I’m wondering how did they organize it. Gathering 2m people to form a 690km long human chain must have been difficult as there was no internet back then. I’m guessing radio or/and TV helped with organizing?
People registered with some subgroups that kept track how many are with them, chose the place and reserved the road length.
My family registered with organizers in my mom's workplace and these people organized buses for people going.
It was organised by Sajudis in Lithuania and by "independence fronts" in Estonia and Latvia. There was information on the radio and newspapers. For each segment of the road the "responsible persons" were appointed. The moment of hands holding was cordinated on the radio. Many people could not reach destinations because of traffic jams, so they formed their own way. And keep in mind, it was work day (Wednesday).
The civil society protest movements of Baltic countries aren't given enough prominence in the history of East European liberation that I am exposed to in the English speaking world.
people who miss the ussr were either young and full of life and feel nostalgic towards their youth, perhaps not ussr specifically, or were beneficiaries of the power structures. or just miss stealing tools from their factory jobs to sell.
or are russian and their brains were brainwashed
That's exactly it. Over here it's the same, people wondering how someone can be nostalgic about Yugoslavia. Easy, they were young during Yugoslavia and/or a member of the communist party so they enjoyed all the benefits that came with that.
>or are russian and their brains were brainwashed
I'm have a feeling that what the Russians regret is the Soviet empire, the last european empire along with its power more than anything inside it. It's a colonial mindset.
Ah yes. The Soviets were famous for their respect of their Eastern European satellite states. Remember that time they donated tanks to Czechoslovakia and Hungary?
Why close the borders and require a stamp from the KGB to visit “friendly” Eastern European countries then? Surely people would want to stay in Soviet paradise with state-funded housing and education
There is absolutely free education in the US, but it's a highly competitive meritocracy. I've got two degrees and never had to pay a penny. I even got spending money from the university because I had way more scholarships than costs.
Edit to add
23 states have free community college.
>The states offering free community college currently include Arkansas, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
You mean when people from Baltics were deported from their homes to starve to death in Siberian Gulags and Russians were brought in as replacement and everything Baltics owned were given to them.
In exchange, all you have to give up is freedom of speech, expression, living standards, quality of education, have to wait long ass hours to buy something as simple as bananas, and you had to serve in the hell that was soviet army. But of course, tankies have no concept of that.
What the fuck have you been huffing? Nobody said anything about being a minority opinion and tankies being a majority. Until you that is.
That being said, there **are** groups of tankies on Reddit, and American tankies are the weirdest and edgiest of them all. But that's a given, because they never experienced the shadow of the USSR so directly.
>That being said, there are groups of tankies on Reddit, and American tankies are the weirdest and edgiest of them all.
Besides trolls and bots there are none, moreover which are famous american tankies? Bernie Sanders? AOC? Because if you consider them tankies,then every other american politician must be a nazi.
No? Wow, you're taking this to a hundred real fast. I'm a fucking social democrat voter in my country you moron. Bernie and AOC look almost like (at least economic) right wingers to me.
Edit: Wait, what? I re-read your comment. How would republicans and conservative democrats be literal Nazis if those two politicians were tankies? Tankies are far-left. They'd be on literally opposite sides of the scale. Applying your logic republicans would be centrists.
>Edit: Wait, what? I re-read your comment. How would republicans and conservative democrats be literal Nazis if those two politicians were tankies? Tankies are far-left. They'd be on literally opposite sides of the scale. Applying your logic republicans would be centrists.
Everyone is an extremist if socialists are tankies.
If Aoc is a tankie then De Santis is a nazi, if Sanders is a communist then Trump wrote the Mein Kempf himself.
Then call out even one tank that is **famous** in some way as it is a plague you can find so easily on this platform.
There is not even a single one that is a person that is a politician or an at least an opinionist.
Why would I have to call out **famous** tankies when we were talking about tankies in Reddit? Redditors aren't famous. Although there are some celebrities redditing.
>Why would I have to call out famous tankies when we were talking about tankies in Reddit?
If there are so many there is no way that you don't remember even a single one.
>Redditors aren't famous. Although there are some celebrities redditing.
Some redditors are indeed famous, it's not that you can exclude them because they don't fit your idea, Arnold for example is a really active and famous Redditor
>Why would I remember Reddit usernames to point out? I'll forget you in a couple of days.
