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August 23rd this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way, an event that declared and visualized the aspirations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to return to the map of Europe as independent states. This manifesto united more than 2 million participants to stand for freedom in protest against the Soviet occupation. In 2009, UNESCO listed it in its Memory of the World Register.

In 1989, three Baltic States were remembering the 50th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, ​​which enabled the outbreak of World War II and led to 50 years of Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Thirty years ago, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians organized a 675 km long live chain of people from Tallinn to Vilnius through Riga as a message to the world about their quest for freedom, The Baltic Way.

This year, various cultural and social events are held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way along with the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The importance of The Baltic Way to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is immense: the gigantic manifestation was soon followed by the restoration of the independence of all three countries in 1991. The three republics rapidly developed and are now members of the EU and NATO since 2004.

The Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian embassies in Prague, together with Zdenek Hrib, the mayor of Prague, celebrated the jubilee week by installing the flags of the three countries in the lobby of the New Town Hall in Prague’s Mary’s square, as well as the information banner for the public.

"The legacy of ​​the Baltic Way, as well as of the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic this year, should remind us that freedom and democracy are never given for granted. We, the citizen, must seek to preserve them," said Mayor Z. Hrib.

On this occasion, the public Czech television will broadcast a documentary The Baltic Freedom Way (Latvia, 2014) on August 21st.