As a result, thousands of young demonstrators gathered in the central street of Kaunas, Laisvės Alėja in anti-government protests that started on May 18 and were suppressed by Soviet troops on May 19.

On May 14, 1972, a 19-year-old high school student named Romas Kalanta poured three liters of gasoline on himself and set himself on fire in the square adjoining Laisvės Alėja in front of the Kaunas Musical Theatre where, in 1940, the People's Seimas had declared the establishment of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.

[1] However, it provoked even bigger outrage among the gathered people, mostly high school students and young workers and developed into a politically charged riot, which was forcibly dispersed by KGB, militsiya, and Internal Troops.

The political émigré Vytautas Alantas published a book dedicated to the events under the title Romas Kalanta: The Living Torches in the Nemunas Valley.

A 2017 Lithuanian drama film Emilija contains a self-immolation scene, the course of events in the city centre and the subsequent crackdown by the militsia.