Baltic Timeline

10 years ago this week

The largest rash of forest fires in Latvia's post-World War II history broke out as 4,500 hectares of forest caught fire. About 1,300 hectares of forest burned at the Adazi military installation. The smoke could be smelled in Riga.

The Latvian Supreme Council revoked the mandates of 14 deputies - all members of the Equal Rights faction - for their alleged participation in "activities intended to overthrow the Republic of Latvia's legal state and local government bodies and attempts to hold back the republic's course toward independence. The allegations stemmed from activities in January and August, 1991.

After months of deadlock between the Baltic and Russian governments on the thorny issue of the withdrawal of ex-Soviet troops from the Baltic countries, the ice seemed to be broken by Russian President Boris Yeltsin during the Conference for Security and Cooperation summit in Helsinki. Yeltsin said full troop withdrawal could be possible by late 1993.

The residents of the Estonian border town of Narva begin collecting petition signatures to force a referendum on the town's status. Town leaders don't rule out the possibility of becoming an independent territory.

Five years ago

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Baltic leaders during a short visit to Vilnius that, with some work, they would be serious candidates for NATO membership.

A criminal investigation into the events surrounding the 1940 communist coup was opened July 11. The coup, which led to the Soviet takeover of Estonia, is being investigated by the security police board of Estonia, an anti-corruption, anti-terrorism task force.

The former leader of the pro-Soviet Yedinstvo organization in Lithuania, Valery Ivanov, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment on charges of defamation of the January 13, 1991, Soviet coup victims. He claimed that those killed were not killed by the Soviet army, and that photographs of them were doctored. The claims were part of his book "The Lithuanian Prison."

Grosse Pointe Blank, "The People vs. Larry Flint" and "The Bridges of Madison County" are among the movies playing in theaters in the Baltics.