"'The night that stirred the world's conscience': so Vytautas Landsbergis, the leader of the mass movement for Lithuanian independence between 1988 and 1991 and the first president of independent, post-Soviet Lithuania, describes the night of 12-13 January 1991, when thousands of Lithuanians rallied to defend their Parliament against Soviet tanks." "In this book, Landsbergis retraces the process which led to that night and the changes that followed. His memoir adds a first-person perspective to events until now known in English mostly through secondary sources." "He discusses the influence on himself and other Lithuanians of German and Soviet occupations, mass deportations, censorship and everyday struggles under Soviet rule. He also gives a first-hand account of the difficulties faced by the Lithuanian government after the Lithuanian Parliament declared its country 'independent again' in 1990, and of his negotiations with Gorbachev and later with Yeltsin." "This translation of the memoir of a significant figure in post-Soviet Europe provides not only a useful document for historians and political scientists, but also a thought provoking account for the general reader of the demise of the Soviet Union and Lithuania's non-violent struggle for freedom."--Jacket.