Human Chain
The chain connected the three Baltic capitals – Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn. It ran from Vilnius along the A2 highway through Ukmergė to Panevėžys and then along the Via Baltica through Pasvalys, Bauska, Riga, Ainaži, Pärnu to Tallinn. The demonstrators peacefully linked hands for 15 minutes at 19:00 local time (16:00 GMT). Later, a number of local gatherings and protests took place. In Vilnius, about 5,000 people gathered in the Cathedral Square, holding candles and singing national songs, including Tautiška giesmė. Elsewhere, priests held masses or rang church bells. Leaders of the Estonian and Latvian Popular Fronts gathered on the border between their two republics for a symbolic funeral ceremony, in which a giant black cross was set alight. The protesters held candles and pre-war national flags decorated with black ribbons in memory of the victims of the Soviet terror: Forest Brothers, deportees to Siberia, political prisoners, and other "enemies of the people."
In Moscow's Pushkin Square, ranks of special riot police were employed when a few hundred people tried to stage a sympathy demonstration. TASS said 75 were detained for breaches of the peace, petty vandalism, and other offenses. About 13,000 demonstrated in Moldova which was also affected by the secret protocol. A demonstration was held by the Baltic émigré and German sympathizers in front of the Soviet embassy in Bonn, Germany.
| Measure | Estonia | Latvia | Lithuania |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total population (1989) | 1.6M | 2.7M | 3.7M |
| Indigenous population (1959) | 75% | 62% | 79% |
| Indigenous population (1989) | 61% | 52% | 80% |
Most estimates of the number of participants vary between one and two million. Reuters News reported the following day that about 700,000 Estonians and 1,000,000 Lithuanians joined the protests. The Latvian Popular Front estimated an attendance of 400,000. Prior to the event, the organisers expected an attendance of 1,500,000 out of the about 8,000,000 inhabitants of the three states. Such expectations predicted 25–30% turnout among the native population. According to the official Soviet numbers, provided by TASS, there were 300,000 participants in Estonia and nearly 500,000 in Lithuania. To make the chain physically possible, an attendance of approximately 200,000 people was required in each state. Video footage taken from airplanes and helicopters showed an almost continuous line of people across the countryside.
Read more about this topic: Baltic Way, Protest
Other articles related to "human chain":
A human chain is a form of demonstration in which people link their arms as a show of political solidarity.
The number of demonstrators involved in a human chain is often disputed; the organizers of the human chain often report higher numbers than governmental authorities.
Notable human chains, in chronological order, have included:
| Date | Event | Location | Number of participants | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Berkshire, England, United Kingdom | 40,000 - 80,000 | Protested siting of American nuclear missiles in West Germany. | |
| May 25, 1986 | Hands Across America | Across United States | 5,000,000 | Charitable event to raise money to fight hunger. |
| August 23, 1989 | Baltic Way | Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania | 2,000,000 | Called for independence for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Was followed by a similar chain on August 23, 1991, with people holding candles. |
| January 21, 1990 | Reunion Day | Lviv–Kiev, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine) | 450,000 (according to Soviet militsiya); around 3,000,000 (according to organizers) | Marking the 71st anniversary of the Act Zluky, an agreement unifying the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic. |
| 1997 | XII World Youth Day, 1997 | Paris, France | 400,000 | A 36 km ring surrounding Paris facing outwards, symbolically calling for peace. |
| 16 May 1998 | Jubilee 2000 Human Chain | Birmingham, UK | 70,000 - 100,000 | The first Chain demonstration by Jubilee 2000, a coalition of church and faith groups, overseas development agencies and others at the G8 Summit in Birmingham, UK, to highlight the indebted poverty of many poor countries and the need for the G8, World Bank and IMF to act to remit that debt. The Chain surrounded Birmingham city center including the International Convention Center. |
