Parliament House Vilnius

This squat, unlovely Soviet-built 'palace', home to the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament), was the scene of a historic standoff. On 13 January 1991 barricades were thrown up to deter Soviet troops acting to crush the movement that had passed the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania the previous year. Fourteen people were killed in the disturbances, but the troops ultimately bowed to popular will and quit Vilnius the following December.