Barricades
IV Soviet Occupation, Restored Independence

The first commemorative sign in Latvia commemorating the time of the 1991 barricades was made by Jānis Sprudzāns from Valmieri in the individual enterprise of granite products, the base was created by SIA "Grods". The author of the idea of the memorial was Valmiera police major Aleksandrs Melngārs (1954-2014), who led a group of Valmiera militiamen during the events of January 1991 in Riga. The sketches and design of the memorial sign were created by Dainis Saulītis. Opened on January 24, 2002. Initially, the memorial was placed on the corner of Rīgas and Grants streets on the land of a private owner, later in 2010 it was moved to the opposite building of the Vidzeme regional administration of the State Police.

The museum is located in Old Riga near the Riga Cathedral. It was founded in 2001 to preserve historical evidence of the events of 1991 in Latvia. A virtual tour of the museum is also available. In January 1991, in Lithuania the Soviet Army opened fire on people who had gathered at the Vilnius TV tower and drove into the crowd with tanks. In response to these events a demonstration of about 500,000 people was organised in Riga to show support to Lithuanians and the readiness of the Latvian people to continue their struggles towards Latvia’s independence. In order to prevent similar events from happening in Latvia, residents began to build barricades in the narrow streets of Old Riga in order to prevent possible attacks of the Soviet Army on the defenders of the barricades. These barricades were also created at various strategic objects not only in Riga, but throughout all of Latvia. Around 50,000 people from all over Latvia participated in defending the barricades. Barricades was a popular movement that helped to regain Latvia’s independence. This is a great example of non-violent resistance in the history of the whole world.

Located in Vaidava Culture and Craft Center.

There is an exposition dedicated to the memory of the deportations of 1949, as well as the participation of the people of Riga in the January 1991 barricades in Riga. Evidence of world wars (mainly printed materials) can also be seen in the exhibition.

Natural and historical objects, manors, history of education, culture, notable people, materials of the collective farm time, household items, banknotes, newspapers, magazines about Vaidava parish.

The importance of Dome Square during the Awakening was determined mainly by two circumstances – it was located in the immediate vicinity of the building of the Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR, as well as the fact that the building of Latvian Radio is located on the square. Various actions were held on Dome Square, putting forward demands to the Supreme Council, for example, on July 26, 1989, the Latvian Federation of Labor organized a rally attended by 60,000 people, demanding that the Supreme Council adopt the Declaration of Sovereignty. It was at this rally that the then popular slogan “Something in the past, but in free Latvia” was raised.

Dome Square was the main gathering place for the defenders of the barricades in January 1991, protecting the Supreme Council and the Radio House. The defenders of the barricades warmed themselves by the bonfires. They also stayed in the Radio House and the Dome Church. A first aid station was set up in the church, and services were held. In the evenings, popular rock bands performed on an improvised stage in the square. Every year, events commemorating the barricades are held in Dome Square.

Near the Dome Square, at Krāmu Street 3, there is a museum of the 1991 barricades. On January 13, 2018, the stained glass window “With passion for a free Latvia” by artists Krišs and Dzintars Zilgalvji was unveiled in the Dome Church - a dedication to the 1991 barricades and the independence of Latvia.

The former Vidzeme Knights' House has been the home of the Latvian Parliament since 1922. During the Soviet occupation, a pseudo-parliament - the Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR - was located here. In the elections to the Supreme Council held in March 1990, the main issue was the restoration of Latvia's state independence. This was done in accordance with the position of the Latvian Popular Front, which stated that it was more realistic to do this using the existing power structures of the USSR. In order to win a qualified vote in the Supreme Council, 134 votes were needed.

On May 4, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR adopted the Declaration “On the Restoration of the Independence of the Republic of Latvia”. 138 voted in favor of its adoption, 1 abstained, but 57 deputies who advocated Latvia remaining part of the USSR did not participate in the vote. By adopting the Declaration, the 1922 Constitution was restored in the territory of Latvia, but until the adoption of a new version of the Constitution, its operation was suspended, except for the first three articles of the Constitution. Such a transitional period was determined until the convocation of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia. May 4 is celebrated as the Day of the Restoration of the Independence of the Republic of Latvia.

