page_title: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
section_title: Baltic republics
hierarchical_section_title: Dissolution of the Soviet Union / Background / 1986 / Baltic republics
caption_attribution_description: English: Freedom Monument in Riga, closeup
context_page_description: The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the process of internal disintegration within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which began in the late 1980s with growing unrest in the various constituent republics, and ended on December 26, 1991, when the Supreme Soviet voted the USSR itself out of existence.
  The failure of the 1991 August Coup, when Soviet government and military elites tried to overthrow President Mikhail Gorbachev and stop the so-called "parade of sovereignties", led to the central government in Moscow losing most of its influence, and the individual Soviet republics proclaiming independence in the following days and months. The secession of the Baltic states was recognized by the Soviet government in September 1991. The Belovezha Accords were signed by the republics of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus on December 8, recognising each other's independence and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States. The remaining republics, with the exception of Georgia, joined the CIS on December 21, signing the Alma-Ata Protocol.
context_section_description: The Baltic republics, forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944, pressed for independence, beginning with Estonia in November 1988 when the Estonian legislature passed laws resisting the control of the central government. While Gorbachev had loosened Soviet control over Eastern Europe, he had made it known that Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian separatism would not be tolerated and be met with embargoes and force if need be, as there was a tacit agreement in the Politburo of the infeasibility of using force to keep Poland and Czechoslovakia communist, but said loss of power over those countries would not extend into the USSR itself.
  The CTAG (Latvian: Cilvēktiesību aizstāvības grupa, lit. 'Human Rights Defense Group') Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers: Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss. Its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki Accords. Helsinki-86 was the first openly anti-Communist organization in the U.S.S.R., and the first openly organized opposition to the Soviet regime, setting an example for other ethnic minorities' pro-independence movements.
  On December 26, 1986, in the early morning hours after a rock concert, 300 working-class Latvian youths gathered in Riga's Cathedral Square and marched down Lenin Avenue toward the Freedom Monument, shouting, "Soviet Russia out! Free Latvia!" Security forces confronted the marchers, and several police vehicles were overturned.
caption: Figure of Liberty on the Freedom Monument in Riga, focus of the 1986 Latvian demonstrations
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D200", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.2.00", "Image DateTime": "2010:01:01 15:35:27", "Image Artist": "Alexander Cheek", "Image Copyright": "Alexander Cheek", "Image ExifOffset": "254", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[56, 1426/25, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[24, 673/100, 0]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "1", "GPS GPSAltitude": "12", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[10, 36, 33]", "GPS GPSSatellites": "10", "GPS GPSDate": "2010:01:01", "Image GPSInfo": "752", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1064", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5341", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/350", "EXIF FNumber": "10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "320", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:01:01 12:36:55", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:01:01 12:36:55", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8451211/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "415241/62500", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "4294967295", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "300", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}