Monuments along the Baltic Way section to commemorate the Baltic Way
Memorial site

Along the Baltic Road from Vilnius to Škilinpamūšis.

On August 23, 1989, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the criminal Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols, a human chain was formed by the Lithuanian Reorganization Movement, the Latvian People's Front, and the Estonian People's Front, connecting the capitals of the three Baltic states – Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn. 2 million people joined hands in a chain about 650 km long. This chain, known as the Baltic Way, is one of the most striking and memorable events in the Soviet-occupied countries' quest for independence.

The Baltic Way was for some time listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest human chain, and the documentary heritage testifying to this event was included in the UNESCO International Register “Memory of the World”. However, alongside these global and international forms of commemoration, there are also more modest, but no less eloquent, forms. In Lithuania, signs dedicated to its memory have been erected along the entire Baltic Way (the road ran along the Vilnius–Ukmergė–Panevėžys–Pasvalys section). In the Pasvalys district alone, there are 12 such signs of memory today – monuments made of various materials and in various forms. And there are several dozen of them along the entire section. The monuments were erected on the initiative of the Baltic Way participants themselves.

The Baltic Way in Lithuania began in Vilnius from the Gediminas Castle Tower. Today, this starting point is marked by a medallion embedded in the castle stone. And in the Šeškinė microdistrict of Vilnius (along the Ukmergė highway, at Ukmergės g. 24) there is a wooden monument in the form of a chapel pillar, which can be considered the symbolic beginning of the marked path. Its symbolic end is the sign of the connection of the Lithuanian and Latvian sections of the Baltic Way, located 200 km away near Saločiai.