11 MARCH 1990

THE DAY LITHUANIA WOKE UP

FROM ITS 50 YEAR NIGHTMARE

Here from Pilies Street in Vilnius Old Town .

Dear Professor Landsbergis and all you others who signed

Lithuania's independence declaration act on the 11^th of March 1990,

I can very well imagine that many of you signed the declaration act with trembling pens. You knew what power you challenged, and you were fully aware of what reprisals you and the people you represented could expect from the big bear in the east. The Soviet Union was not a superpower to joke with or irritate, and you knew that you would not be treated with kid gloves if the bear decided to strike back, reacting to the severance requirement you signed that day.

But you signed. You were brave. Without your signatures on the document shown below, it is quite possible that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia still today would be unfree republics under the 'protective' bear paws.

The Declaration of Independence on 11 March 1990 was Lithuania’s second in the 20^th century. The first one was signed on 16 February 1918. Both statements were signed by wise and courageous political leaders who did not want to accept that their beloved homeland would remain occupied.

When Lithuania in 1938 celebrated the 20^th anniversary of the century's first freedom declaration, a united country could proudly say that both politicians and society as a whole had succeeded in recreating a strong and progressive nation in the years that had passed since 1918. I have been told that Lithuania in the middle-war period had the world's fastest growing economy, and I know with certainty that this nation was fully on par with, perhaps even ahead of, its neighbours in Scandinavia and the rest of Europe when World War II so brutally overthrew and destroyed the fine Lithuanian nation which had been redeveloped during the pre-war years.

So now I ask you, ye who on the 11^th of March 1990 signed the document below: Can you honestly say that you are satisfied with the Lithuania that has evolved over the past 20 years? Can you with the same force as the country's pre-war leaders say that you have done a good job of recreating a Lithuania you and the entire nation can be proud of? Are you satisfied with how 'The Lithuanian House' has been cleared and cleaned after the 50-year nightmare under Soviet supremacy came to an end? Is it not true that there still remains the same old kind of Soviet dust in nearly all corners of the House?

Please allow me to doubt if you can claim with conviction that you are satisfied with today’s state of affairs in Lithuania. I admit that I sometimes have been disappointed seeing that you, who so bravely defended a free Lithuania in 1990, have not been more critical to the country’s leading authorities over the latest 20 years, even as Lithuania continues to suffer under 'stupidity curses' such as corruption, greed, selfishness, cheating, distrust and lack of teamwork, mutual respect and honest care. I believe you have seen that far too many of Lithuania’s leaders have been caring more about their personal benefits and positions than about the nation, and I wish you had reacted firmly against such behaviours.

I wish all the best for you and for Lithuania. But I would like to see a thorough clean-up action before I can fully express my joy and pride for this country. You were brave and wise in 1990. Please be that again. I urge you to think about Lithuania's future generations. I ask you to make a new commitment, as important as the one you signed on 11 March 1990. I urge you to stand up as guarantors for a Lithuania without deceit and cheating.

I kindly ask you to once again climb up to the very same barricade top you so proudly stood on in 1990. This time not to be set free, but to be bound – bound to pressure our present day politicians and leaders to accept a commitment to a cleaner and brighter development process in and for Lithuania.

The independence declarations of 1918 and 1990 were signed by wise and courageous political leaders who did not want to accept that their beloved homeland should remain occupied. Today there is a need of a document that declares another but not less important deed – making it perfectly clear that you, the proud signatories of the 11 March act, DO NOT ACCEPT that this country remains corrupted and mismanaged in so many areas.

Please do not let the date 11 March 1990 go down in history with less importance than it deserves…

Aage Myhre

Editor

11 March 1990

11 March 1990 is deemed to be remembered as one of the most important days in Lithuanian history. It was on this day 20 years ago that the Lithuanian parliament declared renewed freedom and independence for Lithuania, after the country had been occupied by the Soviet Union since World War II. 124 Parliament delegates voted for the declaration (copy below), while six were absent. 

The Parliament elected at the same time Professor Vytautas Landsbergis, the leader of the liberation movement Sajūdis, as Parliament President. He won over the Communist Party leader Algirdas Brazauskas with a 91 to 38 vote. 

11 March 1990 became a milestone in Lithuania's history because the Lithuanian politicians that day clearly demonstrated the country’s willingness to again become free and independent. Although it took another 18 months before the international community approved the nation’s independence from the Soviet occupying power, it was the 11 March actions that made it clear to the world that Lithuania no longer accepted to be incorporated into a system and a Commonwealth it had been involuntarily incorporated into when the World War II drew to an end. 

11 March 1990 was in many ways the day when Lithuania’s new freedom began, and we must believe that this country now will remain free and sovereign for all time based on democratic principles and values corresponding to those having been developing in Western Europe after World War II ended in 1945. 

While this March day 20 years ago was the beginning of the new time in and for Lithuania, the day was also symbolising that nearly 200 years of tragedies of and for this country had come to a final end. 

Through more than 500 years, from the 1200s when King Mindaugas declared Lithuania one nation, until it was occupied by the Russian Empire in 1795, Lithuania had been a proud and free nation, through some 300 years also one of the world’s greatest powers, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea (known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania). 

The 123 years of occupation from 1795 to 1918, however, became a long and sad chapter for Lithuania, since much of the good qualities this nation once represented in the world community were attempted to be systematically broken down by the Russian Empire occupants. 

When Lithuania at the end of World War I (1914-1918) on 16 February 1918 again could declare itself a free nation, most Lithuanians probably believed that the newly won freedom would remain, but sadly, the new freedom lasted only for 22 years. Vilnius and the surrounding area was occupied by Poland already in 1920 and remained under Polish rule until the Second World War started in 1940, and  Kaunas was therefore the capital of Lithuania for the years 1920 – 1940.

Nevertheless, Lithuania grew to become a strong nation during the interwar years, guided by, among others, the most famous Lithuanian leader of those days, President Antanas Smetona. 

World War II and the years just after became extremely tragic for Lithuania, when the nation was torn apart under alternate German and Russian occupation, and virtually all the large Jewish population was wiped out, and Lithuania thereby lost a population group that had meant so much for this nation since the 1300s. 

Also, during the war, tens of thousands of Lithuanians fled to the west, many who today live in the United States, Australia and other countries. Lithuanians were also exposed to extremely tragic abuse from Stalin's Soviet troops and his secret police (known as the KGB), when more than a hundred thousand Lithuanians were deported to Siberia and other areas in the Soviet Union where many of this country’s great citizens were killed or died during very shameful and cruel conditions. 

Already during the WWII years a strong resistance movement occurred, known as the Forest Brothers, who until the middle of the 1950s fought a heroic struggle against the Soviet power from their hiding places in the Lithuanian forests. It is suggested that around 20,000 Lithuanians and 70,000 soldiers from Stalin's Red Army and the KGB were killed during those post-war years. 

Lithuania became in 1990-1991 the first country that managed to detach itself from the Soviet Union . Latvia and Estonia followed soon after. We should all today be proud that this little country so bravely dared to stand up against the powerful Soviet powers. We should all be extremely happy that this little nation again enjoys freedom and democracy under the principle of equality for all its citizens, and we should be happy about the fact that 11 March 1990 was the day when Lithuania could finally put behind itself nearly 200 years of atrocities and suffering for its people – a people that had deserved so much better due to its proud history. 

The Lithuanian Independence Act from 11 March 1990.