Vilnius

BUDAPEST, 1956. Prague, 1968. Vilnius, 1991. Each time Soviet tanks were sent to crush subject peoples who had become bold enough to resist Moscow's rule. Each time the brutal crackdowns were accompanied by similarly unbelievable claims.The independence movements that the Red Army extinguished in Hungary and Czechoslovakia were condemned as "counter-revolutionary," a designation that automatically put them beyond the pale of Soviet tolerance and made military force obligatory.The harsh and unmistakable message of the military takeover in Lithuania won't be misheard in those other republics that have also declared their sovereignty.

WARSAW -- Lithuanian government representatives expressed disappointment yesterday with the Polish government's failure to accord the embattled Vilnius authorities the diplomatic recognition they need to survive an incursion of Soviet tanks."

VILNIUS, Lithuania -- Soviet soldiers laughed before they fired automatic weapons at Lithuanian nationalists. Without warning, they shot people in the back. They grabbed axes and bludgeoned 20 people on the head.Survivors of the Soviet army's overnight assault on the Vilnius television tower and broadcast center spoke of such acts of brutality by soldiers sent in tanks and armored personnel carriers to capture the installations."Their eyes were like glass, they were in a trance," said Vaclovas Bernotas, 21, a physics student, who was shot from behind in the left arm.Mindaugas Cernius, 17, was trying to get away from the television tower when, he said, a squad of 20 soldiers, one with a machine gun, opened fire on him from 30 feet away.