January Events (Lithuania)

The Baltic states, including Lithuania, were forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. This move was never recognized by Western powers.

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 Communist Party of Lithuania, on the CPSU platform.

The Soviet Union imposed an economic blockade between April and late June.[3] 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".[4]

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.[5] According to Human Rights Watch, the Soviet government had mounted a propaganda campaign designed to further ethnic strife.[3]

In protection of the rallied Russophone population, the Soviet Union sent elite armed forces and special service units.[4]

On 8 January the conflict between Chairman of the Parliament Vytautas Landsbergis and the more pragmatic Prime Minister Kazimira Prunskienė culminated in her resignation.[3] Prunskienė met with Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev on that day. He refused her request for assurances that military action would not be taken.[3]

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 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.

Burial ceremony of the victims

The memorial to the victims near the TV tower. The crosses have since been moved inside the TV tower.

A the memorial wall near the TV tower

In all, thirteen Lithuanians were killed by the Soviet army. An additional civilian died at the scene due to a heart attack, and one Soviet soldier was killed by friendly fire. All victims, except the soldier, were awarded the Order of the Cross of Vytis (the Knight) on January 15, 1991.

1. Loreta Asanavičiūtė (b. 1967) – the only female victim. Worked as a seamstress in a factory. Died in hospital after she fell under a tank. Noted for her shy character, she became the most famous victim.
2. Virginijus Druskis (b. 1969) – student at Kaunas University of Technology. Was shot in the chest.
3. Darius Gerbutavičius (b. 1973) – student at a vocational school. Was shot five times (legs, arms and back).
4. Rolandas Jankauskas (b. 1969) – student. He was hit in the face by an explosive device. His mother was a native Russian from Altai Krai.
5. Rimantas Juknevičius (b. 1966) – native of Marijampolė, senior at Kaunas University of Technology. He was shot.
6. Alvydas Kanapinskas (b. 1952) – worker at a Kėdainiai biochemical factory. He was shot.
7. Algimantas Petras Kavoliukas (b. 1939) – butcher at a grocery store. He was wounded by a rubber bullet on January 11, 1991, when he protested against the Soviet troops near the Press House. On January 13, he was hit by a tank. According to some witnesses, he was the first victim killed that night.
8. Vytautas Koncevičius (b. 1941) – shopman. Died in the hospital about a month after the attacks. Had been deported to Siberia with his family in 1945. He was shot.
9. Vidas Maciulevičius (b. 1966) – locksmith. Died from bullet wounds to the face, neck and spine.
10. Titas Masiulis (b. 1962) – Kaunas resident who was shot in the chest.
11. Alvydas Matulka (b. 1955) – Rokiškis resident who died from a heart attack.
12. Apolinaras Juozas Povilaitis (b. 1937) – metalworker at an institute. He died from bullet wounds to the heart, right lung, upper arm and thigh.
13. Ignas Šimulionis (b. 1973) – high school student, a friend of Gerbutavičius. Was shot in the head.
14. Vytautas Vaitkus (b. 1943) – plumber at a meat plant. Died from bullet wounds to the chest.
15. Viktor Viktorovich Shatskikh (b. 1961) – Lieutenant Group 'A' Service Office MTO 7 of the KGB. Mortally wounded by a 5.45  mm bullet passing through a slit in his body armour (died from a ricochet bullet shot by a fellow soldier inside the Lithuanian National Radio and Television building). He was awarded the Order of Red Banner posthumously.

12 of the 14 victims were buried in the Antakalnis Cemetery in Vilnius. Titas Masiulis was buried in Petrašiūnai Cemetery in his native Kaunas, Rimantas Juknevičius was buried in the Marijampolė cemetery.

In the book of KGB Major General Vyacheslav Shironin KGB-CIA. Secret Springs of Perestroika he claims that in 1990, an American citizen Andrew Eiva arrived in Lithuania as a consultant to the Landsbergis government.[8] He studied the possibility of training the partisan movement, planned to open a "ranger" course, and also traveled to areas closed to foreigners.[8] In April 1990, for these violations, he was denied entry to the USSR, but in December of the same year, Eyva again arrived in Lithuania.[8] Together with him, Leonardo Hof and a group of CIA agents arrived in Vilnius, who soon appeared surrounded by Landsbergis.[9] According to journalist Giedrius Grabauskas, Rita Dapkutė was also associated with the CIA, who arrived in Lithuania from the United States in December 1986 and in 1988 became the head of the Sąjūdis Information Center.[9] She raised funds for the movement, some of which were transferred from the United States through the bank account of Kęstutis Urba, who also had connections with American intelligence.[9]

Commemoration ceremony near the victims' graves.

