Sąjūdis

The Singing Revolution was a series of events in 1987–1990 that led to the restoration of independence of the three then Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of the Cold War. The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, Heinz Valk, in an article published a week after the 10–11 June 1988 spontaneous mass evening singing demonstrations at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.

Perestroika was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated with CPSU general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "reconstruction", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system, in an attempt to end the Era of Stagnation.

Petras Petrovičius Griškevičius was a Lithuanian communist party official in the Lithuanian SSR. He was the First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party from 1974 to his death.

The Communist Party of Lithuania is a banned communist party in Lithuania. The party was established in early October 1918 and operated clandestinely until it was legalized by Soviet authorities in 1940. The party was banned in August 1991, following the coup attempt in Moscow, Soviet Union which later led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Lithuanian SSR.

Ringaudas Bronislovas Songaila was an official of the Lithuanian SSR nomenclatura. In 1987–1988, he was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania or the de facto head of state.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 and additionally as head of state beginning in 1988, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990 and the only President of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.

Solidarity, full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity", is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subsequently, it was the first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognised by the state. The union's membership peaked at 10 million in September 1981, representing one-third of the country's working-age population. Solidarity's leader Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and the union is widely recognised as having played a central role in the end of Communist rule in Poland.

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers 307.17 km2 (118.60 sq mi) and lies 1–10 m (3.3–32.8 ft) above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain.

Tallinn is the capital and most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of about 454,000 and administratively lies in the Harju maakond (county). Tallinn is the main financial, industrial, and cultural centre of Estonia. It is located 187 km (116 mi) northwest of the country's second largest city Tartu, however only 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki, Finland, also 320 km (200 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia, 300 km (190 mi) north of Riga, Latvia, and 380 km (240 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden. From the 13th century until the first half of the 20th century, Tallinn was known in most of the world by variants of its other historical name Reval.

Vilnius is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 625,349 or 630,885 as of 2023. The population of Vilnius's functional urban area, which stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 718,507, while according to the Vilnius territorial health insurance fund, there were 753,875 permanent inhabitants as of November 2022 in Vilnius city and Vilnius district municipalities combined. Vilnius is situated in southeastern Lithuania and is currently the largest city in the Baltic states. It is the seat of Lithuania's national government and the Vilnius District Municipality.

Seimas Palace is the seat of the Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament. It is located in Lithuania's capital Vilnius.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), at some points known as the Russian Communist Party or All-Union Communist Party and sometimes referred to as the Soviet Communist Party (SCP), was the founding and ruling political party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU was the sole governing party of the Soviet Union until 1990 when the Congress of People's Deputies modified Article 6 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, which had previously granted the CPSU a monopoly over the political system.

Vingis Park is the largest park in Vilnius, Lithuania, covering 162 hectares. It is located in Vilkpėdė eldership near a curve of the Neris River, hence its Lithuanian name "vingis" which means "bend" or "curve". A pedestrian bridge connects the park with Žvėrynas. It is used as a venue for various events, especially concerts and sports competitions. It contains a stadium, an amphitheater and a department of the Botanical Garden of Vilnius University.

Samizdat was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual reproduction was widespread, because most typewriters and printing devices required official registration and permission to access. This was a grassroots practice used to evade official Soviet censorship.

Vytautas Landsbergis is a Lithuanian politician and former Member of the European Parliament. He was the first Speaker of Reconstituent Seimas of Lithuania after its independence declaration from the Soviet Union. He has written 20 books on a variety of topics, including a biography of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, as well as works on politics and music. He is a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration, and a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Lithuanian is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 200,000 speakers elsewhere.

Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas was the first President of a newly re-independent post-Soviet Lithuania from 1993 to 1998 and Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006.

Ringaudas Bronislovas Songaila was an official of the Lithuanian SSR nomenclatura. In 1987–1988, he was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania or the de facto head of state.

The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Eastern Europe between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and was officially known as the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Unofficially, it has also been referred to as the Hitler–Stalin Pact, Nazi–Soviet Pact or Nazi–Soviet Alliance.

