Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands.
The Singing Revolution (Estonian: laulev revolutsioon; Latvian: dziesmotā revolūcija; Lithuanian: dainuojanti revoliucija; Russian: Поющая революция, Poyushchaya revolyutsiya) is a commonly used name for events that led to the restoration of independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, Heinz Valk, in an article published a week after 10–11 June 1988, spontaneous mass evening singing demonstrations at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. Later, all three countries joined the EU and NATO in 2004.