Moscow Protest Against Repression in Lithuania
Most articles in the historical column tell the history of Russia or the USSR from the perspective of its “peripheral” nations, so ethnic Russians are presented in them as imperialists and colonists. However, among Russians, there are individuals and movements fighting against imperialism. It is not just about today’s allies of Ukraine; in the past, there were moments when a significant part of Russian society stood up against imperialism, at least briefly. Although some participants and organizers, led by Boris Yeltsin, later changed their minds in this regard, protests for the independence of the Baltic states took place in several Russian cities in January 1991. Their peak was a demonstration on Moscow’s Manezhskaya Square on January 20, 1991. Foreign media also reported on it. Serge Schmemann wrote about them in the issue of the New York Times from the following day, the translation of which we present here.
More than 100,000 people marched to the Kremlin under a cold gray sky to condemn the bloodshed in Lithuania and the increasingly hardline stance of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
Chanting “Dictatorship won’t help!” and “Communists out!”, a huge crowd filled the wide Manezhskaya Square in front of the Kremlin with banners and the state flags of Russia and the Baltic republics, in the largest demonstration by liberals yet against Mr. Gorbachev’s new course.
Boris N. Yeltsin, President of the Russian Republic and spiritual leader of liberal and radical forces, did not appear due to concerns for his safety. But an advisor read a strong statement in which Mr. Yeltsin declared: “The danger of dictatorship, which key leaders of our society warned against, is becoming a reality.” Mr. Gorbachev and his circle, he declared, “have practically rejected his former policy and openly support reactionary forces.”
A Call for a “Responsible Decision”
“We appeal to all democratic forces, parties, and movements to whom the fate of Russia is dear: the time has come to make a responsible decision; the country expects confirmation that you are against the restoration of the old order,” Yeltsin’s statement read.
The crowd repeatedly erupted in cheers and chants of “Resign! Resign!” along with lawmakers from the parliaments of Moscow, the Russian Federation, and the Soviet Union, who demanded the resignation of Mr. Gorbachev and the ministers in charge of military and state security.
The turnout for the protests, after many months of relative calm between liberals and government supporters, was evidence of a feeling that the intervention in Lithuania convincingly confirmed the predictions of Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze when he announced his resignation last month and warned of the onset of dictatorship.
The daytime demonstration occurred before Soviet commandos attacked the Latvian government ministry. Mr. Gorbachev’s support for military action in Lithuania was followed by his call for the restoration of press control, the departure of his liberal advisors, and growing conservatism in state news organizations, which led liberals to turn against the man they once hailed as the redeemer of their country. Many slogans and speeches were aimed at state radio and television and its new chairman, Leonid Kravchenko.
A Minute of Silence
The demonstration also underlined the growing polarization of the nation between the nationalist, conservative right and the liberal, reformist left. In the Soviet context, the positions held by the parties often reversed the positions of the left and right in the West. Here, for example, it was the liberals who demanded a free-market economy and chanted condemnations against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, while conservatives called for the preservation of socialism and attacked the Gulf War.
The main issue, however, was the survival of the incipient democratization, the threat to which speakers spoke of one after another.
Yuri N. Afanasyev, a member of the Supreme Soviet and one of Mr. Gorbachev’s fiercest critics, opened the rally with demands for a “decisive condemnation of the bloody attack in Vilnius” and a “decisive ‘no’ to the reactionary course of Gorbachev and his team.”
Mr. Afanasyev called for a minute of silence for the “victims during the time of perestroika” and invoked the names of places where bloodshed had occurred: Vilnius, Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Alma, Central Asia, Alma-Ata, Altai.
Reports from Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan Republic, stated that hundreds of thousands of people gathered in a hilltop park to commemorate more than 100 victims of the Soviet army, which invaded the city a year ago to regain control. The route along which Soviet troops moved through barricades erected by nationalist protesters was strewn with red roses.
Demonstrations against the repression in Lithuania were also reported in the cities of Leningrad, Kyiv, Sverdlovsk, Donetsk, Chișinău, and Kaliningrad. The demonstration in Moscow was called by Democratic Russia, a coalition of reformers who declared they were forming a political opposition to resist conservative forces in the center and support Yeltsin’s agenda of far-reaching changes. A resolution adopted by loud acclamation demanded legal action against “those who attempted to overthrow the governments in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, including the leaders of the ‘National Salvation Committee’.” It was the appeal of an anonymous committee of that name that prompted the Soviet army’s attack on the communications center in Vilnius last week, and a similarly named group has now declared that it has taken state power in Latvia, although no steps to carry out this demand were reported.
The demonstration began at 11:30 AM, when protesters gathered in several squares, then marched along the wide ring boulevard and down Kalinin Avenue toward the heart of the city. Protesters passed the United States Embassy, newly surrounded by massive concrete blocks, and shouted insults at a handful of protesters demonstrating there against operations in the Persian Gulf as they marched.
A Dense Crowd of Protesters
At Manezhskaya Square, which adjacent to Red Square behind the Kremlin walls, speakers appealed to protesters not to attempt to enter Red Square itself or march on the Communist Party headquarters about half a mile away. Police allowed entry to the square only to visitors of the Lenin Mausoleum. The thin line of visitors in the empty square contrasted sharply with the dense crowd in Manezhskaya Square. Uniformed KGB forces strictly ordered visitors to move quickly and remain silent as they passed Lenin’s wax figure, even as echoes of anti-communist chanting drifted from the adjacent demonstration.
Despite the organizers’ appeals, as the main demonstration drew to a close after four hours, some protesters marched to the Communist Party headquarters, a nondescript gray building on Old Square. Trucks full of police quickly moved to the scene to drive them away from the building, and the march dispersed without incident.
Translated from English by Pavel Veselský
Translation without additions or edits. The text does not express the position of the editorial office.