The Baltic Way or Baltic Chain was a peaceful political demonstration that occurred on 23 August 1989. Approximately two million people joined their hands to form a human chain spanning 690 kilometres (430 mi) across the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which at the time were occupied and annexed by the USSR. The central government in Moscow considered the three Baltic countries constituent republics of the Soviet Union.

Vilnius is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 625,349 or 630,885 as of 2023. The population of Vilnius's functional urban area, which stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 718,507, while according to the Vilnius territorial health insurance fund, there were 753,875 permanent inhabitants as of November 2022 in Vilnius city and Vilnius district municipalities combined. Vilnius is situated in southeastern Lithuania and is currently the largest city in the Baltic states. It is the seat of Lithuania's national government and the Vilnius District Municipality.

Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania shares land borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Russia to the southwest. It has a maritime border with Sweden to the west on the Baltic Sea. Lithuania covers an area of 65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi), with a population of 2.8 million. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius; other major cities are Kaunas and Klaipėda. Lithuanians belong to the ethno-linguistic group of the Balts and speak Lithuanian, one of only a few living Baltic languages.

The Liberal Union of Lithuania was a liberal political party in Lithuania.

A kolkhoz was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz. These were the two components of the socialized farm sector that began to emerge in Soviet agriculture after the October Revolution of 1917, as an antithesis both to the feudal structure of impoverished serfdom and aristocratic landlords and to individual or family farming.

Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania was the renamed Communist Party of Lithuania. It was a political party in Lithuania in the 1990s, which claimed to be social-democratic. The youth organization of LDDP was called Lithuanian Labourist Youth Union.

The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, or simply the Seimas, is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendments to the Constitution, passing the budget, confirming the Prime Minister and the Government and controlling their activities.

Parliamentary elections were held in Lithuania in two stages on 25 October and 15 November 1992. A total of 141 members were elected to the Seimas, which replaced the Supreme Council; 70 were elected using proportional representation and 71 from single-member constituencies. Where no candidate in the single-member constituecies received more than 50% of the vote on 25 October, a run-off was held on 15 November. The first round of the elections were held simultaneously with a referendum on the adoption of a new constitution.

The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, also known colloquially simply as the Conservatives, is a centre-right political party in Lithuania. It has 18,000 members and 49 of 141 seats in the Seimas. Its current leader is Gabrielius Landsbergis, who replaced Andrius Kubilius in 2015. It is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and the International Democrat Union (IDU).

Aloyzas Sakalas is a Lithuanian politician, signatory of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, and Member of the European Parliament with the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania. Aloyzas Sakalas is also a part of the Socialist Group and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs.

Regimantas Adomaitis was a Lithuanian film and stage actor. He was also active in Russia and Germany.

Arvydas Juozaitis is a Lithuanian writer, philosopher, politician, cultural worker and former swimmer who won a bronze medal in the 100 meter breaststroke at the 1976 Summer Olympics. In 1988, he was a member of the Sąjūdis Initiative Group. He was registered as a candidate for 2019 Lithuanian presidential election.

Algirdas Kaušpėdas is a Lithuanian rock musician, the leader of Lithuanian rock group Antis, an architect, and one of the Sąjūdis initiators. His wife Vilija Ulozaitė is also an architect.

Bronius Kuzmickas is a Lithuanian politician and philosopher. In 1990 he was among those who signed the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania.

Meilutė Julija Lukšienė née Matjošaitytė was a Lithuanian university professor, cultural historian, and activist.

Justinas Marcinkevičius was a prominent Lithuanian poet and playwright.

Algimantas Nasvytis was a Lithuanian architect. He was active in the pro-independence Sąjūdis movement and served as Minister of Construction and Urban Development in the first four Cabinets of Lithuania after Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union.

Kazimira Danutė Prunskienė is a Lithuanian politician who was the first prime minister of Lithuania after the declaration of independence of 11 March 1990, and Minister of Agriculture in the government of Gediminas Kirkilas.