Declaration of Independence
The Soviet became an important political battleground since 1988. Inspired and encouraged by perestroika and glastnost, the Lithuanians began taking steps towards independence or at least autonomy from the Soviet Union. The Soviet became the official venue to seek independence in a legal manner. Starting with its 10th session on October 17–18, 1988, the proceedings were televised, hotly debated, and in the center of attention. The political power shifted from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania to the Supreme Soviet, which transformed itself from a rubber stamp institution to an actual legislature. In about a year and a half, the Soviet reinstated interwar coat of arms of Lithuania and national anthem Tautiška giesmė, declared superiority of Lithuanian laws over the laws of the Soviet Union, laid groundwork for de-collectivisation, investigated and condemned events surrounding the occupation of Lithuania in 1940, granted religious freedom, adopted citizenship law, enacted new truly democratic election law reducing the number of delegates to 141, abolished political monopoly of the Communist Party allowing other parties to run in the next election. The delegates struggled with changed duties. About 100 of conservative, pro-Soviet delegates did not attend the sessions. Others, accustomed to blindly following orders from top, voted according to the wishes of the presidium and displayed political immaturity. For example, during a vote to appoint Kazimira Prunskienė as a deputy Prime Minister, 100 votes were cast against her during a secret ballot. When the vote was repeated, this time in public, not a single delegate voted against her and only a few abstained.
In February 1990 elections, when for the first time candidates from the opposition were allowed to run, candidates endorsed by pro-independence Sąjūdis won 96 seats out of 141. During its first three sessions on March 11, 1990 the Soviet elected Vytautas Landsbergis as the chairman and adopted the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. The same day the Soviet changed its name to the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania. It is also known as Supreme Council – Reconstituent Seimas (Aukščiausioji Taryba – Atkuriamasis Seimas). The council held it last session on November 11, 1992. It was succeeded by democratically elected Seimas.
Read more about this topic: Supreme Soviet Of The Lithuanian SSR
Famous quotes by declaration of independence:
“I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is an axiom in political science that unless a people are educated and enlightened it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty or the capacity for self-government.”
—Texas Declaration of Independence (March 2, 1836)
“[The Declaration of Independence] meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)