Last weekend our study abroad group spent the weekend in Tallinn, Estonia and Riga, Latvia. Together with Lithuania these two countries comprise the Baltic States. As we toured and walked around the historical picture that was painted began to fall into a similar pattern as Lithuania: medieval kingdoms and conflicts, brief periods of independence, occupations by Nazis and the Soviet Union, recently declared independence in the early 1990's after social movements like The Singing Revolution and The Baltic Way. It's been interesting to try and wrap my head around the fact that all three of these nations are simultaneously older than the US and younger than me. Lithuania was the first of them to declare independence, three days after I was born.
What has impressed me most in everything I have learned so far is the enormous amount of courage it took for the people here to stand up and resist in the face of so much oppression. At the Genocide Museum in Vilnius, which was once the KGB headquarters, I stood outside of the "Listening Room". This was where the government kept tabs on things like phone calls and radios. We joke about things like that in America, "Big Brother is watching", but here it was true. (I know many Americans are upset about some of our government's current surveillance methods, but we can publicly complain about it without fear of being deported to Siberia.) In other exhibits we saw how Soviet spies disguised themselves on the streets, posing as workers, pedestrians and even as parents with small children, in order to gather information on the surrounding population. The bodies of executed political prisoners were often tossed into the city square to serve as examples and the slightest hint of negative emotion on the faces of passersby could lead to their arrest and deportation for sympathizing with enemies of the state. You couldn't trust anyone. Pretty much everyone about 30 and older remembers living in this atmosphere of fear. However, that didn't stop them from fighting back.
This past Wednesday, I was able to attend an event on campus highlighting a series of photos taken by an LCC professor to commemorate the Baltic Way. One of the special guests was the vice-mayor of Klaipeda, who spoke about his role in directing a portion of the human chain which stretched across 600 kilometers and 3 capitals. About 2 million people (approximately 25% of the population of the Baltic States) participated and according to the vice-mayor, they were not afraid, because they knew they were standing up for freedom. After 50 years of suffering they told the Soviet Union no. And they won.
Hearing the words "freedom" and "democracy" in this context has greatly increased my appreciation for them. They mean something special to people here and they mean more to me now too. America may be the "home of the brave" but she's not alone. There are millions of brave people in this part of the world. I hope learning about their stories will always inspire me to never take my own freedom for granted.
The KGB Listening Room
Plaque in Tallinn commemorating the Baltic Way
