The Lithuanian parliament has declared its 1940 annexation by the Soviet Union "unlawful and invalid," and Tass Friday acknowledged the move as a step toward secession.
The Lithuanians, whose Communist Party broke with the Kremlin in December, took the new action Wednesday. They said they want to start talks with Moscow on Lithuanian independence. Estonia took a similar action in November, declaring the annexation of the Baltic republics invalid."Will Lithuania and the Soviet Union proceed along the road together or take separate paths?" the official news agency asked. "Time will judge who is right in this contention."
The legislatures of all three Baltic republics, including Latvia, already had condemned the Soviet-German agreement of 1939 that gave free rein to Hitler in Poland and to Stalin in the Baltics.
Lithuanian's Supreme Soviet, or parliament, on Wednesday passed a resolution declaring that legislation passed on July 21, 1940, making Lithuania a Soviet republic did not express the will of the people and was "unlawful and invalid."
The Lithuanian action coincided with the final day of a meeting of the national Communist Party Central Committee, where party leaders denounced the Lithuanian party for breaking ties with Moscow. They said the split undermines the unity of the party and damages President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's reform program.
The Lithuanian resolution also called for abolishing all constitutional ties of Lithuanians to the Soviet Union and returning some nationalized industries to private ownership.