[gallery type="slideshow" ids="90590,90589,90587,90588,90586,90585,90584,90583,90582"] Twenty-seven years ago today, demonstrations began across Burma demanding an end to the 26-year dictatorship of Gen. Ne Win. Eventually swelling to crowds of hundreds of thousands, the military government crushed the protests, killing thousands of people. The Irrawaddy revisits the pivotal 1988 pro-democracy uprising with this series of archival images, a heart-wrenching reminder of the country’s long and painful struggle for democracy that continues to the present day.