Immediately after the attacks, the Supreme Council issued a letter to the people of the Soviet Union and to the rest of the world denouncing the attacks and calling for foreign governments to recognise that the Soviet Union had committed an act of aggression against a sovereign nation. Following the first news reports from Lithuania, the government of Norway appealed to the United Nations. The government of Poland expressed their solidarity with the people of Lithuania and denounced the actions of the Soviet army.

The reaction from the United States government was somewhat muted as the U.S. itself was heavily preoccupied with the imminent onset of Operation Desert Storm against Iraq and worried about possible wider consequences if they were to offend the Soviets at that critical juncture. President George H.W. Bush denounced the incident, but was notably careful not to criticize Gorbachev directly, instead directing his remarks at "Soviet leaders."

After the events, President Gorbachev said Lithuanian "workers and intellectuals" complaining of anti-Soviet broadcasts had tried to talk to the republic's parliament, but were refused and beaten. Then, he said, they asked the military commander in Vilnius to provide protection. Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, Interior Minister Boris Pugo and Gorbachev all asserted that no one in Moscow gave orders to use force in Vilnius. Yazov said that nationalists were trying to form what he called a bourgeois dictatorship. Pugo said on national television that the demonstrators had opened fire first.[10]

During the following day, meetings of support took place in many cities (Kiev, Riga, Tallinn).

Litas commemorative coin dedicated to the 5th anniversary of the January 13 events

Although occupation and military raids continued for several months following the attacks, there were no large open military encounters after January 13. Strong Western reaction and the actions of Soviet democratic forces put the President and the government of the Soviet Union in an awkward position. This influenced future Lithuanian-Russian negotiations and resulted in the signing of a treaty on January 31.

During a visit by the official delegation of Iceland to Lithuania on January 20, Foreign Minister Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson said: "My government is seriously considering the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations with the Republic of Lithuania." Iceland kept its promise, and on February 4, 1991, just three weeks after the attacks, it recognized the Republic of Lithuania as a sovereign independent state, and diplomatic relations were established between the two nations.

These events are considered some of the main factors that led to the overwhelming victory of independence supporters in a referendum on February 9, 1991. Turnout was 84.73% of registered voters; 90.47% of them voted in favour of the full and total independence of Lithuania.

Streets in the neighbourhood of the TV tower were later renamed after 9 victims of the attack. A street in Titas Masiulis' native Kaunas was named after him, likewise a street in Marijampolė after its native, Rimantas Juknevičius, a street in Kėdainiai after Alvydas Kanapinskas, and a street in Pelėdnagiai (near Kėdainiai) after Vytautas Koncevičius.

The Russian Federation still claims that the Soviet troops did not use their weapons at all.

From the interview of Mikhail Golovatov, ex-commander of "Alpha-group": "The weapons and ammunition that were given to us, were handed over at the end of the operation, so it can be established that not a single shot was fired from our side. But at the time of the assault, our young officer Victor Shatskikh was mortally wounded in the back. As we have already seized the TV tower and went outside, we came under fire from the windows of the neighbouring houses, and leaving from there we had to hide behind the armoured vehicles."[11]

The Russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov recorded video footage commemorating Soviet spetsnaz who participated in the events and called it "Nashi".[4] Later in Russia appeared the Russian chauvinist political organization Nashi (not to be confused with later Nashi youth movement).

• Antakalnis Cemetery
• Baltic Way
• Black January
• The Barricades (Latvia)
• Autumn of Nations
• Sąjūdis
• Singing Revolution
• Soviet OMON assaults on Lithuanian border posts
• Vilnius TV Tower

Wikimedia Commons has media related to January Events (Lithuania).

• (in Lithuanian) www.laisve15.lt – portal dedicated to 15th anniversary of massacre.
• www.lrs.lt – collection of photo, video and other testimonies.
• "On This Day 13 January, 1991: Bloodshed at Lithuanian TV station". BBC News.
• Loreta Asanavičiūtė’s Story
• (in Ukrainian) Russia refused to question the former president of Soviet Union
• (in Ukrainian) Polishchuk, M. Lithuania, be free! Recollections of a student defense squad participant in the 1991 Winter Vilnius events. Ukrayinska Pravda. 18 January 2011