HONG KONG — Hong Kong residents on Friday planned to join hands and form human chains that would extend for miles across the city in a call for direct elections, a test of the continuing strength of the monthslong protest movement and a display that recalls a major anti-Soviet demonstration from 30 years ago.

Participants planned to fan out across three routes totaling 30 miles over densely populated sections of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories.

The plans developed quickly online this week after a march on Sunday drew hundreds of thousands who demonstrated in the rain, a sign that protesters had not been dissuaded by a police ban or warnings from the Chinese government.

The organizers of Friday night’s protest called for participants to sing, chant slogans and hold hands along sidewalks before peacefully dispersing.

It would follow a variety of protest efforts, including marches, petitions, advertisements in international publications and walkways filled with art, as well as more confrontational actions such as defacing government buildings, clashing with the police and blocking roadways and trains.

A spreadsheet posted online asked likely participants where they planned to go, then calculated where turnout would be above or below expectations, in order to direct people to empty spots in the chain.

One map recommended leaving a gap in North Point, a neighborhood on Hong Kong Island where a group of men had clashed with antigovernment protesters on Aug. 5.

Friday is the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Baltic Way protest, when as many as two million residents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania formed a human chain to call for independence from the Soviet Union.

Avoiding the fate of the Soviet Union has been a preoccupation of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, and other Chinese officials. During a 2017 visit to Hong Kong, Mr. Xi gave a stern warning that challenging China’s sovereignty “crosses the red line.”

The organizers have not emphasized the pro-independence sentiment of the Baltic protest that inspired Friday’s event. The Hong Kong protests began over a government plan to allow extraditions to mainland China. The proposal has since been shelved, but the lack of a full withdrawal continues to drive protests.

Demands have expanded to include amnesty for arrested protesters and an investigation into police violence. Friday’s protest will raise those demands, with an emphasis on others: expanding democracy in Hong Kong and making the chief executive, who is now selected by a committee of about 1,200, a directly elected position.

“The great majority of participants in protests are not advocates of Hong Kong independence,” said Willy Lam, adjunct professor at the Center for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “They have chosen this Baltic human chain as a symbol of unity.”

One widely read post on a bulletin board used by protesters said that while more militant protesters might find such an activity “silly,” it was important that they still participate.

“We are all Hong Kongers,” it said. “We shouldn’t divide into ‘militant’ and ‘peaceful.’ To win we must be more unified than our opponent.”

Katherine Li contributed reporting.

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