When people hear the phrase “tank man,” they often think of the man who blocked advancing tanks in China’s Tiananmen Square during a clampdown on protests on June 5, 1989. But Lithuania has a “tank man” of its own: Dr. Ricardas Daunoravicius, an obstetrician who stood in front of Soviet tanks amid a crackdown on Lithuanian independence. In January 1991, the Lithuanian Supreme Council voted for independence, the first Soviet republic to do so. Moscow responded with a military crackdown. Local citizens, who had gathered to hear pro-independence Supreme Council Chairman Vyautas Landsbergis speak, formed a human wall to guard …
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