Yearning to be free in the face of communist oppression, a history not taught in our schools.

I need to calendar this so I remember each year. This year, I would have forgotten the date if I had not seen Marathon Pundit’s post On this day in 1989: Two million hold hands in peaceful anti-Soviet Baltic Way.

We wrote about the Baltic Way last year:

A history not taught in school and our children will never know On this day in 1989, the Baltic Way took place. People in the Baltic Republics of the Soviet Union (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) formed a human chain stretching for hundreds of miles: … on 23 August 1989, the three nations living by the Baltic Sea surprised the world by taking hold of each other’s hands and jointly demanding recognition of the secret clauses in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the re-establishment of the independence of the Baltic States. More than a million people joined hands to create a 600 km long human chain from the foot of Toompea in Tallinn to the foot of the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius, crossing Riga and the River Daugava on its way, creating a synergy in the drive for freedom that united the three countries.

Now you know why the Baltic states, looking at Russian domination of eastern Ukraine and annexation of the Crimea, are worried.

Last year the hat tip went to Gabriella Hoffman, the daughter of Lituanian immirgants and a tireless conservative activist, who again this year is tweeting out remembrance of the event:

25 years ago,2million people joined hands making a freedom and hope chain through the #Baltic countries #BalticWay25 pic.twitter.com/6cFgUesW92 — New Eastern Europe (@NewEastEurope) August 23, 2014



