Yesterday, on January the 13th, the Lithuanians commemorated the heroes killed in the Vilnius TV Tower on the 13th of January 1991. On that day, the soviet troops surrounded it and tried to take it by force to deprive Lithuanian radio and television’s opportunities to broadcast national channels in Lithuanian language. Also (the soviet army) wanted to continue the Anti-Lithuania propaganda without the Lithuanians showing opposition to that.
Thousands of unarmed people surrounded the tower to protect it from the armed soviet soldiers (even tanks were sent) and fourteen of them got killed.
Since then, January the 13th is a national day, the Defenders of Freedom Day.
Not so long time ago, I had the opportunity to visit the tower and on the bottom of it there’s a monument in the memory of the Defenders.
Here I share a documentary about this day. It’s in lithuanian with english subtitles. Really worth it.
Už Lietuvą, vyrai!
Photo credit to: Laimonas Ciunis.
