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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.
Similar human chains were later organised in many East European countries and regions of the USSR and, more recently, in Taiwan (228 Hand-in-Hand Rally) and Catalonia (Catalan Way). On the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way, a 30-mile (48 km) human chain called the Hong Kong Way was formed during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. [58]
The second period of occupation covers 1944 when the Soviet forces pushed the Germans out, until the end of the Soviet occupation in 1991 when the three countries restored full independence. Following the Soviet invasion of the Baltic states in June 1940, repressive measures were enforced in these countries, including arrests, executions and ...
The three countries remained under Soviet rule until regaining their full independence in August 1991, a few months prior to the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Soviet rule in the Baltic states led to mass deportations to other parts of the Soviet Union, in order to quell resistance and weaken national identity. Mass ...
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.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [t] (USSR), [u] commonly known as the Soviet Union, [v] was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by area , extending across eleven time zones and sharing borders with twelve countries , and the third-most populous country .