Word: lithuania
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Western observers concurred that a full-scale invasion was unlikely. "What we see now is Gorbachev raising the ante in what will be hard and drawn-out negotiations," said an American diplomat in Moscow. "Lithuania has a united population on the issue of independence, and I don't think they'll back down. And Moscow has pretty much ruled out force." At independence ceremonies in Namibia last week, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze said, "We are against the use of force in any region, and we are particularly against the ^ use of force domestically...
...Baltic republics present a special dilemma for Gorbachev, since they enjoyed independence between the two World Wars, before being consigned to Moscow by the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 -- an accord the Kremlin has belatedly admitted was unjust. Thus, Lithuania, as well as Estonia and Latvia, claims it has been occupied by the U.S.S.R. for the past 50 years. Gorbachev's saber rattling aside, there is every indication he believes the three republics have the right to secede, though only after Moscow has agreed to the terms of the separation. He reiterated the point last week at a meeting with...
Others criticized Lithuania for its refusal to consider Gorbachev's offer of membership in a Soviet federation, with full autonomy for each republic. "If Lithuania were willing to remain in the Soviet Union," said a senior White House official, "Gorbachev would pretty much let them do what they wanted to on the economic side." But with positions hardening and Gorbachev worried about losing face, danger was growing that he might be tempted to use a time- tested Soviet solution to uprisings by impudent satellites: intimidation with tanks and guns...
...younger Vytautas, 57, is spearheading the effort to disentangle Lithuania from a union that it never sought. "National feeling is strong and deep in Lithuania," Landsbergis wrote last month. "For centuries our land has been dominated by grasping neighbors...
...from a long line of intellectuals, the new President is only the latest Landsbergis to agitate for an independent homeland. His maternal grandfather produced the first grammar of modern Lithuanian, while his paternal grandfather was exiled to Russia for his opposition to czarist rule. Landsbergis' father Vytautas, one of Lithuania's leading architects, was a volunteer in the fight for independence in 1918 and, with his elder son Gabrielius, took part in an attempt to create an independent Lithuania during World...