30: January Events 1

January Events (Lithuania) 

The January Killings (Lithuanian: Sausio žudynės) took place in Lithuania between 11 and 13 January 1991 in the aftermath of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. As a result of Soviet military actions, 14 civilians were killed and 702 were injured. The events were centered in its capital, Vilnius, along with related actions in its suburbs and in the cities of Alytus, Šiauliai, Varėna, and Kaunas.

Background The Baltic states, including Lithuania, were forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. This move was never recognized by Western powers. See Occupation of the Baltic states. The Lithuanian Republic declared independence from the Soviet Union on 11 March 1990 and thereafter underwent a difficult period of emergence. During March–April 1990 the Soviet Airborne Troops (VDV) occupied buildings of the Political Education and the Higher Party School where later encamped the alternative Lithuanian Communist Party, on the CPSU platform. The Soviet Union imposed an economic blockade between April and late June. Economic and energy shortages undermined public faith in the newly restored state. The inflation rate reached 100% and continued to increase rapidly. In January 1991 the Lithuanian government was forced to raise prices several times and was used for organization of mass protests of the so-called "Russophone population". During the five days preceding the killings, Soviet, Polish, and other workers at Vilnius factories protested the government's consumer goods price hikes and what they saw as ethnic discrimination. (According to Human Rights Watch, the Soviet government had mounted a propaganda campaign designed to further ethnic strife.) In protection of the rallied Russophone population, the Soviet Union sent elite armed forces and special service units. On 8 January the conflict between Chairman of the Parliament Vytautas Landsbergis and the more pragmatic Prime Minister Kazimira Prunskienė culminated in her resignation.Prunskienė met with Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev on that day. He refused her request for assurances that military action would not be taken. On the same day the Yedinstvo movement organized a rally in front of the Supreme Council of Lithuania. Protesters tried to storm the parliament building but were driven away by unarmed security forces using water cannons. Despite a Supreme Council vote the same day to halt price increases, the scale of protests and provocations backed by Yedinstvo (Unity, in Russian) and the Communist Party increased. During a radio and television address, Landsbergis called upon independence supporters to gather around and protect the main governmental and infrastructural buildings.

From 8–9 January several special Soviet military units were flown to Lithuania (including the famous counter-terrorism Alpha Group and paratroopers of the 76th Guards Air Assault Division of the VDV based at Pskov). The official explanation was that this was needed to ensure constitutional order and the effectiveness of laws of the Lithuanian SSR and the Soviet Union.

On 10 January Gorbachev addressed the Supreme Council, demanding a restoration of the constitution of the USSR in Lithuania and the revocation of all anti-constitutional laws. He mentioned that military intervention could be possible within days. When Lithuanian officials asked for Moscow's guarantee not to send armed troops, Gorbachev did not reply.

Timeline of events

Friday 11 January 1991 In the morning, Speaker of the Supreme Council Vytautas Landsbergis and Prime Minister Albertas Šimėnas were presented with another ultimatum from the "Democratic Congress of Lithuania" demanding that they comply with Gorbachev's request by 15:00 on 11 January.

11:50 – Soviet military units seize the National Defence Department building in Vilnius.

12:00 – Soviet military units surround and seize the Press House building in Vilnius. Soldiers use live ammunition against civilians. Several people are hospitalized, some with bullet wounds.

12:15 – Soviet paratroopers seize the regional building of the National Defence Department in Alytus.

12:30 – Soviet military units seize the regional building of the National Defence Department in Šiauliai.

15:00 – In a press conference held in the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania, the head of the Ideological Division Juozas Jermalavičius announces the creation of the "National Salvation Committee of Lithuanian SSR" and that from now on it will be the only legitimate government in Lithuania.

16:40 – Minister of Foreign Affairs Algirdas Saudargas sends a diplomatic note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union in which he expresses his concerns about Soviet army violence in Lithuania.

21:00 – Soviet military units seize a TV re-translation center in Nemenčinė.

23:00 – Soviet military units seize the dispatcher's office of the Vilnius railway station. Railway traffic is disrupted but restored several hours later.

