This article is about the revolution in the Baltic states in the late 1980s. For the 2006 film about the revolution in the Baltic states, see The Singing Revolution.
Singing Revolution
Part of the Revolutions of 1989 and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The Baltic Way human chain in 1989
Date
14 June 1987 – 6 September 1991 (1987-06-14 – 1991-09-06) (4 years, 2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
Location
Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
Caused by
Soviet occupation of the Baltic States
Political repression
Economic stagnation
Nationalist discontent
Sovietization
Russification
Religious persecution
Goals
Independence of the Baltic States
End of Communist rule
Democratization
Civil rights
Economic reform
Methods
Protests
Demonstrations
Strikes
Rioting
Civil disobedience
Human chain
Civil resistance
Barricades
Resulted in
Decisive Baltic victory as part of the end of the Cold War
Restoration of the independence of the Baltic States
Declarations of state sovereignty of Estonia (18 November 1988), Lithuania (18 May 1989), and Latvia (28 July 1989)
Declarations of independence of Lithuania (11 March 1990), Estonia (20 August 1991), and Latvia (21 August 1991)
Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic States (6 September 1991)
Restoration of democratic rule
Withdrawal of Soviet and then Russian troops from Lithuania by 1993, and Latvia and Estonia by 1994
Parties
Estonia
Popular Front of Estonia
Estonian Citizens' Committee
Congress of Estonia
Heritage Society
Estonian National Independence Party
Estonian Social Democratic Independence Party
Communist Party (pro-independence faction)
Estonian Social Democratic Party
Latvia
Popular Front of Latvia
Helsinki-86
Latvian National Independence Movement
Citizens' Congress
Communist Party (pro-independence faction)
Latvian Social Democratic Party
Lithuania
Sąjūdis
Lithuanian Liberty League
Communist Party (pro-independence faction)
Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania
Lithuanian Riflemen's Union
Soviet Union
Soviet Army
KGB
OMON
Interfront
Communist Party of Lithuania (pro-Moscow faction)
Yedinstvo
Communist Party of Latvia (pro-Moscow faction)
International Front of the Working People of Latvia
Communist Party of Estonia (pro-Moscow faction)
Intermovement
Lead figures
Lennart Meri
Tunne Kelam
Edgar Savisaar
Mart Laar
Trivimi Velliste
Marju Lauristin
Alo Mattiisen
Ülo Nugis
Anatolijs Gorbunovs
Ivars Godmanis
Eduards Berklavs
Einars Repše
Dainis Īvāns
Konstantins Pupurs
Romualds Ražuks
Vytautas Landsbergis
Kazimira Prunskienė
Albertas Šimėnas
Gediminas Vagnorius
Audrius Butkevičius
Algirdas Brazauskas
Arvydas Juozaitis
Mikhail Gorbachev
Vadim Bakatin
Dmitry Yazov
Vladislav Achalov
Mikhail Golovatov
Vladimir Uskhopchik
Vladimir Antyufeyev
Boris Pugo
Alfrēds Rubiks
Mykolas Burokevičius
Ringaudas Songaila
Karl Vaino
Part of a series on
Political revolution
By class
Bourgeois
Communist
Counter-revolutionary
Democratic
Proletarian
By other characteristic
Colour
From above
Nonviolent
Passive
Permanent
Social
Wave
Methods
Boycott
Civil disobedience
Civil disorder
Civil war
Class conflict
Coup d'état
Demonstration
Guerrilla warfare
Insurgency
Mutiny
Nonviolent resistance
Protest
Rebellion
Riot
Samizdat
Strike action
Tax resistance
Terror
Examples
English
Atlantic
American
Brabant
Liège
French
Haitian
Spanish American
Serbian
Greek
1820
1830
July
Belgian
Texas
1848
Italian states
February
German
Hungarian
Eureka
Bulgarian unification
Philippine
Iranian
First
Second
Young Turk
Mexican
Chinese
Xinhai
Communist
Cultural
1917–1923
Russian
German
Siamese
Spanish
August
Guatemalan
Hungarian (1956)
Cuban
Rwandan
Nicaraguan
Argentine
Carnation
Saur
People Power
1989
Yogurt
Velvet
Romanian
Singing
Bolivarian
Bulldozer
Rose
Orange
Tulip
Kyrgyz
Arab Spring
Tunisian
Egyptian
Yemeni
Euromaidan
Second Arab Spring
Sudanese
Politics portal
v
t
e
The Singing Revolution[a] was a series of events from 1987 to 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of the Cold War.[1][2] The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, Heinz Valk, in an article published a week after the 10–11 June 1988 spontaneous mass evening singing demonstrations at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.[3]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
^Thomson, Clare (1992). The Singing Revolution: A Political Journey through the Baltic States. London: Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-3459-1.
