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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Search Search: Balts marking human chain that broke Soviet rule AFP - Saturday, August 22 RIGA (AFP) - - The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are taking a step back from their economic woes to mark the heady days of 1989, when two million people linked hands to oppose Soviet rule. ADVERTISEMENT Latvian Inga Bruvere stood in the 600-kilometre (375-mile) human chain that stretched from the Estonian capital Tallinn, via Riga in her homeland and south to Vilnius in Lithuania. She said she has never forgotten that Wednesday, August 23. "It felt like I was asleep during the Soviet years, and someone offered to wake me up," Bruvere, 46, told AFP. Estonian Ulo Nugis, 65, said he stood with colleagues after marching to the chain with others. "The feeling of solidarity in the Baltic chain was extraordinary, something you remember forever," said Nugis, who as a lawmaker in 1990-1992 steered Estonia to freedom. Both will be among the crowds Saturday and Sunday commemorating the watershed in the Balts' drive for independence from Moscow -- finally achieved as the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991. Participants won't re-enact the actual chain -- mustering two million people from a total seven million is a tall order -- but events include a 24-hour relay along the route. Runners will include Latvia's President Valdis Zatlers, 54. "Twenty years ago, the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands to dream the dream of freedom," Zatlers said this week. "The strength of unity among the three nations meant that the whole world heard us. The event was recalled as a unique testimony of the Singing Revolution," he said. The "Singing Revolution" began in 1987, rooted in the region's vibrant choral tradition. Hundreds of thousands massed to sing banned, patriotic hymns. Footage of the human chain was this year inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, a list of 193 archives of global significance. August 23, 1989 was deeply symbolic. It was the 50th anniversary of the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression deal the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a week before World War II. The pact -- which many Russian historians argue was essential because the West failed repeatedly to stand up to Nazi expansion -- included secret protocols carving up Poland and allotting the Baltic states to the Soviets. Berlin and Moscow invaded Poland in September 1939. In 1940 the Soviets annexed the Baltic trio, which had only been independent since Tsarist Russia's demise during World War I. Tens of thousands of Balts were deported or killed. The Nazis brought their own terror after turning on the Soviets in 1941. Victorious Soviet troops returned in 1944, imposing a new crackdown. The region stirred once reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985. "We felt so powerful, so strong and so united, capable of anything. I don't think we'll ever see anything like it," said Lithuanian Nijole Stakeniene, in her sixties, who joined the chain with her three children. Estonian Oliver Roigas, 25, linked hands with his grandparents. "It's one of my first memories," he said, contrasting it with his lot as a Soviet child. "In kindergarten we still had to attend rituals marking Soviet holidays like May 1 and Soviet Socialist Revolution Day on November 7, where we had to sing songs about Lenin and wave little red flags," he said. The Balts maintained their peaceful protests despite crackdowns in Latvia and Lithuania in January 1991. Independence came as a failed coup against Gorbachev in Moscow in August 1991 sped the bloc's collapse. The trio joined NATO and the EU in 2004. But after years as economic "tigers", they are now in a breathtaking economic crisis. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, 53, said that has brought the past back into sharp focus. "It is once again very important to stand together and to show that we can reduce the negative consequences of the recession, undertake greater responsibilities, and be more courageous in dealing with the challenges of our age," she said. Not everyone is nostalgic, however. "They're closing schools, cutting pensions and people are unemployed. Who needs that freedom?" said Inna Arakcheeva, 78, from Latvia's large ethnic-Russian community. Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Sign in to recommend this article » 0 users recommend Enlarge Photo This file picture Baltics residents standing next to one another to form a human chain linking the cities of Tallinn, Riga and Vilna (approximatively 620 kilometer) to mark the 50th anniversary of the Soviet-German pact which led to the annexation of the Baltic States. Most Popular – Top Stories Viewed It's nuts! Squirrel becomes a Web sensation CIA hired Blackwater for assassin program: reports Two arrested over biggest gem robbery: police Egypt warns pharaohs' tombs could disappear Merkel still world's most powerful woman: Forbes View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Community - Intellectual Property Rights Policy - Help

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