Saturday 12 January 1991 During an overnight session of the Supreme Council, Speaker Vytautas Landsbergis announced that he had tried to call Mikhail Gorbachev three times, but was unsuccessful. Deputy Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union, General Vladislav Achalov, arrived in Lithuania and took control of all military operations. People from all over Lithuania started to encircle the main strategic buildings: the Supreme Council, the Radio and Television Committee, the Vilnius TV Tower and the main telephone exchange.

00:30 – Soviet military units seize the base of the Lithuanian SSR Special Purpose Detachment of Police (OMON) in a suburb of Vilnius.

04:30 – Soviet military units unsuccessfully try to seize the Police Academy building in Vilnius.

11:20 – Armed Soviet soldiers attack a border-line post near Varėna.

14:00 – A Soviet military truck collides with a civilian vehicle in Kaunas. One person dies and three are hospitalized with serious injuries. Vilnius residents carry food to passengers installed trucks on strike. Citizens in the neighbourhood of Naujoji Vilnia are trapped in a train station with children from Chernobyl.

22:00 – A column of Soviet military vehicles is spotted leaving a military base in Vilnius and moving towards the city centre. Employees of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania instruct special worker groups (druzhinas) to be ready "for special events."

23:00 – An unknown group of individuals who claim to be part of the National Salvation Committee, declare at the Supreme Council that it is their duty to take over Lithuania to avoid an economic meltdown and a fratricidal war.

Sunday 13 January 1991

00:00 – Another column of military vehicles (including tanks and BMPs) is spotted leaving the military base and heading toward the TV tower.

01:25 – Upon arrival in the vicinity of the TV tower, tanks start to fire blank rounds. This causes many nearby windows to shatter and lifelong hearing loss or deafness in some of the protesters[citation needed].

01:50 – Tanks and soldiers encircle the TV tower. Soldiers fire live ammunition overhead and into civilian crowds gathered around the building. Tanks drive straight through lines of people. Fourteen people are killed in the attack, most of them shot and two crushed by tanks. One Soviet Alfa unit member (Viktor Shatskikh) is killed by friendly fire. Loudspeakers on several BMPs transmit the voice of Juozas Jermalavičius: "Broliai lietuviai, nacionalistų ir separatistų vyriausybė, kuri priešpastatė save liaudžiai, nuversta. Eikite pas savo tėvus, vaikus!" ("Brother Lithuanians! The nationalist and separatist government, which confronted the people has been overthrown! Go [home] to your parents and children!")

02:00 – BMPs and tanks surround the Radio and Television Committee building. Soldiers fire live ammunition into the building, over the heads of the civilian crowds. The live television broadcast is terminated. The last pictures transmitted are of a Soviet soldier running toward the camera and switching it off.

02:30 – A small TV studio from Kaunas came on air unexpectedly. A technician of the family program that usually broadcast from Kaunas once a week was on the air, calling for anyone who could help to broadcast to the world in as many different languages as possible about the Soviet army and tanks killing unarmed people in Lithuania. Within an hour, the studio was filled with several university professors broadcasting in several languages. The small studio in Kaunas received a threatening phone call from the Soviet army division of Kaunas (possibly the 7th Guards Airborne Division of the Soviet Airborne Forces). By 4 in the morning, this studio received the news that a Swedish news station[specify] finally saw the broadcast and would be broadcasting the news to the world.[citation needed] The second phone call from the Soviet army division followed shortly, with a commander stating that "they would not try to take over the studio so long as no misinformation is given". This was all broadcast live. The Kaunas TV station was using Juragiai and Sitkūnai transmitters as retranslators.

Following these two attacks, large crowds (20,000 during the night, more than 50,000 in the morning) of independence supporters gathered around the Supreme Council building. People started building anti-tank barricades and setting up defences inside surrounding buildings. Provisional chapels were set up inside and outside the Supreme Council building. Members of the crowd prayed, sang and shouted pro-independence slogans. Despite columns of military trucks, BMPs and tanks moving into the vicinity of the Supreme Council, Soviet military forces retreated instead of attacking.

The events of 13 January are sometimes referred to as Bloody Sunday.Among the members of the barricade were two basketball players who would later play for the Lithuanian national team, Gintaras Einikis and Alvydas Pazdrazdis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Events_(Lithuania)