Baltic Crackdown — Soviet Troops Kill Protesters in Vilnius and Riga

As Lithuania and Latvia pushed toward independence, Soviet special forces stormed the Vilnius TV tower on 13 January 1991, killing 14 civilians and injuring over 700; a week later, Soviet OMON forces killed at least five more people at the Latvian Interior Ministry in Riga. Gorbachev denied ordering the assaults and blamed hardline military commanders acting without full authorisation, though many historians dispute how much he genuinely knew in advance.