The reform movement Sajudis organised hundreds of events, demonstrations and meetings around Lithuania during the struggle for independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many of them were recorded by photographer Zinas Kazenas. He also photographed in Latvia and Estonia and covered events in other locations within the USSR and Eastern Europe (including the Moscow August Putsch demonstrations). The hundreds of thousands of shots taken by Zinas Kazenas form a photo-chronicle of the liberation of Eastern Europe from communist rule.

Kazenas prepared an exhibition of his photographs documenting the activities of Sajudis, which was shown in many Lithuanian cities, travelled around Europe and even reached the USA. The exhibition was usually advertised by a poster featuring a photograph taken during a demonstration organised by the Lithuanian Freedom League (LLL).

The LLL was founded as far back as 1978 as an underground organisation with the goal of liberating Lithuania from the Soviet occupation. The league intensified its activities during the years of 'perestroika' (restructuring), organising illegal meetings and making radical and public demands to the communist authorities in Lithuania and Moscow. The 28th of September 1988 marked the anniversary of the German-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Demarcation in 1939 (which modified the earlier Nazi- Soviet Pact). In a secret protocol to this agreement Lithuania was assigned to the Soviet Union's sphere of interest and was accordingly occupied by the Red Army in 1940. To condemn this deal on its forty-ninth anniversary, the LLL organised a demonstration to demand that the secret protocol be made public and declared invalid. The militia and the army of internal affairs tried to disperse the meeting and there was a violent confrontation in which some were injured and arrested.

During this protest, Zinas Kazenas photographed a teenage girl raised above a line of soldiers with the national flag in her hand. The photograph captured the situation in Lithuania very effectively. In addition to promoting the exhibition, the image was used on posters for elections to the Supreme Soviet of Lithuania and was published many times in Lithuania and abroad.

Photographer Zinas Kazenas (b. 1936) graduated from the Higher School of Military Aviation Photography while serving in the Soviet Army. After his service in the army he worked as a photojournalist in Lithuania. From 1988 he was actively involved with Sajudis as a member of its Publishing Group and a photographer for its Information Agency.