Wikipedia:Peer review/Soviet economic blockade of Lithuania/archive1

Soviet economic blockade of Lithuania

The current review seeks to get the article closer to a featured article standard. I believe the resources I've cited are so plentiful that there might be little to add (though any editor with some fairly decent knowledge of Lithuanian, or better, is welcome to find more resources, particularly Lithuanian scholarship). I can say for now that I don't think you'll find more sources in English, Russian, or Polish.

Mindaur has said that the intro to the blockade is too long and should be included in other articles, and some info in the Impacts/Rising tensions with the minorities might be unnecessary; I would like to seek comments about that issue in particular, but do make a review of the rest of the pieces. A question might arise about the fact photos are not abundant in the article - unfortunately I was not able to gain consent to upload relevant photos to the Wikimedia Commons, so oops, they are not there. Links to them are provided in external links.

Thanks, Szmenderowiecki (talk) 09:21, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

Comments by Z1720

Hi Szmenderowiecki, I am sorry that it has taken so long for someone to review this article. My best advice is to start reviewing WP:FACs right now: reviewing helps editors understand the intricacies of the FAC criteria and Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. It also builds goodwill among FAC reviewers and demonstrates that you read and understood the FA criteria before nominating your article.

If you want more comments on this PR, I recommend advertising it at various Wikiprojects or with editors who have worked on similar articles. You can also get an FA mentor who can help guide you through the FA process. Since this is a PR, it will not be considered canvassing to contact specific editors. Below are some comments about the article. I will review this as if it was an FAC, but instead of fixing things as I go along I will post them here so that you can gain a better understanding of what needs to be fixed.

