Sąjūdis

In the mid-1980s, Lithuania's Communist Party leadership hesitated to embrace Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost. The death of Petras Griškevičius, first secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania, in 1987 was merely followed by the appointment of another rigid communist, Ringaudas Songaila. However, encouraged by the rhetoric of Mikhail Gorbachev, noting the strengthening position of Solidarity in Poland and encouraged by the Pope and the U.S. Government, Baltic independence activists began to hold public demonstrations in Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius.

At a meeting at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences on 3 June 1988, communist and non-communist intellectuals formed Sąjūdis Initiative Group (Lithuanian: Sąjūdžio iniciatyvinė grupė) to organise a movement to support Gorbachev's program of glasnost, democratisation, and perestroika. The group composed of 35 members, mostly artists. 17 of the group members were also communist party members. Its goal was to organise the Sąjūdis Reform Movement, which became known subsequently simply as Sąjūdis.

On 21 June 1988, the first massive gathering organised by Sąjūdis took place at Soviet Square near Soviet Palace. Three days later gathering took place in Gediminas' Square. There delegates to the 19th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were instructed about Sąjūdis goals.

About 100,000 people in Vingis Park greeted the delegates when they came back in July. Another massive event took place on 23 August 1988, when about 250,000 people gathered to protest against the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and its secret protocol.

On 19 June 1988, the first issue of samizdat newspaper "Sąjūdis News" (Lithuanian: Sąjūdžio žinios) was published. In September Sąjūdis published a legal newspaper, "Atgimimas" (English: rebirth). In total about 150 different newspapers were printed supporting Sąjūdis.

As stated in the first issues “Atgimimas”, Sąjūdis was perceived as the reformist initiative by the intellectual authorities with a goal to start the national awakening.[1]

In October 1988, Sąjūdis held its founding conference in Vilnius. It elected 35-member council. Most its members were members of the initiative group. Vytautas Landsbergis, a professor of musicology, who was not a member of the communist party, became the council's chairman.[2]

Sajudis plaque at old headquarters of the movement, now Ireland's embassy. Vilnius, 1 Šventaragio g.

The movement supported Gorbachev's policies, but at the same time promoted Lithuanian national issues such as restoration of the Lithuanian language as the official language. Its demands included the revelation of truth about the Stalinist years, protection of the environment, the halt to construction on a third nuclear reactor at the Ignalina nuclear power plant, and disclosure of the secret protocols of the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact, signed in 1939.

Sąjūdis used mass meetings to advance its goals. At first, Communist Party leaders shunned these meetings, but by mid-1988 their participation became a political necessity. A Sąjūdis rally on 24 June 1988, was attended by Algirdas Brazauskas, then party secretary for industrial affairs. In October 1988, Brazauskas was appointed first secretary of the communist party to replace Songaila. Communist leaders threatened to crack down on Sąjūdis, but backed down in the face of mass protests. Sąjūdis candidates fared well in elections to the Congress of People's Deputies, the newly created Soviet legislative body. Their candidates won in 36 of the 40 districts in which they ran.

In February 1989 Sąjūdis declared that Lithuania had been forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union and that the group's ultimate goal was the restoration of Lithuanian independence. Lithuanian sovereignty was proclaimed in May 1989, and Lithuania's incorporation into the Soviet Union was declared illegal.

On 23 August 1989, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Nazi–Soviet Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a 600-kilometre, two-million-strong human chain reaching from Tallinn to Vilnius focused international attention on the aspirations of the Baltic nations. This demonstration and the coordinated efforts of the three nations became known as the Baltic Way. Days after the rally, the federal Supreme Soviet soon made public its admission of the forced accession of the Baltic republics.

In December the Communist Party of Lithuania seceded from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and agreed to give up its monopoly on power. In February 1990 Sąjūdis representatives (or candidates that were supported by the movement) won an absolute majority (101 seats out of 141) in the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR. Vytautas Landsbergis was elected chairman of the Supreme Council. This led to the declaration of the restoration of independence on 11 March 1990, with Landsbergis becoming the first President of a restored Lithuania.

Headquarters of Sąjūdis in Vilnius

Today, Sąjūdis is still active in Lithuania, but it has lost almost all its influence.

With independence gained, reform communists and Vilnius liberal intellectuals left Sąjūdis about a month later. One of the reasons of this event, was a growing nationalist rhetoric. Some members formed the new Independence Party while liberal-leaning members helped to found the Liberal Union of Lithuania. As a result, the movement, still led by its founder V. Landsbergis, mostly included members from the Kaunas faction, who were inclined to ‘differentiate the local population into two clear groups, “patriots” and “communists”’.[3] The popularity of Sąjūdis waned as it failed to maintain unity among people with different political beliefs and was ineffective in handling the economic crisis.

Moreover, Sąjūdis lost major support from the rural regions of Lithuania as they proposed agricultural and land reforms without the input and against the interests of most kolkhoz employees and workers.[4] Sąjūdis retained support in Kaunas and Panevėžys.[5]

In late summer of 1992, Sąjūdis and several minor parties and movements formed electoral coalition "For democratic Lithuania". The Democratic Labour Party (DLP; the former Communist Party of Lithuania) was victorious in the Seimas elections of 1992.

Many of the group, including Landsbergis, formed the core of the Homeland Union, now the largest centre-right party in Lithuania.

• Latvian National Independence Movement
• Popular Front of Estonia
• Popular Front of Latvia
• Singing Revolution
• Belarusian Popular Front

• Lithuania: The Move Toward Independence, 1987-91, Country Study.
• 1940–1992. Soviet era and the restoration of independence, Estonica, Estonian Institute.
• Česlovas Laurinavičius, Vladas Sirutavičius. Lietuvos istorija. XII t. Id. Sąjūdis: nuo "Persitvarkymo" iki Kovo 11-osios.2008, ISBN 978-9955-23-164-6

• LIETUVOS PERSITVARKYMO SĄJŪDŽIO STEIGIAMAJAM SUVAŽIAVIMUI – 30 (in Lithuanian)