^Ginkel, John (September 2002). "Identity Construction in Latvia's "Singing Revolution": Why inter-ethnic conflict failed to occur". Nationalities Papers. 30 (3): 403–433. doi:10.1080/0090599022000011697. S2CID 154588618.
^Vogt, Henri (2005). Between Utopia and Disillusionment: A Narrative of the Political Transformation in Eastern Europe. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1571818959. Retrieved 1 January 2022 – via Google Books.
and 28 Related for: Singing Revolution information
The SingingRevolution was a series of events from 1987 to 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries...
The SingingRevolution is a 2006 documentary film created by Americans James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty about the nonviolent SingingRevolution in...
documentary film about the Soviet Union The SingingRevolution, a documentary film about the SingingRevolution Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism...
leader of Panama and surrenders to the American forces. January 11 – SingingRevolution: In the Lithuania SSR, 300,000 demonstrate for independence. January...
national awakening Latvian National Awakening Finnish nationalism SingingRevolution Romantic nationalism Russian nationalism German nationalism Raun,...
A nonviolent revolution is a revolution conducted primarily by unarmed civilians using tactics of civil resistance, including various forms of nonviolent...
representatives and the government-in-exile. Following the bloodless Estonian "SingingRevolution" of 1988–1990, the nation's de facto independence from the Soviet...
of military force to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. January 13 – SingingRevolution: Soviet forces storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence, killing...
Russians became the most prominent minority in the country. The peaceful SingingRevolution started in 1987 among the Baltic Soviet republics and ended with the...
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; Hungarian: 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted...
Revolution of 1990 Peaceful Revolution "die Wende" (Germany 1989-90) Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989) SingingRevolution (Baltic countries: Estonia...
The Carnation Revolution (Portuguese: Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April (Portuguese: 25 de Abril), was a military coup by military officers...
broadcasts were more popular than Soviet-Estonian offerings until the SingingRevolution, with many Estonians enjoying Dallas and other programs portraying...
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China...
previous March (Old Style: February). The October Revolution was thus the second of the two Russian Revolutions of the turbulent year of 1917. Initially, the...
Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos demokratinė darbo partija, LDDP) was the renamed Communist Party of Lithuania. It was a political...
National Movement frees Armenia from Soviet rule. 1988–1991: The SingingRevolution, bloodless overthrow of communist rule in Soviet-occupied Estonia...
gaining full independence which also marked the major conclusion of the Revolutions of 1989 and the end of the Cold War. In the aftermath of the Cold War...
states to regain their independence in the previous years of the singingrevolution, an attack on one of them was perceived as an attack on all of them...
Olympics 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Gulf War Fall SingingRevolution Polish Round Table Agreement Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall January Events...
role in fifty of sixty-seven transitions from authoritarianism. The "Singingrevolution" (1989–1991) in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, led to the three Baltic...
000 bounty on the head of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie. SingingRevolution: After 44 years, the Estonian flag is raised at the Pikk Hermann tower...
Sinijärv. The social background of ethnofuturism was connected with the SingingRevolution movement in Estonia in the late 1980s, after which the philosophy...
Olympics 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Gulf War Fall SingingRevolution Polish Round Table Agreement Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall January Events...
from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. In 1989, a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries—in Poland and Hungary in particular—caused...
Czechoslovakia remained a Soviet satellite state until 1989 when the Velvet Revolution peacefully ended the communist regime; the last Soviet troops left the...
flagship communist state. The Soviet Union's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, which saw the Bolsheviks overthrow the Russian Provisional Government...
The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789, and ended with the coup of 18...
Global Information
Politics portal