• The lede is too long. I informally determined that the body of the article has 27,000 characters; at MOS:LEDELENGTH, they recommend that an article of that size has two-three paragraphs. I won't take a close look at it now, as it will need to be shortened. I suggest that you remove the less important parts first, then others can take a look at it to suggest further edits.
• The first sentence is a run-on sentence and should be broken up.
• In background, either use the "Further information" or "See also" hatnote, but not both.
• " the Baltic states were still seen as somewhat different from the rest of USSR by the end of its existence." -> in the 1980s the Baltic states were seen as somewhat different from the rest of the USSR
• The campaign boxes and images in the Background section are creating MOS:SANDWICH
• "As a result of these efforts, massive demonstrations began to emerge in most Soviet republics." -> These efforts caused massive demonstrations in most Soviet republics
• "In the Baltic states, protests, initially against the environmentally-unfriendly projects of the central government, turned more and more political, so that by late summer 1988, Sąjūdis, the movement which was initially in favour of perestroika, started demand legalisation of the Lithuanian interwar flag, resignation of the republic's government and sovereignty for Lithuania, and by early 1989, the movement already protested for independence from USSR." Run-on sentence and too many commas. Suggest that it is reworded
• "however, not only did Gorbachev fail to subordinate party rebels, but also that fiasco encouraged Lithuanians to press even harder for independence." -> Gorbachev failed to subordinate party rebels and his trip encouraged Lithuanians to increase their efforts for independence.
• "It demanded to renounce the independence declaration," -> It demanded that Lithuania renounce their independence declaration.
• "Landsbergis government" -> "Landsbergis's government"
• "As the tensions rose and the situation spiralled out of control" Delete. The situation going out of control depends on the perspective, and tanks being sent to Lithuania shows the reader that tensions increased, so this phrase is unnecessary.
• "all foreigners (including diplomats and journalists) out." -> all foreigners (including diplomats and journalists) to leave the region.
• "who by then has become Deputy" -> who was the Deputy
• The first sentence of Blockade is a run-on sentence.
• "vaccines for hospitals.[39][21][34][40]" Refs should be in numerical order
• "off-bounds for foreigners.[39][31]" Same as above
• "Queues to petrol stations were observed to reach multiple kilometres." -> Queues to petrol stations were several kilometres long.
• "As a result, public transport" Delete as a result
• "While Lithuanian officials were accepted rather warmly, but still as private guests only." -> Lithuanian officials were accepted warmly, but only as private guests
• "Thomas Lane argues that" What are this person's credentials? Why should the reader care what they think?
• "Una Bergmane also points " Same as above
• "as for Margaret Thatcher, she seemed not to be particularly interested in the case." -> Thatcher did not seem particularly interested in this event
• "More friendly attitudes were exhibited in Poland," This sentence is a run-on sentence and should be split up.
• "Lithuania has been exhausted by the blockade," -> Lithuania was exhausted by the blockade
• "while on the following day, Moldavian SSR voted to recognize the independence of Lithuania." -> and Moldavian SSR voted to recognize the independence of Lithuania the following day.
• "enforce the blockade,[60]" comma should be a period.
• "Meanwhile, in the United States, the US Congress" Delete in the United States
• "such a strong crackdown." -> such a strong reaction from the Soviet Union
• "According to Martha Olcott, " Who is this, why is this person important?
• " Indeed, the Lithuania's economy" Delete Indeed, the
• "Vardys (2018)" Use the full name, delete the year, describe their credentials
• "Hufbauer et al. (2007) estimated" Who is this person, what organisation are they from? Delete the year.
• "from 26,000[62] up to 50,000[68] people" -> Delete up
• "and additionally other workers who stood idle were paid salaries from the Lithuanian government nevertheless, which widened Lithuania's budget deficit." -> while other workers who stood idle were continued to be paid by the Lithuanian government, widening their budget deficit.
• "As the blockade meant scarcity of important resources, Lithuania, which was transitioning to the market economy, was trying to centralize its management, strongly regulating its economy to avoid exhaustion of supplies and postponing some market-oriented reforms as a result (particularly in comparison with Latvia and Estonia)." -> As the blockade meant a scarcity of important resources, Lithuania, which was transitioning to a market economy and trying to centralize its management, strongly regulated its economy to avoid exhausting supplies. This postponed some market-oriented reforms, particularly in comparison to Latvia and Estonia.
• "on the borders with Lithuania" -> on Lithuania's borders
• "The government has also created the so-called Blockade Fund," Delete also
• "7,6 million rubles" comma should be a decimal place (a period)
• "The embargo had some profound effects" Delete some
• "In Soviet times, geologists have drilled" Delete have
• "Already in May 1990, the" Delete Already
• " the three states have signed" Delete have
• " Further on, on 1 June 1990," Delete "Further on"
• "say the Polish-Communist ties are either an exaggeration or Lithuanian propaganda." This needs a citation
• In the references, all ISBNs either should have dashes or should not have dashes
• Do not use pixel sizes in images
• All images need alt text, per MOS:ALT.

Those are my thoughts. Please ping me when the above have been addressed and I will do another readthrough. Z1720 (talk) 19:26, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

Z1720, thank you for the efforts you've made to review the article. I have implemented most of the changes.

The ones I didn't implement (or changed somewhat) were the following:

Lede: I don't think I can condense it more than to 3,5 paragraphs, but I did my best to clear the lead from the facts that are not the most important for the article. If you can help with that, I'd be grateful, though I believe that it is already pretty fine as it is. It's not too long and yet it gives all the details necessary.

Background: 1. "Further information" was replaced by "Main article"; 2. Gorbachev failed to subordinate party rebels and his trip encouraged Lithuanians to increase their efforts for independence. - "increase their efforts" sounds pretty strange to me (as if, you know, they reluctantly agreed to declare independence and someone was pushing them to do more), so I retained the old expression ("press harder").

