January Events in Lithuania

January Events Lithuanian: Sausio įvykiai
Part of Revolutions of 1989, Singing Revolution, and Dissolution of the Soviet Union
A man with a Lithuanian flag in front of a Soviet tank, 13 January 1991
Date 11–13 January 1991 Location Lithuania Result Soviet forces withdrew from Lithuanian cities
Belligerents
Lithuania Lithuanian Riflemen's Union	Soviet Union Soviet Army KGB Alpha Group 76th Airborne Division National Salvation Committee of the Lithuanian SSR
Commanders and leaders
Vytautas Landsbergis Albertas Šimėnas Gediminas Vagnorius	Mikhail Gorbachev Vladislav Achalov Mykolas Burokevičius
Casualties and losses
14 civilians killed 1 civilian died due to heart attack 702 injured	1 KGB soldier (friendly fire)

 Lithuania

 Soviet Union

The January Events (Lithuanian: Sausio įvykiai) took place in Lithuania between 11 and 13 January 1991 in the aftermath of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. As a result of Soviet military actions, 14 civilians were killed and 702 were injured. The events were centered in its capital, Vilnius, along with related actions in its suburbs and in the cities of Alytus, Šiauliai, Varėna, and Kaunas.

The Baltic states, including Lithuania, were forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. This move was never recognized by Western powers. See Occupation of the Baltic states.

The Lithuanian Republic declared independence from the Soviet Union on 11 March 1990, and thereafter underwent a difficult period of emergence. During March–April 1990 the Soviet Airborne Troops (VDV) occupied buildings of the Political Education and the Higher Party School where later encamped the alternative Lithuanian Communist Party, on the CPSU platform. The Soviet Union imposed an economic blockade between April and late June. Economic and energy shortages undermined public faith in the newly restored state. The inflation rate reached 100% and continued to increase rapidly. In January 1991 the Lithuanian government was forced to raise prices several times and was used for organization of mass protests of the so-called "Russophone population". During the five days preceding the events, Russian, Polish, and other workers at Vilnius factories protested the government's consumer goods price hikes and what they saw as ethnic discrimination. (According to Human Rights Watch, the Soviet government had mounted a propaganda campaign designed to further ethnic strife.) In protection of the rallied Russophone population, the Soviet Union sent elite armed forces and special service units.

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