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II. BALTIC STRIFE
Leaving Malta, Gorbachev faced grave difficulties within the U.S.S.R. Beyond its borders, he could accept change. But would he allow freedom to the 15 Soviet republics? The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- annexed by Stalin in 1940 -- were demanding total independence.
In December 1989, the Lithuanian Communist Party voted to declare the country independent from Moscow. The next month, Gorbachev went to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, to argue that the Soviet Union must not be broken up. But the Baltic states wouldn't listen. On March 11, Lithuania formally declared its independence. Gorbachev attacked the action as "illegitimate and invalid" but was reluctant to use force. Instead, he imposed an economic embargo on the country. That didn't stop the tide: On March 25, Estonian Communists voted for independence. Latvia followed in May.
By the end of the year, though, Gorbachev -- facing pressures in Moscow and other republics -- changed tack. He tightened security and brought hard-liners into the government. In January 1991, crack Soviet troops entered the Baltics to seize state-owned buildings in Vilnius and Latvia's capital, Riga. On January 13 -- "Bloody Sunday" -- Soviet troops stormed the television tower and other public buildings in Vilnius. Fourteen Lithuanians were killed. The following Sunday, Soviet troops stormed the Interior Ministry in Riga, killing five Latvians -- prompting international outrage. In Moscow, Gorbachev ordered a stop to the killings. At first he defended the action, then condemned it, as thousands took to the streets to protest the crackdown.
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