Blockade
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==Blockade==
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==Blockade==
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[[File:Vytautas_Landsbergis_speaks_at_Ribbentrop-Molotov_Pact_50th_Anniversary_Rally_in_Kalnų_park,_Vilnius,_Lithuania,_1989.jpg|left|thumb|[[Vytautas Landsbergis]], chair of the [[Supreme Council of Lithuania]] (Reconstituent Seimas) in 1990-92 and leader of Lithuania|alt=
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On 13 April 1990, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], [[President of the Soviet Union]], and [[Nikolai Ryzhkov]], [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman]] of the USSR’s [[Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union|Council of Ministers]], issued an [[ultimatum]] to Lithuania, which demanded to revoke the [[Act of March 11]] and to restore the supremacy of the Soviet laws within two days, lest an [[embargo]] on produce paid for by freely convertible currency is imposed.<ref name=”lrs”>{{cite web|title=Restoration of Independence, 1990–1991|url=http://valstybingumas.lt/EN/saltiniu-apzvalga/Nepriklausomybes-atkurimas-1990-1991/Pages/default.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126161213/http://valstybingumas.lt/EN/saltiniu-apzvalga/Nepriklausomybes-atkurimas-1990-1991/Pages/default.aspx|archive-date=26 January 2021|publisher=Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania}}</ref> Hardliners within CPSU were nudging towards a [[coup d’état]], and initially Gorbachev was open to consider such a scenario,<ref name=”:4″ /> but later he dismissed such calls.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Suny|first=Ronald Grigor|title=The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2011|isbn=9780195340556|edition=2|location=[[Oxford]]/[[New York City|New York]]|pages=504|quote=Gorbachev sent KGB troops to Vilnius and imposed economic sanctions, cutting off oil and gas to the republic, but rejected calls from the old-style Communists to use force to overthrow the new government.|author-link=Ronald Grigor Suny}}</ref> Gorbachev also reportedly thought about a full-scale military invasion<ref name=”:2″ /><ref name=”exit-cold-war”>{{cite book|url=https://transatlanticrelations.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Exit_Cold_War.pdf|title=Exiting the Cold War, Entering a New World|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|year=2019|isbn=9781733733953|editor-last1=Hamilton|editor-first1=Daniel|page=46-48|language=en|quote=For that, Gorbachev had no stomach. Instead, he tried an economic blockade of Lithuania. He had expected a popular revolt against Lithuania’s breakaway leaders|editor-last2=Spohr|editor-first2=Kristina}}</ref> or assumption of direct control of Lithuania from Moscow,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aklaev|first=Airat R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OASaDwAAQBAJ&dq=lithuania+compensation+1990+blockade&pg=PT214|title=Democratization and Ethnic Peace: Patterns of Ethnopolitical Crisis Management in Post-Soviet Settings|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2018|isbn=9780429856518|location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]]/[[New York City|New York]]|pages=214|language=en}}</ref> but ultimately also resigned from these ideas. Therefore, Gorbachev decided to try an economic blockade instead, hoping to instigate a popular revolt against the Lithuanian leadership and to force it to rescind the independence declaration.<ref name=”:8″ /><ref name=”exit-cold-war” /> This solution was chosen despite the fact that the previous month, [[Yuri Maslyukov]], the director of [[Gosplan]], the Soviet central planning committee, was assuring that an embargo would not happen as he thought it would be detrimental to both sides of the conflict.<ref name=”:11″>{{Cite web|last=Okunev|first=Dmitriy|date=2020-04-17|title=«Не внемлет голосу разума»: как СССР наказал Литву в 1990 году|trans-title=”Does not heed the voice of wisdom”: how USSR punished Lithuania in 1990|url=https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2020/04/17_a_13051711.shtml|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-27|website=gazeta.ru|language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=1990-04-23|title=ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКАЯ БЛОКАДА: ПОБЕДИТЕЛЕЙ НЕ БУДЕТ|url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/266145|url-status=live|access-date=2021-12-30|website=Коммерсантъ|language=ru}}</ref> The solution was formalised in an order of the USSR Council of Ministers on 17 April.<ref name=”:11″ />
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On 13 April 1990, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], [[President of the Soviet Union]], and [[Nikolai Ryzhkov]], [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman]] of the USSR’s [[Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union|Council of Ministers]], issued an [[ultimatum]] to Lithuania, which demanded to revoke the [[Act of March 11]] and to restore the supremacy of the Soviet laws within two days, lest an [[embargo]] on produce paid for by freely convertible currency is imposed.<ref name=”lrs”>{{cite web|title=Restoration of Independence, 1990–1991|url=http://valstybingumas.lt/EN/saltiniu-apzvalga/Nepriklausomybes-atkurimas-1990-1991/Pages/default.