Part IV – Freedom

"I hopped out of the taxi at the barricades and looked to the easiest point to scale them. "Lithuania Will Be Free" had been graffiti'd on a concrete block. I was having doubts this would ever be true."

"The Lithuanian sense of humor to state the obvious on the barricades made me smile even though I knew columns of tanks were headed our way."

"I counted thirty tanks stopped by the barricades at the foot of the bridge."

"The jeep filled with KGB soldiers turned around and headed back toward the checkpoint. Gunfire was exchanged."

"Thousands of jubilant Lithuanian citizens gathered across the street along the sidewalks as if they were attending a block party."

"At 2:49 the driveway gate opened. The military trucks followed behind in a column."

"The crowd across the street remained dead silent."

"At 2:54 p.m. the red USSR flag was removed from the front of the building by the Lithuanian delegation. The crowd chanted “Lietuva! Lietuva!” while jumping up and down and shaking their fists while a Lithuanian flag was raised over the building."

"People were chipping off pieces of Lenin's granite pedestal as a souvenir..."

"Passer-bys would hop onto the mound where the Lenin statue stood and do their best Lenin pose."

"By 8:00 p.m., over 100,000 people gathered outside of Parliament for a rally and cheered when Landsbergis took atop the steps of the National Library to address them."

"Snieguole and I and other co-workers watched the crowd from the third floor. We hung out of the open windows waving and giving the crowd the victory sign, which helped to spur chanting, “Lietuva! Lietuva!”"

" "The crowd began with the words of the Lithuanian National Anthem. Quickly, the combined voices of 100,000 people singing, “Lithuania, our Homeland! Land of heroes!” thundered across the city."

"Our first major Western leader was French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas."

"My roommate Darius was working on Lithuania’s application to the United Nations..."

"My job had morphed into the official Press Wrangler..."

Foreign leaders wanted a photo with Landsbersgis and the sandbags outside of his office.

"The symbol of the Cold War was now a tourist destination."