| September 8, 1999 | Protest against violence in East Timor | Lisbon | over 300,000 | A 20 km ring connecting the United Nations delegation and the embassies of Russia, China, UK, France and the US in Lisbon, calling for the end of violence in East Timor. |
| 2000 | Latin American Jubilee 2000 | Germany | 50,000 | Called for debt forgiveness for developing nations. |
| July 25, 2004 | Israeli Chain | Gush Katif (Jewish communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip, Israel), to the Western Wall, Jerusalem (90 kilometers) | 130,000 (according to police); 200,000 (according to organizers) | Opposing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan which involves dismantling of Jewish communities and settlements of Gush Katif. |
| May 1, 2006 | Great American Boycott | New York City. (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn Bronx) | 12,000 (according to CNN ) | Protesting H.R. 4437, a bill in Congress to toughen immigration checks. |
| February 25, 2008 | Gaza Chain | Gaza | 20,000 | Protesting Israeli blockade of Gaza |
| September 1, 2008 | "Stop Russia" campaign | Georgia | 1,000,000 (according to the Georgian authorities) | Protesting Russian military intervention |
| October 24, 2008 | 2009 Tamil protests in India | Chennai, India | 100,000 - 150,000 | Protesting the violence against Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Civil War. |
| December 13, 2008 | "Mumbai citizens form human chain to protest attacks" | Mumbai, India | 60,000 | Protesting Against the terror attacks that took place in Mumbai on the 26th of November 2008 |
| January 28, 2009 | 2009 Tamil protests in Canada | Toronto, Canada | 20,000 | Protesting the violence against Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Civil War. |
| June 9, 2009 | Green Chain, Iran's Presidential Election 2009 Iranian Election Protests |
Tehran, Iran | 18,000 - 30,000 | In support of Mir-Hossein Mousavi |
| October 2, 2009 | Kerala CPM, 2009 ASEAN agreement Protest |
Kerala, India | 3,000,000 - 4,000,000+ (30 to 40 lakh according to estimates made by organizers before the protest) | Protesting against the ASEAN and New Delhi free trade agreement |
| February 3, 2010 | Telangana JAC, Telangana Human Chain |
Andhra Pradesh, India | 5,000,000 | The people of Telangana formed a 500 kilometers-long human chain all along the National Highway number 7 from Adilabad on the northern most tip of the region to Alampur on the borders of Kurnool district, to press their demand for forming a separate state. |
A 'human chain' may also refer to people holding on to each other in series to reach precarious spots. A young girl was rescued from a cliff in California via this method. It may also refer to people walking shoulder-to-shoulder in the event of searching for missing persons in water or on land.
... The next demonstration took the form of a human chain which took place on 30 January in Downtown Toronto, comprising thousands of protesters ... The length of the human chain was expected to stretch from Union Station to St ... However the human chain stretched through parts of Yonge Street, Front Street and University Avenue, basically along 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) of the Yonge-University-Spa ...
... In 2010, Faber published Human Chain, Heaney's twelfth collection ... Human Chain was awarded the Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection, one of the only major poetry prizes Heaney had never previously won, despite having ... Writer Colm Tóibín described Human Chain as "his best single volume for many years, and one that contains some of the best poems he has written.. ...
28) was a demonstration in the form of a human chain held in Taiwan on the 57th anniversary of the 2/28 Incident on February 28, 2004 ... formed a 500-kilometer (310 mi) long human chain, from the harbor at Keelung, Taiwan's northernmost city, to its southern tip at Eluanbi, Pingtung County to commemorate the 228 Incident ... was inspired by Baltic Way, the human chain comprising two million that was organized in the Baltic states in 1989 ...
Famous quotes containing the words chain and/or human:
“You know, he wanted to shoot the Royal Family, abolish marriage, and put everybody who’d been to public school in a chain gang. Yeah, he was a idealist, your dad was.”
—David Mercer, British screenwriter, and Karel Reisz. Mrs. Dell (Irene Handl)
“Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)