The Baltic Way Protest, Estonia On August 23, 1989 over two million people joined hands and formed a human chain across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.  This peaceful protest marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which divided Eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and the USSR, forcing the Baltic states into the USSR.  (Related: Between Shades of Gray) For 49 years, the Baltics had been under Soviet rule but the Iron Curtain was falling.  In less than a year, all three Baltic republics would declare independence and break away from the USSR.

The Baltic Way Protest, Estonia

On August 23, 1989 over two million people joined hands and formed a human chain across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.  This peaceful protest marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which divided Eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and the USSR, forcing the Baltic states into the USSR.  (Related: Between Shades of Gray)

For 49 years, the Baltics had been under Soviet rule but the Iron Curtain was falling.  In less than a year, all three Baltic republics would declare independence and break away from the USSR.