Twenty-eight years ago, on March 11, 1990, The Ukrainian Weekly’s editorial celebrated Lithuania’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, which had sparked threats of violence and military force from Moscow.
The Lithuanian Supreme Soviet, “expressing the will of the people,” stated that it “declares and solemnly proclaims the restoration of the exercise of sovereign powers of the Lithuanian state which were annulled by an alien power in 1940.” The Parliament went on to declare that the February 16, 1918, Act of Independence of the Supreme Council of Lithuania and the May 15, 1920, Constituent Assembly Resolution on the restoration of a democratic Lithuanian state “have never lost their legal force and are the constitutional foundation of the Lithuanian state.”