198923 August 1989 · Vilnius

The Baltic Way

Baltic Way participants joining hands along the Vilnius-Ukmergė motorway in Lithuania in 1989 — Archival image: Saulius Gruodis, Lithuanian State Central Archives. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

On the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which had handed the Baltic states to Stalin, around two million people joined hands in a human chain of about 675 kilometres from Vilnius through Riga to Tallinn. The peaceful protest drew world attention to the Soviet occupation. In March 1990 Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence.

Revolutions & Resistance
Political History
Vilnius, Lithuania

Sites

Site 1: Cathedral Square and the Stebuklas tileA paving tile marking where the human chain began.Map ↗
Site 2: Freedom Monument, RigaMonument in Latvia where the chain passed through Riga.Map ↗