Showdown: The Lithuanian Rebellion and the Breakup of the Soviet EmpireShowdown explores the revival of the Lithuanian independence movement, beginning in 1988 when the popular front movement, Sajudis, was founded and including its February 1990 victory in the first free elections in the Soviet Union. A month later, Lithuania declared its independence. But as American author and political scientist Richard J. Krickus explains, by 1990 Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev had begun scaling back reforms and courting the neo-Stalinists. Lithuanian independence threatened to upset the Soviet Union's uneasy status quo. The Soviets' deadly response and the movement's ultimate success - with its far-reaching consequences - stunned the world. Krickus was in Lithuania as an elections monitor during the momentous days leading to independence. His eyewitness account explains how this nation of fewer than four million set in motion the forces that broke apart the vast Soviet Union. Based on Dr. Krickus's personal knowledge of the dangerous events and the courageous Lithuanians involved, this dramatic account also shows how Americans aided this unforeseen catalyst to the collapse of the Soviet empire. Though the Lithuanians were victorious in their struggle against the Soviet Union, the country's independence and its democracy are tenuous. As Krickus warns, unless the West takes concrete steps to safeguard democracy in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the freedom which was so hard won could be lost again. |
Contents
A Turbulent History | 4 |
Lithuanian Nationalism Endures | 30 |
Popular Front Revolutionaries | 47 |
Copyright | |
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American Andrius Kubilius apparatchiks Arvydas Arvydas Juozaitis attack August bachev Baltic countries Balts believed Bloody Sunday Brazauskas building Buracas campaign Catholic Congress country's coup CPSU crowd crush declaration deemed democrats demonstrated deputies diaspora economic election émigré Estonia ethnic favor feared force foreign gathered German Gorbachev hard-liners Ibid Interview January Jewish Jews Juozaitis Jurasas Kaunas knew later Latvia Lithua Lithuanian Communist Party Lithuanian government Lithuanian independence Lithuanian national Lithuanian-American living Lozoraitis March Matlock military Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Moscow move movement nationalist neo-Stalinists non-Russians organized Ozolas parliament perestroika Poles Polish political President Bush protest Prunskiene Red Army reform refused republics resistance returned Russian Sajudis Sajudis activists Senn Soviet authorities Soviet empire Soviet rule Soviet system Soviet troops Soviet Union Stalin tank tion told United USSR Vilnius Vytautas Landsbergis Washington West Western White House Yakovlev Yeltsin young