On 26 March 1989, Latvia took part in the elections to the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies – a political test of the Awakening era in which the Latvian Popular Front won a decisive victory. Candidates supported by the LPF gained 80% of the mandates, or won in 80% of the Latvian SSR’s electoral districts; of the 52 deputies elected in Latvia, 40 supported the LPF program. This vote gave Latvia its first real experience of democratic elections since 1931 and prepared the political road toward restoring independence.

The elections took place during Gorbachev’s perestroika, when Soviet law allowed competition among multiple candidates and popular movements used that opening in the system. The LPF’s success gave supporters of Latvian independence a parliamentary platform in Moscow, including on the issue of recognizing the secret protocols of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.