Singing Revolution

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The Singing Revolution was a series of events from 1987 to 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of the Cold War. The Soviet Union annexed the Baltics around 1940, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (a non-aggression agreement with Nazi Germany), though this annexation was not widely recognized. During the subsequent occupation, the Soviet Union suppressed local languages, religious institutions, and cultural expression, and carried out large-scale deportations and political repression. In the late 1980s, massive demonstrations against the Soviet regime began after widespread liberalization of the regime failed to take national sensitivities into account. The Soviet Union also instituted attacks and censorships of religion and the religious institutions in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Several religious organizations formed in opposition to these attacks. Civic organizations such as...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Photographer Paulius Lileikis. Lithuanian Central State Archives., CC BY 4.0