February 1989 to August 1991 was a dynamic period when the Baltic exiles shared increasing hopes for the restoration of independence. The slow collapse of the Soviet from 1986 to 1989 was accompanied by the national awakening of the Baltic people. Perestroika, i.e., economic restruc\u00adturing, which Gorbachev announced in April 1985, was on its way not only to creating a decentralized economic empire, but to breaking up the empire into independent units. The plans to reduce the Party\u2019s control of the government apparatus, media, and Soviet society and to make changes to the Soviet Constitution would convert the USSR into a centralized presidential state. Gorbachev\u2019s team suffered an important blind spot that caused Gorbachev\u2019s intended direction of Soviet economic and social progress to be derailed and result in the unintended liquidation of the Soviet Union. At BATUN, these developments were seen as a means of opening a path for the restoration of Baltic indepen\u00addence. And this was the driving force for BATUN\u2019s activities during this period. Before 1987, BATUN had few direct contacts with the homeland, except for the occasional exiled dissident. But after that, the main focus was the connection with the Baltic people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the perestroika era, various political movements were established in the occupied Baltic States. In 1986, three Latvian workers established the Helsinki \u201886 group to defend human rights in Latvia. In February 1987, an informal group in Riga, which had been active in the restoration of churches, established the Environment Protection Club (Vides aizsardz\u012bbas klubs, VAK), a group initially interested in environmental protection. On June 14, 1987, a young, reformist Lutheran clergymen established Rebirth and Renewal (Atdzim\u0161ana un Atjauno\u0161an\u0101s), a group to challenge and remove the Soviet restrictions on \u201cleading a Christian life.\u201d The Lithuanian Restructuring Movement\u2013 Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Saj\u016bdis or just Saj\u016bdis \u2013 was founded on June 3rd 1988. The Estonian Popular Front \u2013 Eestimaa Rahvarinne or RR \u2013 was formally founded on October 1st 1988. The founding of Latvia\u2019s Popular Front \u2013 Latvijas Tautas Fronte, or LPF \u2013 followed on October 8. Among the many early legislative actions that the Popular Fronts and Saj\u016bdis initiated, the most important were the declarations of sovereignty passed by the three Supreme Councils between November 1988 (Estonia) and July 1989 (Latvia). By early 1990, the goals of all three organizations had evolved to support of full independence. Beginning with the unprecedentedly free Soviet elections in early 1989 and ending with the restoration of full independence in August 1991, the three organizations functioned as political parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BATUN actively lobbied and provided information not only to the United Nations but also to many countries throughout Europe. BATUN assisted the Estonian People\u2019s Front, the Latvian People\u2019s Front, and Lithuania\u2019s Saj\u016bdis in presenting their programs and objectives to commissions at the United Nations and to various permanent missions and informing them of the aspirations of the people in the Baltic states to regain their independence. BATUN also gathered information from Western diplomats, as well as the global media, and transmitted this to the aspirations the Baltic foreign ministers. BATUN coordinated the visits of delegations from the Baltic countries to the missions of the UN Member States. An appeal presented under the auspices of BATUN, which was signed by Anatolijs Gorbunovs, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia, and addressed to governments and parliaments of the world, requesting that they recognize Latvia as an independent state and establish diplomatic relations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BATUN\u2019s in-person contacts with the representatives of the Baltic Popular Fronts began in April 1989, when delegation of the Latvian Popular Front (LPF) led by its Chairman Dainis \u012av\u0101ns made a visit to the USA and Canada. The first meeting took place in New York on 21 April 1989 and was attended by three representatives of LPF, including its Chairman, and eleven BATUN activists. The contacts continued in July when Uldis Blukis from BATUN visited Latvia. He attended meetings of the Popular Front\u2019s parliament (Dome) and the Latvian National Independence Movement (LNNK). He met with J\u0101nis Freimanis and J\u0101nis Jurk\u0101ns, the foreign relations leaders of the Popular Front, as well as with other human rights activists. BATUN also assisted in efforts to engage the UN human rights machinery for the protection of the Baltic victims of the Soviet military. Initially, in 1989, the focus was on the mistreatment of Baltic draftees in the Soviet military. Thereafter, BATUN turned its attention to the military\u2019s attempts to catch Baltic deserters, the numbers of which had increased rapidly after March 1990.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n