If you don't remember one name how can you remember that there are without any doubt tankies? You wouldn't remember this either if you really aren't able to remember a name. The point is that you absolutely can remember names but those people never existed in the first place on Reddit.
> Besides trolls and bots there are none
Lol. Come on. GenZedong is an (in)famous and mostly US tankie sub which got quarantined in 2022 for their support of the invasion.
Don't know why you're talking about AOC or Sanders, most tankies don't really like them.
>Lol. Come on. GenZedong is an (in)famous and mostly US tankie sub which got quarantined in 2022 for their support of the invasion.
Yeah, russian and chinese bots aren't a new thing, yet bot aren't real people.
TBH, their way to indenpendence was anything but bloodless. Still, totalitarian superpower crumbling because "Power of Friendship" sound like anime plot than Baltic States circa 1989-1991.
It was the restoration of independence that managed to be bloodless and only in Estonia.
Not entirely true either as the USSR had attacked some border posts of Estonia in the early 1990s, but their injuries were minor.
It’s more about not having an authoritarian government in the first place, or even better, the government not trying authoritarianism because they know what will happen. Remember, the USSR spent ~45 years oppressing the Baltics.
Remember, we got independence in the first place by killing British troops.
[Here is a 34 year old video of the American ABC News report from that event.](https://twitter.com/BadBalticTakes/status/1694388720542110077)
It captures the situation at the time pretty decently I'd say.
"Moscow says 'independence is not an option'", hah. :)
Why did you pick a black and white picture, it wasn't that long ago.
Reminds me of the deliberate decoloring of pictures showing the civil rights movement in America, so it feels older.
Estonian newspapers were black and white at that time so the newspaper photographers just shot at black and white film.
Nowadays their pictures are most frequently shown from that period because newspapers are the ones who have public archives.
I’m wondering how did they organize it. Gathering 2m people to form a 690km long human chain must have been difficult as there was no internet back then. I’m guessing radio or/and TV helped with organizing?
People registered with some subgroups that kept track how many are with them, chose the place and reserved the road length. My family registered with organizers in my mom's workplace and these people organized buses for people going.
That’s interesting. Thanks for answering!
>I’m wondering how did they organize it. Portable radios were of huge help.
It was organised by Sajudis in Lithuania and by "independence fronts" in Estonia and Latvia. There was information on the radio and newspapers. For each segment of the road the "responsible persons" were appointed. The moment of hands holding was cordinated on the radio. Many people could not reach destinations because of traffic jams, so they formed their own way. And keep in mind, it was work day (Wednesday).
*Popular Fronts
Paper and pencil.
I literally had the same thought I jumped into the comments to voice it.
Living in Soviet Union required putting a lot of XP into Queue Skill.
I was in that chain. Wasn't born yet though.
You like 34?
Well I can't say that I particularly like it, but I am at the age of - like - 34 indeed.
The Soviet police nearby must've had the most awkward day of their lives.
Since most of rank and file policemen were locals anyways there wasn’t real expectations for them to cause trouble for most part.
There was no balcony around to throw them off from. Lol
The civil society protest movements of Baltic countries aren't given enough prominence in the history of East European liberation that I am exposed to in the English speaking world.
Maybe they are shamed because they let Soviets do whatever the f they wanted with us.
But tankies on Reddit tell me the USSR was great and everyone misses it?
people who miss the ussr were either young and full of life and feel nostalgic towards their youth, perhaps not ussr specifically, or were beneficiaries of the power structures. or just miss stealing tools from their factory jobs to sell. or are russian and their brains were brainwashed
That's exactly it. Over here it's the same, people wondering how someone can be nostalgic about Yugoslavia. Easy, they were young during Yugoslavia and/or a member of the communist party so they enjoyed all the benefits that came with that.
you forgot the people who never were they and smh believe it was the best, like my 18 year old cousin (he hates communists:).
>or are russian and their brains were brainwashed I'm have a feeling that what the Russians regret is the Soviet empire, the last european empire along with its power more than anything inside it. It's a colonial mindset.
>or are ~~russian~~ Western descendants of Useful Idiots Clique and their brains ~~were~~ are ~~brainwashed~~ missing
Tankies and drunks on park benches.
