23 August is the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. The date marks the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, whose secret protocols divided spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and paved the way for the loss of independence by the Baltic states.
In Lithuania, the date is also associated with the Baltic Way of 23 August 1989, when people in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined hands in a peaceful human chain to call for freedom and the restoration of independence.