Word: lithuanians
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Three days earlier, in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, a meeting of some of Gorbachev's much more determined opponents had added special urgency to his demand for expanded authority. As results of local elections flowed into the headquarters of Sajudis, the Lithuanian popular front, the architects of the independence movement gathered to take stock. The election for the republic's parliament had amounted to a referendum on secession from the Soviet Union. Backing a candidate in each district, Sajudis captured 72 of the 90 seats decided. "If this isn't a landslide, what is?" asked Algimantas Cekuolis, a Communist...
What exactly is the difference between the desire of the Lithuanian people for greater independence and that of the Azerbaijani people? The way it has been played in the American media, Lithuanians protested in a "peaceful and organized way," while the Azerbaijanis, "passionate" and "irrational" Muslims as they are, protested violently...
...point in shuffling the Politburo if the institution's days are numbered anyway. Current plans call for the creation of a Central Committee Presidium of about 30 members, presided over by a chairman and two deputies. In a bid to halt the secessionist trend begun by the Lithuanian Communists, the Presidium would include representatives from all 15 republics...
...conservatives exacted their revenge on the last day of the plenum when the question of how to deal with wayward Lithuanian party members came up. Gorbachev struck a conciliatory tone, urging his Lithuanian comrades to suspend their decision to break away from Moscow headquarters and submit their program for the consideration of the party congress this summer. The central party ought to render assistance to Lithuanian party members who remain loyal, he said, but accept delegates from both the regular and breakaway groups to this summer's congress...
Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze took an even bolder line, urging the plenum to understand the Lithuanian moves "in the context of European and world affairs." Said he: "I am resolutely against any sanctions." That was certainly not the view of Ligachev and other party veterans. They pushed for a change of wording that would "condemn the actions of the incumbent leadership of the Lithuanian party, aimed at splitting and weakening the unity of the Communist Party and the Soviet federation." A compromise was fashioned, incorporating the criticisms of the Ligachev camp and Lithuanian party loyalists...