Baltic Way (Baltijos kelias) - historical event on 23 Aug 1989

20 years ago I was one of a few lucky people who could see this amazing historical event (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way) happening from the air. The live line of people connected three Baltic capitals - Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn. About 600 km in total. It marked the 50th anniversary of the MolotovRibbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The pact and its secret protocols divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and led to the occupation of the Baltic states in 1940.

We flew from Kaunas airport on a single engine aircraft AN-2. The whole video was about 1 hour long, filmed by operator Jonas Klemanas. I have cut 6:30 minutes out of it.

This short video starts at Kaunas Polytechnic Institute (nowadays Kaunas University of Technology), where people gather to move to A2 road in order to join the protest.

On 2:23 min. you may see all our group in the small plane. Later, on 2:54-3:03 you may see my house in Kaunas, Partizanu street and my 37th secondary school (now A. Stulginskio secondary school).

Later on through the video you may see crowds of people on A2 road between Ukmerge and Panevezys. But sometimes (for example on 4:12-4:45) you may spot an empty intervals on the road. On 4:46-5:13 you may see motorway A2 under construction.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Baltijos
• kelias
• Baltic
• way
• Jonas
• Klemanas

[paulmattt]

So much was accomplished since then...