Church became popular again and many people joined Catholic Church because it could help them overcome that uneasy period and economical crisis. "Many Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians started paying attention to their souls and found church a power which could help them create new better life, help them win in the long and difficult process of gaining real economical independence" (Broken Empire: After the Fall of the U.S.S.R. p
Sure, these countries could not resist Soviet Army even if they had own armed forces (Soviet Army was the strongest in the world, the same as American). "Leaders didn't hope to receive help from the West because Western leaders were afraid of interfering in Soviet affairs and it could cause terrible military conflict" (Katsiaficas, George N
145). The occasion was supposed signing of a new union agreement and "this can be proved by conspirators' documents where they wrote about extremists who were going to separate and destroy Soviet Union" (Muravchik, Joshua Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism)
These were strict measures but they were the only correct actions in that situation: we didn't see any other way out. We wanted to employ our workers, not to close enterprises and let people have everything they needed to live normal life" (Henchman, Charles Agony of USSR p
But then in the late 1980s, Glasnost prised out for the Soviet people the historical truth that the Germans and the Soviets abolished the independent existence of the three countries by the "secret protocol" of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, which carved up eastern and central Europe into two spheres of influence." (Bordeaux, Michael Three Brave Nations: Baltic States (http://www
was considering other options to show its disapproval, including military ones." (Soviet Showdown August 19,1991 Article (http://www