Singing Revolution Human Chain

Date: August 23, 1989 • Location: Tallinn, Estonia

Singing Revolution: Approximately two million people joined hands to form a human chain spanning 675.5 kilometres (419.7 mi) across the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet republics to demonstrate their desire for independence.

The Singing Revolution was a series of events from 1987 to 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of the Cold War. The Soviet Union annexed the Baltics around 1940, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, though this annexation was not widely recognized. During the subsequent occupation, the Soviet Union suppressed local languages, religious institutions, and cultural expression, and carried out large-scale deportations and political repression.