Vytautas Landsbergis shrugs when asked why he went into politics. ‘It was a normal evolution since we were part of the developments. Freedom was a common idea, an achievable goal,’ he says of his momentous contribution to the cause of freedom and the end of the Cold War. Vytautas Landsbergis sh.
Belarus had a chance to follow Lithuania’s footsteps. What happened?
Giedrius Gaidamavičius, LRT.lt2021.04.04 10:00
Demonstration in Minsk, 1990. / AP
As the Soviet Union faltered, Belarus saw similar national revival movements as in the Baltic states. But as Lithuania embarked on a path towards the European Union, the democratic transition in Belarus grounded to a halt. What happened?
With the advent of perestroika in the mid-1980s, informal clubs and gatherings began to form in the Soviet republics. The first Belarusian pro-independence rallies took place in 1987, but the real breakthrough happened a year later when the struggle for historical memory began.