Gorbachev Responds to Lithuanian Sovereignty
Mikhail Gorbachev, Decree of the President of the USSR. March 21, 1990
In March 1990, after Lithuania’s newly elected Supreme Council moved to restore independence, Gorbachev issued a presidential decree casting the move as unlawful and threatening to the USSR’s unity. Framed as defense of constitutional order, it also functioned as pressure. It instructed Soviet ministries and local executive organs to enforce all-Union law, tightened border and internal controls, restricted firearms sales and required weapons to be surrendered for “temporary storage,” and called for stricter regulation of foreign entry and activity. The decree marked a turn from negotiation to coercion.
Original Source: M. S. Gorbachev, “Ukaz Prezidenta SSSR ot 21 marta 1990 g. No. 3: O dopolnitel’nykh merakh po obespecheniiu prav sovetskikh grazhdan, okhrane suvereniteta Soiuza SSR na territorii Litovskoi SSR.” Published in Vedomosti S”ezda narodnykh deputatov SSSR i Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR, 1990, No. 13, item 207. Disregarding the 15 March 1990 resolutions of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet and Government of the Lithuanian SSR continue to adopt laws which violate the rights of Soviet citizens and the sovereignty of the USSR. Therefore, I resolve:
That the USSR Council of Ministers, executive and administrative organs of local Lithuanian SSR Councils of People's Deputies, and institutions of law and order must ensure adherence to the Constitution of the USSR and laws of the USSR defending the rights and legitimate stipulations of interests of USSR citizens presently living in the Lithuanian SSR.
The border army of the KGB must take necessary measures to enhance the security of those USSR borders which lie along the territory of the Lithuanian SSR, blocking the way for illegal actions that violate the USSR law on state borders.
To temporarily suspend the 23 July 1975 Resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers No. 646 on standard procedure for the purchase, registration, and possession of hunting weapons, at the same time prohibiting, for this period of time the selling of firearms in the republic. Citizens living on the territory of the Lithuanian SSR [LSSR] must, within seven days, turn in their firearms to agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for temporary storage. If citizens refuse to turn. in their weapons, the Ministry of Internal Affairs must ensure their confiscation. [ ... ]
The USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs must more strictly control the process of issuing visas and permits for foreign citizens to enter the LSSR. The USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs must take necessary measures to prevent foreign citizens on the territory of the LSSR from violating regulations concerning the presence of foreign citizens in the USSR, even to the point of expelling them from the USSR according to the USSR law on the legal status of foreign citizens in the USSR. [...]