1991
Representatives of the CPSU department in Lithuania demand the liquidation of the sentry post in the former building of the History Institute of the Lithuanian Communist Party.
Public transportation prices are increased.
The sentry of the republic's internal affair organs is removed, and only guards of the internal organs of the USSR remain in the LDP and LCP building.
Food prices are increased and salary raises and compensa¬tions for budgetary organization employees are announced.
Baltic regional Commander Lieutenant-General F. Kuzmin informs Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis by telephone that a special paratroop division will be sent in for the forced conscription of young men to the Soviet Army, by order of USSR Minister of Defense D. Yazov.
Taking advantage of the price hikes, the „Jedinstvo" organization as well as the LCP (on the CPSU platform) organize a protest rally in front of the Supreme Council. Participators of this rally try to break into the Parliament building.
The Supreme Council adopts a decision to freeze price increases on food products.
Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskienė submits her resignation from the government.
Minister of Defense Yazov orders the deployment of paratroop units to seven Soviet republics, beginning with the Baltic republics, ostensibly to round up individuals avoiding service in the Soviet Army. Paratroop forces from Pskov begin to move into Lithuania. These units are hot employed to ensure conscription into the Soviet Army and military commisariats of Lithuania do not receive such instructions.
Independent military experts conclude that the decision to use military forces in Vilnius to ensure a coup d'etat was accepted by „Center" no later than January 8th.
Major-General Grachov, a military commander of Paratroop Forces stationed in the Baltic countries, declares that forces subordinate to him shall not take part in the political processes in the Baltic countries. After this statement he is immediately called back to Moscow.
On the instruction of Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman of the Peoples' Council of the Soviet Parliament Rafik Nishanov and his Deputy Chairman B. OIeinik meet with representatives of the CPSU branch in Lithuania, who demand that Soviet presidential rule be introduced in Lithuania.
Soviet armored vehicles and loaded personnel carriers „rehearse" by the television tower and the Press House.
The President of the USSR accuses the Supreme Council of Lithuania of trying to re-establish a bourgeois system, demands that all anti-constitutional acts adopted earlier be repealed, and calls attention to the demand „of the masses" to introduce direct presidential rule in Lithuania.
A satellite connection station to Moscow is established in the Vilnius military town „Šiaures miestelis" (Northern Town).
LCP CC member Jermalavičius announces that the Lithuanian Congress of democratic forces has set up a National Salvation Committee (NSC) which shall „take full responsibility for the fate of the republic".
11:30 a.m. The National Defense premises in Alytus is occupied.
11:45 a.m. Vilnius garrison chief Major-General V. Uskhopchik informs the Supreme Council of the commencement of military ..maneuvers" in Vilnius.
Paratroopers take over the National Defense Department build¬ing in Vilnius. Wounded people are taken to the hospital.
Approximately 12:00 p.m. The Press House is occupied. Paratroopers, armored vehicles and tanks take part in the seizure. Real bullets are used. Four people with gun-shot wounds are taken to the hospital. Three people are severely beaten. There are women among the in¬jured.
12:30 p.m. The National Defense building in Siauliai is occupied.
Disregarding traffic regulations, a tank crashes into a truck carrying toys on Žalgirio Street in Vilnius. The driver from Panevėžys is severely wounded.
1:00 p.m. The Kaunas driving school building (where National Defense Department courses used to take place) is taken over.
1:30 p.m. V. Landsbergis telephones USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev.
They do not converse because the President is „out to lunch".
4:30 p.m. Fifty paratroop tanks move from Rudamina to Vilnius. In the region of Marijampolė near Igliauka, the road to Vilnius is blocked. Military vehicles move from Panemunė towards Vilnius.
4:40 p.m. Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Algirdas Saudargas reads a note of protest to the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs.
6:00 p.m. The Hunting and Fishing Society building in Vilnius is taken over.
9:00 p.m. The TV retranslation center in Nemenčinė is taken over.
11:00 p.m. It is reported that soldiers have taken over the Vilnius railway junction. Train service is stopped.
Deputy Minister of Defense Colonel-General Achalov comes to Vilnius to direct military activities.
After the use of military force, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania establishes a provisional defence governing body. This organ directs „military, political and informational defense, the goal of which is to stop the Soviet attack and war against Lithuania".
The front page of the USSR Ministry of Defense newspaper „Krasnaja Zvezda" („Red Star") is almost entirely devoted to Lithuania. In one article about the collection of young men for conscription in the Soviet Army, it is written: „What, cruel? Perhaps".
1:00 a.m. A report is received that the National Defense Department building on Kosciuškos Street in Vilnius has been pillaged.
1:30 a.m. Armored vehicles and other military transport begin intensive movement in the streets of Vilnius.
2:00 a.m. A subunit of special police in Valakampiai is surrounded. 32 employees of Lithuanian internal organs desert to the USSR forces.
4:30 a.m. The Police Academy is attacked.
During a night sitting of the Supreme Council, V. Landsbergis announces that he tried to contact USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev three times.
11:00 a.m. The National Defense Department post en route from Porečė to Druskininkai is surrounded and people are beaten and forced out. The post house is taken to Byelorussia and the rail-road partition is broken.
Journalists of 13 occupied editorial offices issue the joint newspaper „Laisva Lietuva" („Free Lithuania") in the Press House.
1:00 p.m. A delegation of the Leningrad Soviet arrives.
2:00 p.m. Violating traffic regulations, a military vehicle crushes a car on Tvirtovės Avenue in Kaunas. One person is killed, another is critically injured.
Residents of Vilnius bring food to the passengers on the trains which were stopped due to the strike. A train with children from Chernobyl is stuck at the railway station in Naujoji Vilnia.
Thousands of people from Vilnius and all over Lithuania are at Parliament, the television committee, the television tower, and the inter-city telephone station.
10:00 p.m. A column of military vehicles moves from Šiaurės Miestelis (Northern Town) through Žirmūnai.
On behalf of the Supreme Council and its Chairman, the citizens of Lithuania are urged to defend Government build¬ings. In response to this incitement, thousands of people go out into the streets and surround governmental institutions. The majority of the people gather by the television tower and the Republic Parliament.
10:00 p.m. At the LCP city committee, LCP CC reserve Colonel Shurupov instructs approximately 400 representatives of “workers brigades" who were brought in by bus to allocate according to the orders of the LCP managing department.
11:00 p.m. An anonymous anti-constitutional group, declaring itself to be The ”National Salvation Committee" (NSC), announces that „...its duty is to take all of the power in Lithuania into its own hands..."
Approximately 12:00 a.m. Representatives of the NSC petition the Supreme Council of Lithuania, demanding its resignation and the introduction of direct presidential rule. The NSC simultaneously decides to take control of the Radio and Television Committee buildings.
2:00 a.m. Military forces occupy the Radio and Television Committee buildings and the television tower. A statement by Jermalavičius is broadcasted over loudspeakers from tanks by the television tower and from BTR armored vehicles driving through the city.
The statement announces that the NSC has taken all political power into its own hands.
On behalf of the NSC, it is announced that a curfew will be imposed in Lithuania beginning at 6:30 a.m. on January 13, and that the chief of the Vilnius military garrison Major-General Uskhopchik has been appointed military commandant of Vil¬nius. After the operation on that same day, deputy-general of the Defense Ministry Colonel Varenikov arrives in Vilnius.
Lithuania, 1991.01.13 : documents, testimonies, comments. - Vilnius : State Publishing Center, 1992, p. 17-21.