chairman. Activities The movement supported Gorbachev's policies, but at the same time promoted Lithuanian national issues such as restoration of the Lithuanian language as the official language. Its demands included the revelation of truth about the Stalinist years, protection of the environment, the halt to construction on a third nuclear reactor at the Ignalina nuclear power plant, and disclosure of the secret protocols of the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact, signed in 1939. Sąjūdis used mass meetings to advance its goals. At first, Communist Party leaders shunned these meetings, but by mid-1988 their participation became a political necessity. A Sąjūdis rally on 24 June 1988, was attended by Algirdas Brazauskas, then party secretary for industrial affairs. In October 1988, Brazauskas was appointed first secretary of the communist party to replace Songaila. Communist leaders threatened to crack down on Sąjūdis, but backed down in the face of mass protests. Sąjūdis candidates fared well in elections to the Congress of People's Deputies, the newly created Soviet legislative body. Their candidates won in 36 of the 40 districts in which they ran. In February 1989 Sąjūdis declared that Lithuania had been forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union and that the group's ultimate goal was the restoration of Lithuanian independence. Lithuanian sovereignty was proclaimed in May 1989, and Lithuania's incorporation into the Soviet Union was declared illegal. On 23 August 1989, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Nazi–Soviet Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a 600-kilometre, two-million-strong human chain reaching from Tallinn to Vilnius focused international attention on the aspirations of the Baltic nations. This demonstration and the coordinated efforts of the three nations became known as the Baltic Way. Days after the rally, the federal Supreme Soviet soon made public its admission of the forced accession of the Baltic republics. In December the Communist Party of Lithuania seceded from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and agreed to give up its monopoly on power. In February 1990 Sąjūdis representatives (or candidates that were supported by the movement) won an absolute majority (101 seats out of 141) in the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR. Vytautas Landsbergis was elected chairman of the Supreme Council. This led to the declaration of the restoration of independence on 11 March 1990, with Landsbergis becoming the first President of a restored Lithuania. After independence Today, Sąjūdis is still active in Lithuania, but it has lost almost all its influence. With independence