Posted on 08/12/2008 8:57:15 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
If there were those in the West who hadn’t heard about Lithuania before, they almost certainly had by the end of the day, January 13, 1991. That was the day Soviet troops cracked down in Vilnius and the resulting bloodshed made headlines around the world. The action was apparently a bid to stop Lithuania’s independence drive in its tracks. By the time the firing stopped and the smoke cleared, more than a dozen people lay dead, and hundreds more were injured.
The crackdown, and particularly the killings at the TV tower, not only brought fame and sympathy to Lithuania from around the world, it was also a defining moment for Lithuanians themselves: the bloodshed meant they had crossed a point of no return. If there was ever any notion of reconciling with Moscow, that was now unthinkable.
To mark the anniversary of the TV tower massacre, CITY PAPER in 1997 talked to those who saw the events of that day unfold, including then-Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis. Among others, CITY PAPER also talked to TIME magazine’s Jay Carney and the Christian Science Monitor’s Justin Burke, who were both in Vilnius when the shooting started.
For those watching from abroad, Vytautas Landsbergis was the central player in the drama unfolding in Vilnius. The colorful, quick-tempered music professor became Lithuania’s president (or chairman of the Lithuanian Supreme Council) in 1990 and, from that time on, his name was almost synonymous with the Lithuanian independence movement. His blunt talk about breaking free of the Soviet Union, about Lithuania’s moral right to be able to do so, startled observers in the West almost as much as it infuriated the Kremlin. Word out of Moscow was that hardliners were looking for an opportunity to bring the independence-minded Baltics to heel and, with an outspoken anti-communist like Landsbergis as leader, Lithuania looked like their target of choice. By early January, 1991, there were already sporadic occupations of buildings by Soviet forces, and there was a growing troop presence in the capital itself. CITY PAPER recently talked with Mr. Landsbergis about the tense, turbulent situation in mid-January, 1991.
CITY PAPER: What stands out most as you look back at the events leading to the killings at the TV tower?On the eve of the killings, on January 12, there was a deceptive calmness in the air. There was confusion. We knew Lithuania was on the agenda in Moscow and that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was sending a special delegation to Vilnius. Because the situation was so tense, I spoke several times with the chairman of that delegation on the 12th, urging him to come directly to the Lithuanian capital. But he said he had to go to neighboring Belarus, and that he would spend the night there. I called him again and again to try to persuade him to come straight to Vilnius. But because they didn’t want to be in Vilnius that evening, I felt something was wrong. There was a similar situation in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1989, when unarmed people were massacred by Soviet troops at night. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze stayed in Moscow on the eve of the massacre, and it was said that there was no need for him to go to Tbilisi. The situation in Vilnius was very similar. When the Soviet delegation didn’t agree to come to Vilnius, I was very worried. [emphasis added]
That evening, I decided to go home. I wanted to take a bath after being at Parliament for so many days. But when I got home, information came in that the gates were thrown open at Soviet barracks and the tanks were preparing to move. I got home at around midnight, but went back to parliament immediately.
By then, it was clear tanks were moving. You could hear the roar of the tanks. But for a while, we didn’t know what their target was. Then, from inside Parliament, we could hear the shooting of machine guns and tanks, and we could see the gunfire in the night sky.
CITY PAPER: Did you feel your life was in danger?
You couldn’t feel safe anywhere. From Parliament, I called my wife and asked her to leave the house. But she didn’t. When we talked, my wife and I told each other good-bye, we thought, maybe for the last time—nobody could predict what was going to happen.
Apolonija Vepstiene, a 64-year-old retired teacher, was in the city of Panevéýys when things began heating up in Vilnius. Vepstiene, deported by the KGB in 1949, had been following events closely by radio and TV. When she heard Soviet forces were beginning to move around Vilnius, she jumped in her car, drove to the capital and headed to the TV tower. Recalled Vepstiene: "I felt in my heart that I just had to come."
CITY PAPER: When you arrived at the TV tower during the day of the 12th, what was the mood like?
People were quite happy really. They were singing, and there were bonfires blazing. A lot of people had brought hot drinks and food, and there were very many young people—even small school children. There were whole families there, too. At the same time, the atmosphere was also serious. I, for one, was ready to die.
[story continues at link]
CITY PAPER: When did the atmosphere begin to change?About midnight. We heard on the radio that tanks were moving. But none of us knew where they were moving to. I looked around and saw young people on guard duty carrying sticks. I thought, "If the tanks come, what will we be able to do with sticks?"
For your list.
Well now Russians can feel proud again. Their tanks are running over and murdering young women again. What bravery.
I have a coworker who was around this when it happened. She was a long distance runner at the very end of the Soviet sports system, and was at the University of Vilnius.
Boy, does she have some stories.
Those guys had balls.
The War in Abkhazia (1993 Russian Forces Ethnic Cleansing Campaign)
The KGB who ordered the Vilnius and Tblisi massacres are the same clique of KGB that were the core of the 1991 Coup d’etat group against Gorbachev/Yeltsin.
wikipedia article on the Tblisi Massacre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_9_tragedy
"The Soviet detachment, armed with military batons and metal shovels, advanced on demonstrators by encircling them from all sides leaving only a narrow pathway to pull back. During the advance, the soldiers started to attack demonstrators with small metal military shovels, inflicting injuries both minor and serious to anyone who was struck. [2] One of the victims of the attack was a 16 year old girl who tried to get away from the advancing soldiers, but was chased down and beaten to death near the steps of the government building, receiving blows to the head and chest. She was dragged out of the area by her mother who was also attacked and wounded. This particularly violent attack was recorded on video from the balcony a building located on the other side of the avenue."
Horrid stuff for reading.
I bet you would enjoy learning about him...
There is video on the internet of him receiving the CATO institute Milton Friedman award and it is funny and excellent to hear this man speak about the soviets.
Also he happened to be assisting Georgia for the better part of a year to set up their economy, reduce corruption, and wrote this somewhere in there - possibly worth posting at some point.
I am so emotionally connected to the Georgians, and was back then, that I recall crying when I read it. "Don't Let Georgia Fall off the Map"
Anyway, fun sharing with you...
I’m sure God has a special place reserved for Putin and his followers/imitators.
Nothing mankind does to mankind should be a surprise, any more. Hitler, Stalin and Hussein have proved that evil lives.
I’m too poor to send money, too disabled to go in person, but I can certainly pray that wiser heads prevail, and that the Georgians will have God on their side. Honesty and righteousness will prevail.
But freedom must always be bought with blood and sacrifice.
(I feel so helpless, at times like these.)
Gorby was the one who ordered the Vilnius Massacre.
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