Singing Revolution

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The Singing Revolution is the common title for events between 1987 and 1990 that led to the renewal of independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

1 Estonia
2 Latvia
3 Lithuania
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Estonia

Night after night, a cycle of singing mass demonstrations eventually collected 300,000 Estonians (more than one-fifth of the population) in Tallinn to sing national songs and hymns, which had been strictly forbidden during the years of Soviet occupation, as rock musicians played. The Singing Revolution lasted over four years, with various protests and acts of defiance. In 1991, as Soviet tanks were rolling throughout the countryside in an attempt to quell the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Soviet Legislature together with the Congress of Estonia (Riigikogu) proclaimed the restoration of the independent State of Estonia and repudiated Soviet legislation. Estonians stood as human shields to protect radio and TV stations from the Soviet tanks. As a result of the revolution, Estonia won its independence without any bloodshed.[1]

[edit] Latvia

By the time Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika in the USSR, which rolled-back restrictions to freedom in the Soviet Union, aversion to the Soviet regime had grown into the Third Latvian National Awakening. It reached its peak in mid-1988.

[edit] Lithuania

Further information: History of Lithuania (1988-1990)

Lithuania started the movement now known as the Singing Revolution. The ancient Lithuanian tradition of singing folk songs became an act of political protest when the independence movement was rekindled in 1987. Later, hundreds of thousands regularly gathered in public places across Lithuania and sang national songs and Catholic hymns. Lithuanians formed the Sajudis political party to lead the independence and pro-democracy movement.

Five decades after Lithuania was occupied and incorporated into the Soviet Union, Lithuania became the first republic to declare its independence from the USSR on March 11, 1990. Latvia and Estonia soon followed. However, most all nations in the international community hesitated to recognize the restoration of Lithuania's independence.

The Soviet military cracked down. On January 13, 1991, fourteen non-violent protesters in Vilnius died and hundreds were injured defending the Vilnius Television Tower and the Parliament from Soviet assault troops and tanks. Lithuanians refer to the event as Bloody Sunday. The extraordinary discipline and courage of its citizens - linking arms and singing in the face of tanks and armor piercing bullets - avoided a much greater loss of life, and symbolized to the world the moral bankruptcy of the Soviet Union and the illegitimacy Lithuania's Soviet occupation.

Perhaps more than any other event, Bloody Sunday in Vilnius won Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia the world's sympathy and support. Later that same year, the international community recognized their independence.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

http://lietuviu-bendruomene.org/lithuania.html - Lithuanian history, including information about Bloody Sunday

http://talkinghistory.oah.org/arch2000.html - Audio interviews of two leaders of Lithuania's Singing Revolution: Vytautas Landsbergis and Valdas Adamkus, current President of the Republic of Lithuania