Press harder might be seen as an WP:IDIOM, but it's borderline. Up to you whether to keep it. Z1720 (talk) 21:19, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

Impacts: Martha Olcott -> wikilinked; plus she was writing for the influential Foreign Affairs, so maybe I should indicate that too? Vardys -> described the guy as a researcher of 20th century LT; Hufbauer - described as writers of the book compiling the knowledge on the efficiency of economic blockades;

Yes, you can indicate who she was writing for. Other descriptions work, too. Z1720 (talk) 21:19, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

Lithuania, which was transitioning to a market economy and trying to centralize its management the two things don't normally happen together (and certainly not in former USSR countries), so I rewrote the sentence to indicate that while LT was trying to switch to the capitalist economy, it temporarily centralised its management and made stringent regulations (which is actually more characteristic of the type of economical management Lithuania was trying to abandon).

Sounds good. Z1720 (talk) 21:19, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

"say the Polish-Communist ties are either an exaggeration or Lithuanian propaganda." This needs a citation I think five citations representing the Polish position are more than enough. If you meant that the citations should appear next to the positions (which say "that's an exaggeration" and which say it's propaganda), rather than the authors of such opinions (scholars and representatives of Poles in LT), I can do that, no problem.

The citations should go at the end of the sentence, and perhaps be WP:CITEBUNDLE

Other than that, all changes have been done.

As for the advice above, I feel too shy yet to review any FA candidates (though I will give a shot at reviewing somewhat less demanding GA candidates). I have also contacted a mentor, who is a little busy now but promised to help me soon. Thanks again for the review. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 18:10, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

Here are some suggestions on what to cut from the lede:

• "movements appeared that ultimately advocated for autonomy" Delete ultimately.
• "Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania (Act)" Why is (Act) here? If you are trying to refer to it in a shortened form, you can just call it "the act" and remove these brackets.
• "The Act incensed the Kremlin officials, who demanded that the Act be annulled, seeing it as a secessionist affair, but Lithuania ignored them, arguing they were coerced to join the USSR back in 1940." -> "Kremlin officials demanded that the Act be annulled, interpreting it as a secessionist affair. Lithuania ignored them, arguing that they were coerced to join the USSR in 1940."
• "Gorbachev then issued a command to strengthen the monitoring of the border and reinforcement of troops in Lithuania, and, since the Lithuanians did not back down with the independence processes, decided to send an ultimatum on 13 April, requiring Lithuanians to renounce the act for fear of economic sanctions." -> "Gorbachev issued a command to strengthen the monitoring of the border and reinforcement of troops in Lithuania. The Lithuanians did not stop their independence process, so Gorbachev sent an ultimatum on 13 April, requiring Lithuanians to renounce the act for fear of economic sanctions."
• "the blockade started on 18 April 1990 at 21:25." Which timezone?
• "However, international pressure on Lithuania and the Soviet Union" Delete However
• "On 2 July, after the Lithuanian parliament agree to suspend the effects of the Act, the sanctions were lifted." -> The sanctions were lifted on 2 July after the Lithuanian parliament agreed to suspend the effects of the act.
• "or 1,5% of GNP." This should be a decimal place, not a comma
• "while on the other hand, it also had the enterprises create partnerships with fellow companies and had Lithuania do the same with other republics, which marked a transition to capitalist economics." -> while enterprises created partnerships with fellow companies and Lithuania negotiated partnerships with other republics, marking a transition to capitalist economics.

I responded to your other points above, except for reviewing. I know it is daunting to review FAs, and there are lots of criteria. The advantage to FA reviews is you are not expected to catch every mistake: with at least 5 reviewers per nom, others will catch what you miss and offer comments on how to improve the articles. Reviewers do not have to declare support or oppose in their reviews, as long as they explicitly say that they are just giving comments. I advise new reviewers who are nervous to just review articles for jargon and technical terms: this is a valuable review and shows the nom which parts of the article are difficult to understand. If you want help or feedback on your review, feel free to ping me or the FAC co-ords and they will help you out. Z1720 (talk) 21:19, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

@Szmenderowiecki: to ensure they saw the above comments. Z1720 (talk) 15:19, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

I have, thank you. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 09:58, 10 November 2021 (UTC)