Soviet troops storm the Vilnius TV tower
1991 · Event
Ten months after Lithuania declared independence, Soviet paratroopers and tanks seize Vilnius's TV tower from an unarmed crowd, killing fourteen. The last attempt to hold the empire by force backfires completely: the Baltics harden, the world recoils, and Yeltsin flies to Tallinn to stand with them.
On these timelines: Fall of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe & the Balkans, Russia & the USSR, Master, Cold War
More from Fall of the Soviet Union
- Dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991)
- Resignation of Gorbachev (1991)
- Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader (1985)
- Ukraine votes to leave the Soviet Union (1991)
- The Warsaw Pact dissolves itself (1991)
- The Pan-European Picnic breaches the Iron Curtain (1989)
- The Communist Party surrenders its monopoly (1990)
- The Soviet Union holds its first contested elections (1989)
Around 1991
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- Gulf War (1990)
- Chernobyl disaster (1986)
- Yugoslav Wars (1991)
- (Everything I Do) I Do It for You (Bryan Adams) (1991)
- Invention of the World Wide Web (1989)
- September 11 attacks (2001)
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- Pop music: the 2000s (2000)
- Pop music: the 1990s (1990)