Taviana Chronicles
a book by Richard Thorne

Day 2 to 5 – 4-7/2/1987 – It all stirs up

The next evening I was watching news as always. Intro of “Zemlja Litva” flashed in the screen and two announcers appeared:
                             – Good morning friends – the woman said.
                             – Hello – the man added – Today the socialist government accepted the policy of price rising in all Soviet Union. This caused a minor disagreement in Taviana parliament. People are starting to protest. From the center of the event, reporter Danila Ostapenko.
TV switched to the protest and the reporter.
                             – Thank you, Pavel. As you see a lot of people are here to show their disagreement to the price raising in whole Soviet Union. Milicija forces have already arrived and are trying to calm the people down. Luckily nobody has been injured yet. Let’s go to ask a few people out what do they think about all this.
Reporter went in the crowd to some babushka.
                             – Ma’am, why are you here, what do you think of all this?
                             – I’m a working woman. All my life I’ve been working for minimum wage, I could barely eat in the past, and now they are raising prices. We no longer need this Soviet Union!

I didn’t mind those things at all, when they started, but the next day as I was watching the news again, I saw something that looked important.
                             – Today Tavianian government held a vote to declare independence from Soviet Union – a woman on the news said – footage from Taviana parliament.
A big meeting appeared in the screen. One man stood up with a sheet of paper and started talking:
                             – Vote to declare Taviana’s independence from Soviet Union: 21 for, 22 against, 2 marked as not valid.
Suddenly I would hear shouting in the street. I look through my window and see people heading towards Tavianian parliament. I quickly take my coat from the rack and get out of my apartment to join the crowd.