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While other republics held the union-wide referendum in March to restructure the Soviet Union in a loose form, Lithuania, along with Estonia, Latvia, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova did not take part. Lithuania held an independence referendum earlier that month, with 93.2% voting for it. Iceland immediately recognised Lithuania's independence.
Soviet authorities encouraged the immigration of non-Lithuanian workers, especially Russians, as a way of integrating Lithuania into the Soviet Union and encouraging industrial development, [29] but in Lithuania this process did not assume the massive scale experienced by other European Soviet republics. [192]
The Soviet Union duly "approved" the request on 3 August. Since then, Soviet sources have maintained that Lithuania's petition to join the Soviet Union marked the culmination of a Lithuanian socialist revolution, and thus represented the legitimate desire of the Lithuanian people to join the Soviet Union.
On 11 March 1990, within seven months of the Baltic Way, Lithuania became the first Soviet state to declare independence. The independence of all three Baltic states was recognised by most western countries by the end of 1991. This protest was one of the earliest and longest unbroken human chains in history.
The Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR even referred to Lithuania's independent past and its illegal annexation into the Soviet Union in 1940. The Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR was more cautious. The presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union condemned the Estonian legislation as "unconstitutional". [23]
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union duly accepted the requests in August, thus sanctioning them under Soviet law. Lithuania was incorporated into the Soviet Union on 3 August, Latvia on 5 August, and Estonia on 6 August 1940. [31] The deposed presidents of Estonia and Latvia, Konstantin Päts and Kārlis Ulmanis, were deported to the USSR ...
Some historians credit this victory for saving Lithuania's independence from the Soviet coup. [19] [21] During the interwar years, Lithuanian–Soviet relations were generally friendly, but, a few months after the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet Union decided to occupy the Baltic states, including Lithuania, in July 1940.
Those who did not emigrate to Western countries became political prisoners after Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. [38] Aleksandras Stulginskis and Petras Klimas were sent to prison in Siberia by Soviet authorities, but survived and returned to Lithuania; [39] Pranas Dovydaitis and Vladas Mironas were also sent to Siberia but died there.