News » Products » 25 litas 2013 Lithuania – coin dedicated the Lithuanian Sąjūdis

25 litas 2013 Lithuania – coin dedicated the Lithuanian Sąjūdis

10.00

25 litas proof coin
Cooper-aluminium-zinc-tin alloy
Diameter 28.00 mm, Weight 10.00 g
Quality proof
Mintage — 25,000 pcs
Issued in 2013

Description

On the reverse of the coin, a fragment of a photograph by Zinas Kazėnas is memorialized in the centre, the year of issue 2013 on the left, the inscription LIETUVOS SĄJŪDIS 25 (LITHUANIAN SĄJŪDIS 25) on the right.

The obverse of the coins features Vytis, a stylized coat-of-arms of the Republic of Lithuania, and fragments of barricades in the centre; the inscription LIETUVA (LITHUANIA) is arranged in a semicircle above them; the respective denominations 50 LITŲ (50 litas) are placed at the bottom. Also featured on the coin is the mintmark of the Lithuanian Mint.

The Reform Movement of Lithuania (Sąjūdis), established on the 3rd of June 1988, didn’t just rally the Lithuanian nation to rise up again to fight for their freedom and restore the independent state—the nation that had been brought together in Sąjūdis came back into European history and become an active participant and creator of events that changed the world.

Sąjūdis began as a movement to support the “restructuring” (perestroika) of the Soviet Union. However, the deep seated spiritual and moral spring that awakened it was the understanding of the existential danger to the nation and the desire for freedom. The dream to restore the independent Lithuanian state, which has never faded away, was what protected the newly-forming Sąjūdis from the danger of becoming a tool for the Soviet empire’s plans of “restructuring” and “renewal”.

Only a few months of intensive work and relentless political struggle were needed for the reawakening public, although there were various attempts made to smother them, to wipe away all obstructions and rise up as a great wave of national rebirth. In the Founding Congress of the 22–23rd of October 1988, Sąjūdis finally established itself in the public space as a legal, grassroots public political movement.

On 26th of March 1989, during the elections to the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Soviet Union, Sąjūdis achieved a convincing victory: its representatives gained 36 out of the 42 spots designated for Lithuania. The abundant group of representatives at the Congress helped to more closely cooperate with the delegations from Latvia, Estonia and other Soviet republics. The Congress saw the formation of a broad, democratically-minded camp of deputies, which supported the aims of the Baltic republics. At its request, a committee was formed to politically and legally asses the Soviet Union’s and Germany’s non-aggression pact of 1939. At the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Soviet Union, on the 24th of December 1989 it was decided that the secret agreements between the two aggressors were not legally founded and were invalid from the date of their signing. This was a great political and moral victory for Sąjūdis: the Soviet Union finally officially recognized the fact of the occupation of the Baltic countries.