3 March 2020

On 3 March 1991 the citizens of Estonia and Latvia were called to vote in two referendums on independence from the Soviet Union after Lithuania - the first of the Soviet Republics to disengage from Moscow the year before. Its declaration of independence had initially been opposed by the armed intervention of the Kremlin, which, however, had not achieved the desired results and, above all, had failed to prevent the "domino effect" that was now affecting the other two Baltic states.

Thus, on that day, almost 75 % of Latvian voters - with a turnout of 87.6 % - voted for independence, as did 77.8 % of those who went to the polls in Estonia. The vote in both countries was a vote in favour of democracy, not just freedom from foreign rule, and was yet another blow to Soviet power.

The two states proclaimed themselves independent in August 1991, and Moscow recognised their regained national sovereignty in September of the same year, after some Western states, as well as the European Community, had begun to establish diplomatic relations with them.

The chain reaction did not stop: the Soviet Republics became one by one independent until the dissolution of the USSR was formally declared on December 26, 1991, after the resignation of Soviet President Gorbachev.