News

On the 13th of January, the Lithuanian Freedom Defenders Day, Lithuanian diplomatic representations abroad and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will join the civil campaign “Memory is Alive and Manifest”.

In the break of day lights will be turned off and candles lit in the windows of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in the Republic of Latvia, commemorating the Lithuanian freedom defenders, who perished during the tragic events of the 13th of January 1991.

This campaign aims to attract people’s attention to the important date in Lithuania’s history, invites to make a pause and remember those dramatic, but victorious days, when Lithuanian citizens defended their independence.

The campaign is organized for the third time. 420 Lithuanian comprehensive schools, the Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania, the Ministries of National Defence and the Interior, their divisions and a number of health care institutions will also take part in it.

On the 13th of January, Lithuania marks the Day of Freedom Defenders. Fourteen people were killed and hundreds were injured during the attempt by the Soviet troops and the KGB to overthrow Lithuania’s legitimate authorities on the 13th of January 1991. Although the Soviet troops managed to seize the TV Tower and the Lithuanian National Radio and Television building, they failed to take over the premises of the Supreme Council (the Reconstituent Seimas), as thousands of civilians were guarding the Seimas.

The adoption of the independence declaration by the Lithuanian Reconstituent Seimas on 11 March 1990, after 50 years of the Soviet rule, triggered a chain reaction, which led to the collapse of the Soviet empire in the fall of 1991.