The Baltic Way - Chain of Freedom 1989 скачать в хорошем качестве

The Baltic Way - Chain of Freedom 1989

What Price Freedom Many people take freedom for granted today. Several years ago, on a tour of the Baltic states, we mat a young man whose parents were organizers of the protest that led to their independence from Russia. This historic demonstration was organized without the help of the internet. It was organized by word of mouth and leaflets. Perhaps freedom is only cherished when you lose it and come under the power of an authoritarian regime. The Baltic Way was a peaceful political demonstration that occurred on 23 August 1989. Approximately two million people joined their hands to form a human chain spanning 430 miles across the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which at the time were occupied and annexed by the USSR and had a combined population of approximately eight million. The central government in Moscow considered the three Baltic countries constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, in which Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania were (as "spheres of influence") divided between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The Soviet-Nazi pact led to the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 and the Soviet invasion and occupation of the Baltic countries in June 1940. On 11 March 1990, within seven months of the Baltic Way, Lithuania became the first Soviet state to declare independence. The independence of all three Baltic states was recognized by most western countries by the end of 1991. This protest was one of the earliest and longest unbroken human chains in history.