The Power of the Baltic Way

Target audience: Grade 1–12

During this lesson students are given an in-depth insight into one of the most vivid events of the Third Awakening – the Baltic Way campaign (1989), learning about its organisation, execution, and consequences – promoting and strengthening understanding of society’s involvement in historical events.

Procedure: the lesson gives students the opportunity to find out facts about the Baltic Way campaign, familiarize themselves with museum materials about the event, work independently in groups, read stories of the Baltic Way, research and analyse the motivations and emotions of the participants, analyse reactions to the campaign around the world by reading the foreign press, and to debate civic participation then and now. The class takes place in a unique building – the headquarters of the Popular Front of Latvia, where important decisions were made and historic events took place, organising the path to the restoration of Latvia’s independence. Currently, the Popular Front Museum is housed in this building.