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126161213/http://valstybingumas.lt/EN/saltiniu-apzvalga/Nepriklausomybes-atkurimas-1990-1991/Pages/default.aspx|archive-date=26 January 2021|publisher=Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania}}</ref> Hardliners within CPSU were nudging towards a [[coup d’état]], and initially Gorbachev was open to consider such a scenario,<ref name=”:4″ /> but later he dismissed such calls.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Suny|first=Ronald Grigor|title=The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2011|isbn=9780195340556|edition=2|location=[[Oxford]]/[[New York City|New York]]|pages=504|quote=Gorbachev sent KGB troops to Vilnius and imposed economic sanctions, cutting off oil and gas to the republic, but rejected calls from the old-style Communists to use force to overthrow the new government.|author-link=Ronald Grigor Suny}}</ref> Gorbachev also reportedly thought about a full-scale military invasion<ref name=”:2″ /><ref name=”exit-cold-war”>{{cite book|url=https://transatlanticrelations.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Exit_Cold_War.pdf|title=Exiting the Cold War, Entering a New World|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|year=2019|isbn=9781733733953|editor-last1=Hamilton|editor-first1=Daniel|page=46-48|language=en|quote=For that, Gorbachev had no stomach. Instead, he tried an economic blockade of Lithuania. He had expected a popular revolt against Lithuania’s breakaway leaders|editor-last2=Spohr|editor-first2=Kristina}}</ref> or assumption of direct control of Lithuania from Moscow,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aklaev|first=Airat R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OASaDwAAQBAJ&dq=lithuania+compensation+1990+blockade&pg=PT214|title=Democratization and Ethnic Peace: Patterns of Ethnopolitical Crisis Management in Post-Soviet Settings|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2018|isbn=9780429856518|location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]]/[[New York City|New York]]|pages=214|language=en}}</ref> but ultimately also resigned from these ideas. Therefore, Gorbachev decided to try an economic blockade instead, hoping to instigate a popular revolt against the Lithuanian leadership and to force it to rescind the independence declaration.<ref name=”:8″ /><ref name=”exit-cold-war” /> This solution was chosen despite the fact that the previous month, [[Yuri Maslyukov]], the director of [[Gosplan]], the Soviet central planning committee, was assuring that an embargo would not happen as he thought it would be detrimental to both sides of the conflict.<ref name=”:11″>{{Cite web|last=Okunev|first=Dmitriy|date=2020-04-17|title=«Не внемлет голосу разума»: как СССР наказал Литву в 1990 году|trans-title=”Does not heed the voice of wisdom”: how USSR punished Lithuania in 1990|url=https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2020/04/17_a_13051711.shtml|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-27|website=gazeta.ru|language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=1990-04-23|title=ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКАЯ БЛОКАДА: ПОБЕДИТЕЛЕЙ НЕ БУДЕТ|url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/266145|url-status=live|access-date=2021-12-30|website=Коммерсантъ|language=ru}}</ref> The solution was formalised in an order of the USSR Council of Ministers on 17 April.<ref name=”:11″ />
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[[File:Vytautas_Landsbergis_speaks_at_Ribbentrop-Molotov_Pact_50th_Anniversary_Rally_in_Kalnų_park,_Vilnius,_Lithuania,_1989.jpg|left|thumb|[[Vytautas Landsbergis]], chair of the [[Supreme Council of Lithuania]] (Reconstituent Seimas) in 1990-92 and leader of Lithuania|alt=A middle-aged man speaking in front of a crowd]]
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Lithuania did not respond in the time allocated, but on 18 April, the [[Supreme Council of Lithuania]] tried to prevent the embargo from happening by making a declaration whereby it voluntarily refrained from adopting new laws pending what Lithuanian officials called “preliminary consultations” between Lithuania and the Soviet Union.<ref name=”:1″ /> The Soviets were unimpressed, and on 18 April, at 21:25 ([[EEST]]), the Kremlin launched the blockade by stopping supplies to the [[Mažeikių oil refinery|Mažeikiai oil refinery]].<ref name=”lrs”
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Lithuania did not respond in the time allocated, but on 18 April, the [[Supreme Council of Lithuania]] tried to prevent the embargo from happening by making a declaration whereby it voluntarily refrained from adopting new laws pending what Lithuanian officials called “preliminary consultations” between Lithuania and the Soviet Union.<ref name=”:1″ /> The Soviets were unimpressed, and on 18 April, at 21:25 ([[EEST]]), the Kremlin launched the blockade by stopping supplies to the [[Mažeikių oil refinery|Mažeikiai oil refinery]].<ref name=”lrs”/>
