 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 was suppressed by the 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 the Laisvės Alėja in front of the Kaunas Musical Theatre where, in 1940, the People's Seimas had declared the establishment of the Lithuanian SSR.Before the suicide, Kalanta left his notebook with a brief note that read "blame only the regime for my death".