Latvia & Estonia: Link Arms & Sing to Freedom

Most people I met in Vilnius had either just come from (or were continuing on to) Latvia and Estonia as well. This seems to be the "posh" thing to do in the Baltics. And — if I am nothing else — I am most certainly posh, so I decided to do the same. Which reminds me that I once ran into Victoria Beckham at a gym in Beverly Hills. She stayed on a treadmill for like 3 hours and then sat in a sauna and ate some cotton balls. But that's a story for another time.

Old Town of Riga, Latvia

I'll keep this post quick because Riga and Tallinn, the respective capitals of Latvia and Estonia, are basically just as beautiful and simultaneously depressing as Vilnius, so there's not too much to report. Nevertheless, I have two historical nuggets for you (so that you can get the upper hand on the next history-snob that you run into at Starbucks when all you want is your non-fat. extra-hot, triple shot, no foam, $5 latte): The Baltic Chain and The Singing Revolution.

Overlooking Tallinn's Old Town

"The Singing Revolution" is a general term that is often used for the series of events that began in 1987 and eventually led to the independence of the three Baltic States in 1990-91. This wildly non-threatening name for a revolution was coined by an Estonian named Heinz Valk who wrote an article about a spontaneous singing demonstration that occurred at the Tallinn Song Festival Arena in June of 1988. Nearly 300,000 Estonians (1/4 of the country's population) attended the festival, and without any formal organization began to spontaneously sing their national anthem, which had been forbidden during Soviet rule. This peaceful demonstration and resistance became one of the symbols for the push for Baltic independence more generally. As my Estonian tour guide put so eloquently: "The Russians had tanks, but we had musical talent, and somehow that worked for us. But, actually though, it was really stupid because they could have totally killed us." Well said. (*side-note: this statement is completely representative of the self-deprecating humor of Estonians, which I find to be utterly charming.)

The culmination of a wave of non-violent protests throughout the Baltics occurred in August of 1989 when two million people from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia joined hands to form a human chain that spanned over 350 miles across the three capitals of the Baltic States. They linked hands for 15 minutes at 7:00pm. Considering that this area has a collective population of just over 6.5 million people, this was an unprecedented turnout. So many people showed up, in fact, that there wasn't enough room in the chain for everyone, so many people formed their own small chains to contribute to the protest.

Baltic Way, 1989. I obviously did not take this picture...
nor do I own the rights to it!

They chose this date — August 23, 1989 — as the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact —an agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany that (in it's simplest form) divided Eastern Europe between the two powers. The Baltic Chain was created as a peaceful protest meant to draw international attention to the Baltic's push for independence. The protest meant to emphasize that the independence movements of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were not just political, but also a crucial moral issue in Eastern Europe. Within a year of the protest, Lithuania became the first of the Baltic states to declare independence on March 11, 1990. Estonia and Latvia followed suit in the weeks to follow (their declarations of independence, however, were not recognized until late 1991).

So those are your historical nuggets. It was incredibly cold in Estonia and my visa ran out, so it was time to kick it somewhere a bit warmer. Buh-bye Baltics, hello Balkans!