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Initially, the supply of 40-60 types of raw materials and other products were cut off.<ref name=”vl”>{{cite book|last=Landsbergis|first=Vytautas|title=Lūžis prie Baltijos|publisher=Vaga|year=1997|isbn=9785415005338|pages=180–181|language=lt|authorlink=Vytautas Landsbergis}}</ref> Notably, the supply of oil was halted and gas deliveries decreased by 84%.<ref name=”:1″ /> USSR also suspended the movement of goods and restricted sales of fuel. The blockade worsened a few days later, when the USSR stopped supplying coal, electricity, paper, foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals, including the most essential drugs and vaccines for hospitals.<ref>{{multiref|See the following accounts of shortages:|{{Cite web|date=1990-04-30|title=Хроника блокадной Литвы|trans-title=Chronicles of Lithuania in blockade|url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/266195|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-27|website=Коммерсантъ|language=ru}}|{{Cite web|last=Okunev|first=Dmitriy|date=2020-04-17|title=«Не внемлет голосу разума»: как СССР наказал Литву в 1990 году|trans-title=”Does not heed the voice of wisdom”: how USSR punished Lithuania in 1990|url=https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2020/04/17_a_13051711.shtml|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-27|website=gazeta.ru|language=ru}}|{{Cite news|last=Dobbs|first=Michael|date=1990-04-21|title=Lithuanians say blockade widened|language=en-US|work=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/04/21/lithuanians-say-blockade-widened/760bc826-c19a-4f49-b63f-e73624745cb5/|access-date=2021-07-27|issn=0190-8286}}|{{Cite web|date=1990-04-30|title=”Это настоящая блокада”: Из речи вице-премьера Литовской Республики, Первого секретаря Компартии Литвы Альгирдаса Бразаускаса в Верховном Совете Литвы 25 апреля|trans-title=”This is a Real Blockade”: Excerpts from a speech of Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania, Algirdas Brazauskas, in the Supreme Council of Lithuania on 25 April|url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/266197|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-27|website=Коммерсантъ|language=ru}}}}</ref> Additionally, the Soviet Union also limited access to the port in [[Klaipėda]]<ref name=”:6″ /><ref name=”:10″ /> and blocked Lithuania’s bank accounts.<ref name=”:17″>{{Cite journal|last=Nikiforov|first=Ilya|date=2017|title=Эстония между I и III Республикой (1988-1992): опыт инклюзивной реконструкции исторического нарратива|url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/estoniya-mezhdu-i-i-iii-respublikoy-1988-1992-opyt-inklyuzivnoy-rekonstruktsii-istoricheskogo-narrativa|journal=Журнал российских и восточноевропейских исторических исследований|volume=8|issue=1|pages=140, 142|via=[[Cyberleninka]]}}</ref> Lithuania, whose borders were closed due to the sanctions, was also declared to be off-bounds for foreigners.<ref name=”:19″ />{{sfn|Dobbs|1990}}
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Initially, the supply of 40-60 types of raw materials and other products were cut off.<ref name=”vl”>{{cite book|last=Landsbergis|first=Vytautas|title=Lūžis prie Baltijos|publisher=Vaga|year=1997|isbn=9785415005338|pages=180–181|language=lt|authorlink=Vytautas Landsbergis}}</ref> Notably, the supply of oil was halted and gas deliveries decreased by 84%.<ref name=”:1″ /> USSR also suspended the movement of goods and restricted sales of fuel. The blockade worsened a few days later, when the USSR stopped supplying coal, electricity, paper, foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals, including the most essential drugs and vaccines for hospitals.<ref>{{multiref|See the following accounts of shortages:|{{Cite web|date=1990-04-30|title=Хроника блокадной Литвы|trans-title=Chronicles of Lithuania in blockade|url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/266195|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-27|website=Коммерсантъ|language=ru}}|{{Cite web|last=Okunev|first=Dmitriy|date=2020-04-17|title=«Не внемлет голосу разума»: как СССР наказал Литву в 1990 году|trans-title=”Does not heed the voice of wisdom”: how USSR punished Lithuania in 1990|url=https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2020/04/17_a_13051711.shtml|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-27|website=gazeta.ru|language=ru}}|{{Cite news|last=Dobbs|first=Michael|date=1990-04-21|title=Lithuanians say blockade widened|language=en-US|work=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/04/21/lithuanians-say-blockade-widened/760bc826-c19a-4f49-b63f-e73624745cb5/|access-date=2021-07-27|issn=0190-8286}}|{{Cite web|date=1990-04-30|title=”Это настоящая блокада”: Из речи вице-премьера Литовской Республики, Первого секретаря Компартии Литвы Альгирдаса Бразаускаса в Верховном Совете Литвы 25 апреля|trans-title=”This is a Real Blockade”: Excerpts from a speech of Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania, Algirdas Brazauskas, in the Supreme Council of Lithuania on 25 April|url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/266197|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-27|website=Коммерсантъ|language=ru}}}}</ref> Additionally, the Soviet Union also limited access to the port in [[Klaipėda]]<ref name=”:6″ /><ref name=”:10″ /> and blocked Lithuania’s bank accounts.<ref name=”:17″>{{Cite journal|last=Nikiforov|first=Ilya|date=2017|title=Эстония между I и III Республикой (1988-1992): опыт инклюзивной реконструкции исторического нарратива|url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/estoniya-mezhdu-i-i-iii-respublikoy-1988-1992-opyt-inklyuzivnoy-rekonstruktsii-istoricheskogo-narrativa|journal=Журнал российских и восточноевропейских исторических исследований|volume=8|issue=1|pages=140, 142|via=[[Cyberleninka]]}}</ref> Lithuania, whose borders were closed due to the sanctions, was also declared to be off-bounds for foreigners.<ref name=”:19″ />{{sfn|Dobbs|1990}}
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