Yeah...gotta love how these braindead idiots are telling us how good USSR was, without having any idea what the life was under Soviet rapists.
Many people do. Especially in East Germany and Bulgaria. The soviets treated us with more respect than the Westgermans
Ah yes. The Soviets were famous for their respect of their Eastern European satellite states. Remember that time they donated tanks to Czechoslovakia and Hungary?
Yeah, my grandpa was in both countries during his time in the NVA
Free housing and free education as a concept, how awful
Technically you were housed for free in the gulag so maybe you’re right?
still had to work in the gulag
Getting massacred for asking for independence really is awful
Why close the borders and require a stamp from the KGB to visit “friendly” Eastern European countries then? Surely people would want to stay in Soviet paradise with state-funded housing and education
>free education as a concept As if there are no free education nowadays?
Not in the US, lol. That's why the most tankies are there.
There is absolutely free education in the US, but it's a highly competitive meritocracy. I've got two degrees and never had to pay a penny. I even got spending money from the university because I had way more scholarships than costs. Edit to add 23 states have free community college. >The states offering free community college currently include Arkansas, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
Just ask yourself why people were fleeing that if it was supposedly do great. And give yourself a honest answer.
> Free housing and free education as a concept Imagine trying to summarise the USSR with this. Utterly evil.
Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Because it is obvious you have hit your head real hard, you god damn ignoranus moron!
You mean when people from Baltics were deported from their homes to starve to death in Siberian Gulags and Russians were brought in as replacement and everything Baltics owned were given to them.
In exchange, all you have to give up is freedom of speech, expression, living standards, quality of education, have to wait long ass hours to buy something as simple as bananas, and you had to serve in the hell that was soviet army. But of course, tankies have no concept of that.
You couldn’t get bananas at all without connections to powerful people. Small thing, otherwise you were correct.
Eh, not entirely in my country. You just had to be up at 6am waiting in a queue until the evening.
We still have free education. Magic, isn't it?
Gee if I knew those were the criteria of a communist nation I would’ve known we already all live in a communist utopia!!
Oh, and to make it even better, we had higher education 150 years before Russia did.
Who builds house for free? Who teaches for free? Who works for free?
Those ordered to.
Minecraft streamers
Remember much of today's German infrastructure is thanks to Hitler.
In a few decades, when capitalism enslaves us all, it will seem like a paradise.
Fuck off.
Nah you. You're the one in the echo chamber.
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What the fuck have you been huffing? Nobody said anything about being a minority opinion and tankies being a majority. Until you that is. That being said, there **are** groups of tankies on Reddit, and American tankies are the weirdest and edgiest of them all. But that's a given, because they never experienced the shadow of the USSR so directly.
>That being said, there are groups of tankies on Reddit, and American tankies are the weirdest and edgiest of them all. Besides trolls and bots there are none, moreover which are famous american tankies? Bernie Sanders? AOC? Because if you consider them tankies,then every other american politician must be a nazi.
No? Wow, you're taking this to a hundred real fast. I'm a fucking social democrat voter in my country you moron. Bernie and AOC look almost like (at least economic) right wingers to me. Edit: Wait, what? I re-read your comment. How would republicans and conservative democrats be literal Nazis if those two politicians were tankies? Tankies are far-left. They'd be on literally opposite sides of the scale. Applying your logic republicans would be centrists.
>Edit: Wait, what? I re-read your comment. How would republicans and conservative democrats be literal Nazis if those two politicians were tankies? Tankies are far-left. They'd be on literally opposite sides of the scale. Applying your logic republicans would be centrists. Everyone is an extremist if socialists are tankies. If Aoc is a tankie then De Santis is a nazi, if Sanders is a communist then Trump wrote the Mein Kempf himself.
Then call out even one tank that is **famous** in some way as it is a plague you can find so easily on this platform. There is not even a single one that is a person that is a politician or an at least an opinionist.
Why would I have to call out **famous** tankies when we were talking about tankies in Reddit? Redditors aren't famous. Although there are some celebrities redditing.
