Soviet Union: Let’s Make A Deal

A freeze has broken the ice in Lithuania. Four months after breaking away from Moscow, the Supreme Council voted to put a 100-day hold on independence in return for the start of negotiations.

During the debate, Lithuanian Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene warned that relief must be found from the economic sanctions imposed in April by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev: “We have to do something. We have to take a risk.” The resolution set a time limit and stipulated that it could be extended or terminated only by the Lithuanians. These conditions finally brought the more cautious President Vytautas Landsbergis on board and made a lifting of the blockade possible.

For Gorbachev the prospect of negotiations with the balky republic would cool at least one grievance.