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March 12, 1990
Jeff Sallot. “Lithuania’s parliament votes for independence”
After 50 years of rule from Moscow, a new democratically elected Lithuanian parliament last night declared independence from the Soviet Union. When the rain-soaked crowed outside heard the announcement, it cheered wildly, surged forward and ripped down the hated giant hammer and sickle from over the entrance way.
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March 13, 1990
Anatol Lieven. “Lithuanian independence: going too far too fast?”
The Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania is on the verge of becoming simply Lithuania once again, but seems to have very little idea of what to do after that.
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March 22, 1990
Jeff Sallot. “Gorbachev bans firearms in Lithuania”
The Gorbachev decree also says Soviet authorities will crack down on foreign nationals “violating Soviet law” in Lithuania … This is a clear warning to Lithuanian émigrés who have returned to the republic in recent months to help in the struggle for independence, said Carla Gruodis …
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March 29, 1990
Matthew Fisher. “Lithuania won’t budge on independence”
To try to slow an intensifying war of words between the two governments and stop a series of threatening military maneuvers by Soviet troops, Mr. Landsbergis said he is urgently seeking to speak to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to find a peaceful way to resolve the stalemate over Lithuania’s declaration of independence on March 11.
Matthew Fisher, Canada's longest serving foreign correspondent. He has lived abroad for 30 years in Europe, the Middle East, Far East and, most recently, Afghanistan.
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March 29, 1990
Charlotte Montgomery. “Canada could mediate, Landsbergis supporters say”
But should that kind of support not materialize, he [Stasys Lozoraitis] said, Lithuania’s government will continue to function and Lithuanians will “be silently going toward our goal. We’ll have nerves of steel.”
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April 26, 1990
Stephen Handelman. “Lithuanians warn of disaster”
… the Lithuanian crisis and the effects of the blockade are drawing increasing criticism from Soviet reformers. … Mikhail Bronstein, one of the country’s leading economists, appealed to the Kremlin … to “admit the will of the Baltic people, and start discussing statehood.”
Stephen Handelman, a former columnist and senior writer for Time Magazine and The Toronto Star. In 1995, he wrote Comrade Criminal: Russia’s New Mafiya (Yale University Press), the first account of the rise of organized crime in post-Soviet Russia, which was on The New York Times Notable Books of the Year list.