“The Road to Freedom. Lithuania in the Years 1988–1991”

"The Singing Revolution " (dainuojanti revoliucija) – is a time from 1988 to 1991. It was when Lithuanians sought independence from the USSR in the Baltic States. The name derives from the numerous demonstrations at the time and rallies during which people have sung various (mostly patriotic) songs like „Sėk sesutė rūtą“, „Žemėj Lietuvos ąžuolai žaliuos“. The guarding and protection of objects of state significance were also indispensable without folk songs.

On August 23, 1989, more than a million people from the Baltic nations — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — linked hands to form a human chain almost 400 miles long in an event called “THE BALTIC WAY” . The massive hand-holding ostensibly marked the 50th anniversary of a German/Russian pact that led to the Nazi occupation of the Baltics, but it also demonstrated the unity of the people of the Baltics in demanding independence from the Soviet Union.

In 1990, Lithuania was allowed to hold a democratic election, and the elected Parliament declared independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990, considered the Restoration of Independence Day. This decision, however, wasn’t without consequences, as Soviet forces persecuted Lithuanians until the Soviet Union finally recognized Lithuania’s independence in 1991.