Central and Eastern Europe, Diplomacy, International Journalism and PR

The Baltic Way symbol of freedom and unity

Be Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska

35 years ago, at 19:00 on 23 August 1989 approximately two million Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians joined hands forming a human chain from Vilnius through Riga to Tallinn. The human chain they formed spanned nearly 700 kilometers and was a clear sign of their solidarity, standing up against the brutality of Soviet occupation and wish for freedom. In 2009, it was recognised as UNESCO heritage and became the symbol of freedom and unity.

Together with the honorary consul of the Republic of Lithuania in the Netherlands Mr Aloys Bruggeman I have covered this historic route on 23 August to honour the participants of this peaceful resistance and this crucial moment of the modern history.

Historic background

Since 1940 the Baltic states were occupied by the Soviet Union which had agreed upon it previously with Nazi Germany on 23 August 1939 in Moscow and was entirely secret. This document is called the Hitler–Stalin Pact or the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (by the surnames of the signatories: the USSR Minister for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov and the German Minister for Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop).

Since inclusion in the USSR in 1940, the inhabitants of the Baltic countries were forced to live under the dictatorship of the Communist Party where freedom of thought and speech was restricted. The occupation continued but the USSR denied the existence of the Pact and claimed that the Baltic states had voluntarily joined the Soviet Union. On 23 August 1989, the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the inhabitants of the three Baltic countries demanded public acknowledgement of the Pact’s secret protocols and the renewal of the independence of the Baltic countries.

The USSR acknowledged the existence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and declared it invalid. It was one of the most important steps towards the renewal of independence in the Baltics and attracted a lot of international publicity to the joint struggle of the three countries.

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