The musicologist who led the first nation out of the Soviet Union
On the night of 11 March 1990, when the act restoring independence passed without a vote against, he declared from the chair that Lithuania was once more an independent state: the first republic to walk out of the USSR, and the Kremlin's first notice of secession.
A Lithuanian musicologist and the leading authority on the painter-composer Ciurlionis, Landsbergis joined the founding of the reform movement Sajudis in 1988 and became its chairman. On 11 March 1990, as chairman of the Lithuanian Supreme Council, he carried the act restoring independence, becoming head of the first republic to declare its departure from the USSR. He held that independence through Moscow's economic blockade and the bloody suppression attempt of January 1991, and later served as speaker of the Seimas and a member of the European Parliament, the patriarch of the Lithuanian right.
Career timeline
1955Graduated from the Lithuanian Conservatory (now Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre)
1978–1990Professor at the Lithuanian Conservatory and Vilnius Pedagogical University
1988–1990Chairman of the Sąjūdis Seimas Council
1989–1990People's Deputy of the USSR Congress of People's Deputies
1990–1992Chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania (head of state)
1993–2003Chairman of the Homeland Union (Conservative Party)
The Sąjūdis philosopher who launched the 2-million-signature campaign demanding Red Army withdrawal
After a long while of hesitation, I made up my mind to see 'what makes socialism.' After a few years it was absolutely clear.
Lithuanian philosopher and politician who taught philosophy at Vilnius University and edited the cultural journal Kultūros barai. He joined the Lithuanian Communist Party in 1973 but broke with it during perestroika; as a founding member of Sąjūdis (1988), he became the movement's theorist and launched a 2-million-signature campaign demanding the withdrawal of the Red Army from Lithuania. He was a central figure in the trilateral planning of the Baltic Way with the Estonian and Latvian popular fronts, and served as deputy prime minister (1990–1991) in the Landsbergis-Prunskienė cabinet. After independence he founded the Lithuanian Centre Union, served in the Seimas (1992–2000), and opposed EU membership as a surrender of sovereignty.
Career timeline
1957–1962Studied philosophy, Vilnius University
1965–1968Editor, Kultūros barai journal
1973–1989Lecturer in philosophy, Vilnius University
1988–1990Founding member and council member, Sąjūdis
1989–1990People's Deputy, USSR Congress of People's Deputies
1990–1991Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania
Ideology secretary of the pro-Moscow Lithuanian Communist Party who proclaimed the 'National Salvation Committee' in the Vilnius crackdown
On 13 January 1991, his recorded voice boomed from the loudspeakers of Soviet BMPs advancing on the Vilnius TV tower: 'Brother Lithuanians! The nationalist and separatist government, which confronted the people, has been overthrown!'
A farmer's son from southern Lithuania, Jermalavičius studied at Vilnius University and the Leningrad Higher Party School, then spent two decades as a researcher at the Party History Institute, publishing on atheism and religion. In 1990 he became ideology secretary of the pro-Moscow Lithuanian Communist Party (CPSU platform), fiercely opposing independence, and on 11 January 1991 he announced the creation of the 'National Salvation Committee of the Lithuanian SSR', which claimed to be the sole legitimate government, providing the political pretext for the Soviet military operation that killed 14 civilians two days later. Convicted in 1999 of anti-state organization and incitement to violently overthrow the government, he served eight years, then moved to Russia where he continued writing in defence of the Soviet system until his death.
Career timeline
1962Joined the CPSU
1970–1990Researcher, Institute of Party History, CPL CC
1990–1991Head of Ideological Department, CC, CPL (CPSU platform)
1994–2002Imprisoned for anti-state activities (8-year sentence)
2002–2012Professor, RSSU; Deputy Chairman, UCP-CPSU Council
She tried to negotiate independence through pragmatism; her resignation removed the last obstacle to the military option
She wept before her cabinet. "It seems we have failed to achieve anything. We are doomed."
Lithuania's first post-independence prime minister (1990–1991), she led the country through the most dramatic ten months of the Soviet collapse. A founding member of Sąjūdis, she rose from deputy prime minister of the Lithuanian SSR to prime minister, and as the 'Amber Lady' (a name the Western press coined after her meetings with Bush, Thatcher, and Kohl) she gave the newborn republic a diplomatic presence. Unlike the uncompromising parliamentary chairman Vytautas Landsbergis, she was a pragmatist who sought negotiated exit, but on 8 January 1991 Gorbachev refused her request for a guarantee of no military action; she resigned the next day. Five days later Soviet forces killed 14 civilians in Vilnius. She narrowly lost the 2004 presidential runoff to Valdas Adamkus and later served as agriculture minister.
Career timeline
1965–1986Instructor and docent in industrial economics, Vilnius University
1986–1988Deputy director, Agricultural Economics Research Institute, Lithuanian SSR
1989–1990Deputy chair, Council of Ministers, Lithuanian SSR
1990.03–1991.01Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania
Economist-statesman of restored independence, Lithuania's shortest-serving premier
On the night of 12–13 January 1991, hearing that buildings in Vilnius were being assaulted, he withdrew with his family to Druskininkai to hide; when he returned to Vilnius on 13 January, Gediminas Vagnorius had already been put in charge of the government.
Albertas Šimėnas was born on 17 February 1950 in Papilių village, Anykščiai district. He studied economics and mathematics at Vilnius University, took a candidate's degree in economics in 1981, worked at a research institute under the State Planning Committee, and lectured afterwards. Elected to the Supreme Council in 1990, he signed the 11 March Act, led the government from 10 to 13 January 1991, and later served as economy minister, as a Seimas member in 1996–2000, and as an executive of Lithuanian Railways.
Career timeline
1950Born in Papiliai, Lithuania
1972–1984Economist and researcher at state planning institutes
1984–1989Lecturer in economics at Vilnius Civil Engineering Institute, associate professor from 1989
1990–1992Member of the Supreme Council, signatory of the 11 March Act
1991Prime Minister of Lithuania (10–13 January)
1991–1992Minister of Economy
1996–2000Member of the Seimas, chair of its Economics Committee
2000–2017Development director (until 2006) and deputy director-general (2006–2017) at Lithuanian Railways
Lithuanian political scientist of Baltic politics and international relations
In his 2007 article "Bloody Sunday", he re-examined Gorbachev's claims of innocence about the January 1991 events in Vilnius and Riga. He concluded that Gorbachev most likely did not order the deaths of innocent people, but embraced the solution that led to that outcome.
Ainius Lasas is a Lithuanian political scientist who studies Baltic politics and international relations. He graduated from LCC International University in 1999, earned a master's diploma in journalism from Vilnius University, and took a PhD in international relations at the University of Washington. After working as a journalist with a national radio and television broadcaster, he was a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford and taught at the University of Bath before returning to Lithuania as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at Kaunas University of Technology. His research spans political psychology, including threat perception, historical memory and conspiracy theories, and political culture, including informal business-state relations.
Career timeline
2000sLithuanian political scientist
2007Author of “Bloody Sunday” in the Journal of Baltic Studies
2008Co-author on Baltic Sea regional security cooperation
2000s–presentResearch on Baltic politics and international relations
1999Graduated from LCC International University (BA, English Language and Literature)
2000sMaster's diploma in journalism, Vilnius University; PhD in international relations, University of Washington
2010European Union and NATO Expansion: Central and Eastern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan)
