The Baltic Way in Our Memory – Commemoration of Baltic Way Day in Raseiniai

Information from the Raseiniai Regional History Museum: On August 23, 37 years ago, many older people participated in the Baltic Way action in one way or another. This date is deeply etched in our memory, but we want to remember that day again and again. We invite you to this year’s events dedicated to the Baltic Way and European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism: at 10 a.m. Holy Mass at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Raseiniai; at 11:15 a.m. a commemoration in Žemaičio aikštė. From August 23–28, the photography exhibition “Faces of the Baltic Way” will be on display in Žemaičio aikštė. Let us briefly go through the history of this event. Driving along the road from Vilnius toward Riga via Ukmergė and Panevėžys, about forty small-architecture monuments stand by the roadside. They were erected in memory of the Baltic Way. At the eighty-first kilometer from the road, a fairly large boulder is clearly visible, with a mounted metal sun and an inscription on a black stone plaque – “BALTIJOS KELIAS / 1989.08.23 / RASEINIAI” . Every five years, when the anniversaries of the Baltic Way are celebrated, Raseiniai residents who stood on this road in 1989 come to this stone, bring their children and grandchildren, remember, sing, take photos and, as they did then, join hands and form a living chain of people… although a much smaller one. On August 23, 1989, marking the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Lithuanian Reform Movement Sąjūdis, the Latvian and Estonian Popular Fronts invited people to a unique action of peaceful protest. A 650-kilometer chain of people holding hands lined up on the main highway connecting the capitals of the Baltic states – Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn. One month – that was all the time left to prepare everything. The three-kilometer section beyond Ukmergė was assigned to Raseiniai. People from the Raseiniai Sąjūdis took on the organization – they made information cards, looked for transport for participants, and even published a special issue of the Sąjūdis newspaper “Dubysa”. The district newspaper “Naujas rytas” announced the full-day program: at 8 o’clock the raising of the National Flag in Žemaičio aikštė. At 3 p.m. a column of cars is formed near Kalnujai, and at 4 p.m. the column sets off from the Ariogala – Čekiškė junction toward the 265–267 kilometers of the M21 highway. People were invited to travel by their own cars, bringing neighbors and friends. The announcement stated: “We will join hands at 7 p.m. It is desirable that you have small mourning National flags and candles, as well as black ribbons. At 8 p.m. Holy Mass in the churches of Raseiniai district. At 11 p.m. mourning ta