Demonstrators holding red flags and an e

Demonstrators holding red flags and an effigy of Lenin gather in front of the Kremlin in Moscow on February 23, 1991 to support the Red Army and the Soviet Communist Party. Three days before a mass demonstration had called for the resignation of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, protesting against the Soviet army crackdown against the nationalist Lithuanian authorities. Lithuania had been the first Baltic Republic to proclame its independence in March 1990. USSR finally recognized the secession of Lithuania in September 1991. AFP PHOTO VITALY ARMAND (Photo credit should read VITALY ARMAND/AFP via Getty Images)