Re: Lest we forget...

On Aug 22, 6:26 am, hol...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Eugene Holman) wrote:
Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hk2deyqXsl_xBPZHmn...

<quote>
Balts marking human chain that broke Soviet rule

By Aleks Tapinsh (AFP) ­ 12 hours ago

RIGA ‹ The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are taking a
step back from their economic woes to mark the heady days of 1989, when
two million people linked hands to oppose Soviet rule.

Latvian Inga Bruvere stood in the 600-kilometre (375-mile) human chain
that stretched from the Estonian capital Tallinn, via Riga in her homeland
and south to Vilnius in Lithuania.

She said she has never forgotten that Wednesday, August 23.

"It felt like I was asleep during the Soviet years, and someone offered to
wake me up," Bruvere, 46, told AFP.

Estonian Ulo Nugis, 65, said he stood with colleagues after marching to
the chain with others.

"The feeling of solidarity in the Baltic chain was extraordinary,
something you remember forever," said Nugis, who as a lawmaker in
1990-1992 steered Estonia to freedom.

Both will be among the crowds Saturday and Sunday commemorating the
watershed in the Balts' drive for independence from Moscow -- finally
achieved as the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991.

Participants won't re-enact the actual chain -- mustering two million
people from a total seven million is a tall order -- but events include a
24-hour relay along the route.

Runners will include Latvia's President Valdis Zatlers, 54.

"Twenty years ago, the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined
hands to dream the dream of freedom," Zatlers said this week.

"The strength of unity among the three nations meant that the whole world
heard us. The event was recalled as a unique testimony of the Singing
Revolution," he said.

The "Singing Revolution" began in 1987, rooted in the region's vibrant
choral tradition. Hundreds of thousands massed to sing banned, patriotic
hymns.

Footage of the human chain was this year inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of
the World Register, a list of 193 archives of global significance.

August 23, 1989 was deeply symbolic.

It was the 50th anniversary of the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a
non-aggression deal the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a week before
World War II.

The pact -- which many Russian historians argue was essential because the
West failed repeatedly to stand up to Nazi expansion -- included secret
protocols carving up Poland and allotting the Baltic states to the
Soviets.

Berlin and Moscow invaded Poland in September 1939. In 1940 the Soviets
annexed the Baltic trio, which had only been independent since Tsarist
Russia's demise during World War I.

Tens of thousands of Balts were deported or killed. The Nazis brought
their own terror after turning on the Soviets in 1941.

Victorious Soviet troops returned in 1944, imposing a new crackdown.

The region stirred once reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to
power in 1985.

"We felt so powerful, so strong and so united, capable of anything. I
don't think we'll ever see anything like it," said Lithuanian Nijole
Stakeniene, in her sixties, who joined the chain with her three children.

Estonian Oliver Roigas, 25, linked hands with his grandparents.

"It's one of my first memories," he said, contrasting it with his lot as a
Soviet child.

"In kindergarten we still had to attend rituals marking Soviet holidays
like May 1 and Soviet Socialist Revolution Day on November 7, where we had
to sing songs about Lenin and wave little red flags," he said.

The Balts maintained their peaceful protests despite crackdowns in Latvia
and Lithuania in January 1991.

Independence came as a failed coup against Gorbachev in Moscow in August
1991 sped the bloc's collapse.

The trio joined NATO and the EU in 2004. But after years as economic
"tigers", they are now in a breathtaking economic crisis.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, 53, said that has brought the
past back into sharp focus.

"It is once again very important to stand together and to show that we can
reduce the negative consequences of the recession, undertake greater
responsibilities, and be more courageous in dealing with the challenges of
our age," she said.

Not everyone is nostalgic, however.

"They're closing schools, cutting pensions and people are unemployed. Who
needs that freedom?" said Inna Arakcheeva, 78, from Latvia's large
ethnic-Russian community.
</quote>

The chain was one of the most moving events that I have ever experienced.
It is hard to believe that this happened twenty years ago.

Regards,
Eugene Holman
Eugenius Holmanas
Judz^ins Holmans

If you must play around like that, its Eugenijus.
.

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