“A rally was held on August 23, 1987 at the Mickevičius monument in Vilnius to mark the 48th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop secret protocols. It was the first rally unsanctioned by the Soviet authorities during the entire Soviet occupation period and the first public anti-Soviet demonstration after the Spring of Kaunas in 1972,” Lietuvos Sąjūdis (Lithuanian Movement), the organizer of the commemoration program, said.
“The August 23 rally marked the symbolic start of a new epoch and of Lithuania’s road to Sąjūdis and Independence,” it said.
The program includes a conference on The Consequences of the Soviet-Nazi Pact for the 21st Century hosted by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania in Vilnius and a rally at the Mickevičius moment in the capital in the evening.
Lithuania also marks on Wednesday the Day of Black Ribbon and Baltic Way.
On August 23, 1989, around 2 million in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined hands in a 650-kilometer-long human chain stretching from Tallinn to Vilnius to mark 50 years since the signing of the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and secret protocols that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence.
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