I took this photo in June 1992 in front of the Lithuanian Parliament building.
The barbed wire was from 1990-1992 when leaders of the newly independent State of Lithuania barricaded themselves in the building which was the “heart of Lithuania” and political center of the country.
“Kovo 11” means March 11, the day in 1990 when Lithuania became the first Soviet state to dare to declare its independence from the Soviet Union. “Islandja” refers to Iceland, the first country to recognize Lithuania’s independence.
The Soviets grudgingly accepted Lithuanian independence a year and a half later in September, 1991. The barbed wire and other signs of the barricades were still there when I took this picture 9 months later in a symbolic protest of the Red Army troops that were still stationed in the country.