Word: lithuanian
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Early Saturday morning, a column of more than 100 military vehicles, including 59 tanks, rumbled into the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. As residents rushed to their windows, the convoy clattered by the parliament building, where legislators were toiling through the night to put the final touches on the creation of an independent government. Though the caravan quickly disappeared behind the gates of an army base in Vilnius, the ominous parade was obviously intended to intimidate the Lithuanians. But the ploy only persuaded the legislators to prepare for the worst. They immediately passed an emergency resolution to transfer their authority...
Increasingly concerned that events might spin out of control, the Bush Administration stopped soft-pedaling its support for the Lithuanians and made it clear to Gorbachev that military intervention would seriously damage both perestroika and East-West relations. Said Bush: "Any attempt to coerce or intimidate or forcibly intervene against the Lithuanian people is bound to backfire...
...According to the Soviet news agency TASS, additional Soviet troops were sent across the Lithuanian border to "ensure the rights" of ethnic Russians and Poles, who make up almost 20% of the republic's residents. Some 30,000 troops were already stationed in Lithuania...
...Gorbachev gave the Lithuanians two days to rescind a law creating a volunteer force to guard the republic's ports and borders. At the same time, some 1,500 Lithuanian deserters from the Soviet army were ordered to return to their units by Saturday. Landsbergis responded by urging deserters to seek sanctuary in churches...
From that point the confrontation escalated. Leaflets scattered over Vilnius from helicopters urged the Lithuanians to abide by the Soviet constitution. Unscheduled military maneuvers were staged in and around the rebel state. Squads of security police arrived in the eastern Lithuanian town of Ignalina to reinforce the perimeter of one of the Soviet Union's largest nuclear power plants. These moves were accompanied by a shower of anti-Lithuanian decrees from Moscow. The most ominous was a directive from Gorbachev ordering Lithuanians to turn in their firearms. He also instructed the KGB to step up security on the borders...