Hi Wolfi,

Just after the first free election since the WWII the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian parliament late in the evening on the 11th March 1990 (btw on Gorbatchov's fifth anniversary as Soviet head), declared that the Soviet occupation was illegal and that the Republic of Lithuania regained her power. Most Western countries never accepted the Soviet occupation, neither did Norway. That ambassadors were not exchanged before it was practically possible does not change this fact. The Lithuanian parliament during 1990 changed official flag, coat of arm, hymn and even number plates of cars. In fact from 1990-91 Lithuania had two governments; one elected and one Moscow marionette and even two state tv stations. The Moscow controlled tv station several times started the news report in Lithuanian - and ended in Russian (because they did not have proper command of the state language).

On August 23rd the Moscow coup d'etat failed. The Scandinavian countries reopened official diplomatic contacts on August 24-26th, while USA and USSR did the same on September 6th. Your 1991 is probably from USA sources (CIA?), which often are not very reliable concerning historical facts.

One can discuss the date, but usually it is accepted to regard the country's own independence declaration.

I don't remember when Latvia and Estonia redeclared their independencies, but it was later due to their much bigger amount of post war Soviet colonists.

Regards,

Jan