.
Sajudis means a movement, a mass movement. [Sajudis, meaning “movement” in Lithuanian, was a civil society organization formed in 1988 to advocate the restoration of the country’s independence from the USSR.] And very soon the goals– political programs were established. At first we went [with the] official slogans of restructuring, no, first reforming the Soviet Union. But having in mind the structuring of it until a right to have a free choice about our own destiny, about our own future, will be achieved and implemented.
For us, it was the continuity of the same Second World War and the status of occupied country was again the status of a continued war. And not a result yet, as our friends and influential politicians of Western democracies used to state about our new drive for freedom; that until the Baltics are free, the Second World War is not finished.
That was very supportive. It was real stance of ours. What we wanted to insist, also, in a context with Soviet leadership — at the first stage of Sajudis movement we went to work in a new body of Soviet Union; the Congress of People´s Deputies which was partly elected. In Lithuania it was democratically elected in competitive elections, And early spring of 1989, in which the Sajudis movement competed against the Communist party— the local Communist party, [winning seats] in a proportion of 36 to six. It was our way from first independent republic to the second independent republic, established after Sajudis won a national landslide victory in Lithuania, in the spring of 1990.
And 11th of March of 1990, the new, duly democratically elected parliament, with a feeling that it has a national mandate of our people to decide and to resolve that long-lasting status of an occupied country — perhaps we call it a colony of the Soviet empire, we went to the way of open confrontation with Kremlin.
Vytautas Landsbergis was born in Lithuania in 1932 to a family of noted intellectuals. During the Second World War, Lithuania was occupied by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Nazi Germany, and once again by the USSR, which abolished Lithuania’s independence and forcibly annexed it. Landsbergis studied music and pursued a career as an educator, eventually becoming a professor of music history at the Lithuanian Academy of Music. He has written ten books on music and art history, five political books, and a book of poetry.
In 1988, Landsbergis joined other artists and intellectuals in forming the Sajudis movement, which developed to support the restoration of Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union. He was elected as chairman of the movement. Under his leadership, Sajudis quickly won broad popular support from the Lithuanian population.
In February 1989, Sajudis declared the Soviet occupation illegal and formally proclaimed its goal of restoring independence. Landsbergis was elected as a deputy to the new USSR Congress of People’s Deputies in March 1989. Sajudis won 36 of the 42 seats at stake and used their mandates to lobby for Lithuanian independence.
On August 23, 1989, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet treaty that led to the abolition of the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and their forcible incorporation into the USSR, Landbergis and the leaders of Sajudis joined with their counterpart organizations, the Rahvarinne Popular Front of Estonia and the Popular Front of Latvia, in organizing the Baltic Way demonstration. Over one million people joined hands to form a 600 kilometer long human chain across the three countries. The nonviolent protest drew worldwide attention to the Baltic nations’ quest for freedom and independence.
In the first free Lithuanian elections held in February 1990, Landsbergis was elected to the legislature. When the new legislature convened in March, Landsbergis was elected chairman (speaker) and proclaimed the reestablishment of independence. In 1990 and 1991, he served as chairman of the commission that drafted the new Lithuanian constitution. He also chaired the Lithuanian delegation for negotiations with the USSR, achieving a withdrawal of Soviet military forces from Lithuania and securing widespread international recognition of the restored Lithuanian republic. In 1993, he cofounded the Lithuanian Conservative Party – Homeland Union and was elected party chairman.
From 1992 to 1996, he served as the leader of the opposition in the Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament. After his party won the 1996 elections, he served again as Chairman of the Seimas until 2000. He was an unsuccessful candidate for President in the 1997 elections.
In 2004, he was elected to the European Parliament as Lithuania joined the European Union. He was reelected in 2009.
Landsbergis has received numerous international honors for his artistic and political activities. In 2013, he received the Democracy Service Award from the National Endowment for Democracy’s for his efforts to build a stable democracy in Lithuania and to assist democratic development abroad.
Along with its Baltic neighbors, Estonia and Latvia, modern Lithuania achieved independence after the collapse of imperial Russia in the First World War. From 1918 to 1940, Lithuania was an established and recognized state. This period of independence ended when Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia fell victim to the designs of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact, Hitler and Stalin divided much of Central and Eastern Europe. Lithuania was occupied and annexed by the Soviets in 1940. During World War II, Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania in 1941 and killed most of the Jewish population. USSR reconquered Lithuania in 1944. In 1945, Lithuania was proclaimed the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, but many Western governments never recognized the Baltic States’ incorporation into the USSR.
Under Soviet rule, Lithuania was subject to mass deportations and efforts to stifle its culture and language. Armed resistance to the USSR was largely extinguished in the early 1950s. After Stalin’s death in 1953, some modest liberalization occurred.
Like the rest of the Soviet Union, conditions in Lithuania stagnated during the 1970s and 1980s. The elevation of Mikhail Gorbachev to General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985 sparked new movements for reform. Gorbachev’s glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”) policies were designed to revive the Communist system, but also unleashed efforts to bring down the Soviet Union. Much of Lithuania’s Communist Party resisted the sweeping changes being instituted by Gorbachev.
In 1988, anti-Soviet intellectual and cultural elites were joined by some pro-reform Communists in forming Sajudis (meaning “movement” in Lithuanian), in part to support Gorbachev’s efforts for reform, but also to restore Lithuanian independence. Vytautas Landsbergis, a professor of music, became chairman of Sajudis. It quickly became a mass movement, organizing a number of large demonstrations during 1988 and 1989. In February 1989, Sajudis declared the Soviet occupation illegal and formally proclaimed its goal of restoring independence. In August 1989, Lithuanian activists joined with their counterparts in Estonia and Latvia to form a human chain stretching across the three Baltic countries. An estimated 2 million people joined hands in this peaceful protest to mark the 50th anniversary of the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact that had consigned their countries to Soviet rule.
Candidates associated with Sajudis swept the February 1990 parliamentary elections, the first free elections held since the Soviet occupation began. On March 11, 1990, the new legislature elected Sajudis Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis as chairman of the parliament and proclaimed the reestablishment of independence. Gorbachev declared the declaration of independence illegal and began applying economic and military pressure against Lithuania. In September 1991, the Soviet Union formally recognized Lithuanian independence and the country joined the United Nations.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Lithuania underwent wrenching economic and social change, as the country privatized agriculture and industry and built a free market economy. It has held regular democratic elections since the restoration of independence, and parties have alternated in power. Lithuania, along with its Baltic neighbors, joined the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2004.
In Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2013, Lithuania earned the status “Free,” (as it has since 1991) receiving the best possible rankings in the categories Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Since the restoration of its independence, Lithuania has become a leader in assisting democratic development in the countries of the former Soviet Union.