NID: USSR: BALTIC NATIONALISTS PRESS AHEAD

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826873
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: February 23, 1990

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826873
USSR: Baltic Nationalists Press Ahead
This weekend's Lithuanian and Estonian elections are likelj to
reinforce the Baltic republics' push for independence.
Leaders of Sajudis. the Lithuanian nationalist umbrella organization,
expect their candidates to win a
comfortable majority of the 141 scats in tomorrow's election to the
republic's Supreme Soviet. A recent republic poll, however, indicates
that the Lithuanian Communist Party (LCP) has risen substantially in
popularity since it broke with the Soviet party last December and
embraced Lithuanian statehood as its main goal. Early this month,
senior members of Sajudis expressed
concern about the election outcome on the basis of their projections
of a 50-50 split between LCP and Sajudis candidates.
In neighboring Estonia, radical nationalists arc sponsoring an election
tomorrow, in which only ethnic Estonians can vote, for a -citizens'
congress," scheduled for next month. The sponsors hope that by
excluding ethnic Russians, many of whom oppose Estonian secession
and who make up almost a third of the republic's population, they
can elect a congress that will press the Estonian Supreme Soviet
elected next month to pursue independence aggressively.
Comment: Candidates primarily loyal to Sajudis will probably capture
a majority of the Supreme Soviet seats, despite the LCP's recent
gains. If the Sajudis candidates win a comfortable hold on the
legislature, they almost certainly will move quickly to hold a public
referendum on independence and press Moscow to negotiate terms of
secession. Even if candidates of the newly independent LCP win
roughly half the seats, the legislature will still push the nationalist
agenda, but it will probably be more willing to compromise with
Moscow on issues such as the length of the transition to independence
and the stationing of Soviet troops in the republic.
The drive to convene the Estonian -citizens' congress" has gradually
gained substantial public support, and the congress will probably be a
powerful political action group that will press the republic legislature
to act boldly. At the same time, the congress is likely to increase
tension over secession between the republic's ethnic Estonians and
ethnic Russians.
3ecr.a..
TCS 2744/90
23 February 1990
Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826873