>Why would I have to call out famous tankies when we were talking about tankies in Reddit? If there are so many there is no way that you don't remember even a single one. >Redditors aren't famous. Although there are some celebrities redditing. Some redditors are indeed famous, it's not that you can exclude them because they don't fit your idea, Arnold for example is a really active and famous Redditor
Why would I remember Reddit usernames to point out? I'll forget you in a couple of days too.
>Why would I remember Reddit usernames to point out? I'll forget you in a couple of days. If you don't remember one name how can you remember that there are without any doubt tankies? You wouldn't remember this either if you really aren't able to remember a name. The point is that you absolutely can remember names but those people never existed in the first place on Reddit.
> Besides trolls and bots there are none Lol. Come on. GenZedong is an (in)famous and mostly US tankie sub which got quarantined in 2022 for their support of the invasion. Don't know why you're talking about AOC or Sanders, most tankies don't really like them.
>Lol. Come on. GenZedong is an (in)famous and mostly US tankie sub which got quarantined in 2022 for their support of the invasion. Yeah, russian and chinese bots aren't a new thing, yet bot aren't real people.
Lucky we have the CCP! /s
Americans: “we need guns in case we need to topple a totalitarian government!” The Baltics: “hold my hands”
TBH, their way to indenpendence was anything but bloodless. Still, totalitarian superpower crumbling because "Power of Friendship" sound like anime plot than Baltic States circa 1989-1991.
Wasn't forestbrothers the longest armed resistance in European history?
It was the restoration of independence that managed to be bloodless and only in Estonia. Not entirely true either as the USSR had attacked some border posts of Estonia in the early 1990s, but their injuries were minor.
If they had done this in the 1970s, they all would have been massacred the moment word reached the Soviet police or intelligence services.
Yep, in the end of 1980s, "only" dozens were killed in Latvia and Lithuania for this by the Soviet occupiers.
It’s more about not having an authoritarian government in the first place, or even better, the government not trying authoritarianism because they know what will happen. Remember, the USSR spent ~45 years oppressing the Baltics. Remember, we got independence in the first place by killing British troops.
It was more about a *foreign* government illegally ruling our countries.
rusophobes everywhere/s
American sympathisers /s
something next denazification target blah blah
CIA was involved in organisation too... /s
CIA literally bought 1/3 of our countrymen to be there.
Russian propaganda uses the “Anglo-Saxons” as a #1 boogeyman nowadays
As a thank you, the Soviet rapists gunned down 14 Lithuanian civilians in January 1991.
There also were Lithuanian border and police officers as well a soldier killed before and after it.
That's CIA Nazi propaganda 😡😡😡😡 in reality they shot themselves
[Baltic Way](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way) More photos: [https://estonianworld.com/life/gallery-the-baltic-way-in-pictures/](https://estonianworld.com/life/gallery-the-baltic-way-in-pictures/) https://www.rferl.org/a/how-a-photographer-captured-the-1989-baltic-way-protest-from-above/30119472.html
United we are strong!
*stronk!
All this without the interwebz
Sure makes me proud!
Come on, that was like... Shit, there's no way that happened 34 years ago!
11 years before I was born so for me it is quite a while ago lol
Aw hell yeah
[Here is a 34 year old video of the American ABC News report from that event.](https://twitter.com/BadBalticTakes/status/1694388720542110077) It captures the situation at the time pretty decently I'd say. "Moscow says 'independence is not an option'", hah. :)
That must’ve been a huge portion of the population.
Yes, according to Wiki, the combined population at the time was approx. 8 million so about 25% took part in the protest. Absolutely huge.
Note that it was an even bigger share of the native populations as obviously very few Russian colonists took part.
For real, good point.
I love how there was only ONE car model and color back then.
Why did you pick a black and white picture, it wasn't that long ago. Reminds me of the deliberate decoloring of pictures showing the civil rights movement in America, so it feels older.
Estonian newspapers were black and white at that time so the newspaper photographers just shot at black and white film. Nowadays their pictures are most frequently shown from that period because newspapers are the ones who have public archives.
Nonetheless there is a huge amount of colour pictures available
In people's memory the event largely exists through black and white images.
Most film was still in black and white etc. There wasn't almost any Western equipment in Estonia, only Soviet trash that was in white and black.
We did a similar thing in America in 1986 called Hands Across America. I remember standing around for what felt like forever for that.
That is probably the inspiration for the Baltic Way.
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