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Lithuanians make up fully 80% of the population in the southernmost Baltic republic, assuring bedrock support for Sajudis, as the Lithuanian Popular Front is known. One indication of the group's growing power came on the eve of its founding congress last October, when the reform-minded Algirdas Brazauskas became leader of the Lithuanian Communist Party. He received thunderous ovations at the meeting, especially after his dramatic announcement that the Vilnius Cathedral would be returned to the Roman Catholic Church. But relations soon deteriorated in the bruising parliamentary debate last November over proposed changes in the constitution. At Brazauskas' urging, the Lithuanians declined to follow Estonia's lead in rebelling against Moscow. Angry Lithuanians took to the streets, and Sajudis called for a symbolic work protest.
Troubles erupted again last February, after representatives from Sajudis and Vincentas Cardinal Sladkevicius called for the restoration of Lithuanian sovereignty at ceremonies marking the 71st anniversary of the beginning of Lithuania's short-lived independence. During an emergency party plenum, Brazauskas warned that such actions might lead to imposition of a "special form of rule." The scare tactics failed: in last March's parliamentary elections, Sajudis candidates picked up 36 out of 42 seats. Brazauskas also won, but only after his Sajudis opponent bowed out to ensure his victory.
Since then, the party leadership has met monthly with Sajudis representatives to discuss draft laws. But the present idyll in Lithuania's volatile political scene is bound to end, as both sides prepare for the electoral battle for local and republic-wide elections in December and February. The Lithuanian Popular Front has also had to move faster to keep ahead of the drift in public thinking toward the more radical positions of the Latvian Liberation League. Says Lithuanian Party Secretary Berezov: "We fear that some hotheads want to speed up the process and have it all tomorrow. They risk ruining everything."
At present, the economic life of the three Baltic republics is so intertwined with the Soviet Union that it would be impossible for them to go it alone. "We can decide to be separate and free, but what will we do the next morning?" asks Vello Pohla, leader of the Estonian Green Movement. "Everything has been damaged by 50 years of Soviet administration. We have to reach a standard of living first that would make it possible to raise the question of secession." Latvian Ideology Secretary Kezbers points out that the West, for all its moral support, would probably offer little economic help to three independent Baltic republics. As he puts it, "No room has been booked for us in the Europe Hotel."