Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania rather than political demands. As Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to revive the economy of the Soviet Union, he introduced glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("restructuring"). Gorbachev's political agenda went for great and deep changes within the Soviet government, as such, Gorbachev invited the soviet public into open and public discussions unseen before. For the soviet Lithuanian dissidents, and activists, it was a golden opportunity not to be missed, to bring their movements from underground into the public life. On August 23, 1987 (48th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact), the Lithuanian Liberty League organized the first public protest rally that did not result
19th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 19th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The 19th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was a party conference held by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 28 June to 1 July 1988. There were 4,991 delegates at the conference. The General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, declared in his opening speech that political reform was the key issue. Gorbachev wanted to achieve the "democratization of the life of the state and society", and wanted the Soviet Union to "move along the path of the creation of a socialist state under the