On May 15, 1990, opponents of independence attempted to seize the Supreme Council with the help of military cadets dressed in civilian clothes, but the spontaneously organized students of the Polytechnic Institute and the Institute of Physical Culture repelled the attack. The second attempt to attack the Supreme Council was stopped by the militia (the OMON unit, which in June 1990 refused to submit to the government of the Republic of Latvia and became the main strike force of the opponents of independence).

The Supreme Council was one of the most important points of barricade protection in January 1991. The approaches to it were fenced off with reinforced concrete blocks, and these protective structures were there until the unsuccessful coup attempt in Moscow on August 19-21, 1991. Soviet paratroopers and OMON fighters were unable to occupy the Supreme Council, and its deputies continued their work. On August 21, at 1:00 p.m., four OMON armored personnel carriers entered the Dome Square and remained there until 2:10 p.m., trying to intimidate the deputies, who at that time (at 1:10 p.m.) adopted the Constitutional Law on the State Status of the Republic of Latvia (111 deputies voted for, 13 against). This abolished the transitional period established on May 4, 1990 for the de facto restoration of state power in the Republic of Latvia, and Latvia regained full independence. In 2007, a memorial site for the January 1991 barricades was opened near the Saeima building on Jēkaba Street, and in 2000, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Latvia, a commemorative plaque was installed next to the main entrance of the Saeima with the inscription: "In this building, on May 4, 1990, the deputies of the Supreme Council adopted a declaration on the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Latvia."

The area around Bastejkalns includes several memorial sites from the barricade era. The square, located at the intersection of Smilšu and Torņa streets, opposite the Powder Tower, was named the 1991 Barricade Square in 2016. The heavy equipment stationed here protected Old Riga from invasion at a strategically important location. The nearby Latvian War Museum housed barricade post no. 1.

On January 20, 1991, an OMON attack on the Ministry of Internal Affairs took place in the vicinity of Bastejkalns, which took the lives of several people. In the canalside greenery, opposite Bastejkalns, at the places where the victims were mortally wounded, memorials have been erected - stones to militia lieutenant Vladimir Gamanovič, inspector of the internal affairs department Sergejs Kononenko, director of the Riga Film Studio Andris Slapiņš, schoolboy Edijs Riekstiņš and the shot cameraman Gvido Zvaigznes, who died on February 5. There is a version that the shooters were not only and not so much OMON members, but also some “third force” - either from the special unit “Alfa”, or employees of the USSR State Security Committee from Moscow, who provoked the OMON attack on the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

A memorial stone has also been installed in the canalside gardens to the victim of August 19, 1991, Raimonds Salmiņš, who was shot by riot police near the Riga City Police Department building at the intersection of Aspazijas Boulevard and 13. janvāra Street. In 2014, a memorial plaque dedicated to the victims of the January 20, 1991 attack on the Ministry of the Interior was installed near the former Ministry of the Interior building at the corner of Raina Boulevard and Reimersa Street.

The Freedom Monument was one of the central symbolic points of the Awakening events. On June 14, 1987, the human rights group Helsinki-86 organized an unauthorized public flower-laying ceremony at the Freedom Monument. Two months later, on August 23, Helsinki-86 called for a rally at the Freedom Monument on the 48th anniversary of the Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 23, 1939. During this rally, Soviet police beat and arrested demonstrators. In the following years, flower-laying ceremonies at the Freedom Monument became a part of all major demonstrations and other mass events .

Located in the center of Riga, on Freedom Square.

The Freedom Monument is one of the most outstanding monuments of Latvian history, architecture and art. Built according to the project of Kārlis Zāle with public donations. It was unveiled in 1935 as a symbol of the Latvian people's freedom and love of their homeland. Together with the Riga Brothers' Cemetery ensemble, it belongs to the most valuable examples of monumental architecture and sculpture.

The Freedom Monument expresses the ethical and aesthetic values of Latvian culture. The symbols reflect the philosophical essence of freedom and the historical ideas of the Latvian nation about the stages of the struggle for independence. They point to the embodiment of physical and spiritual strength. The heroic language tells the story of the Latvian people as self-reliant, active creators of history and the determinants of their own destiny.

In its place, there was originally a monument to Russian Tsar Peter I. During World War I, it was dismantled to be transported by ship to Petrograd. The ship was torpedoed by a German submarine, and it sank off the Estonian island of Vormsi. The Soviet occupation regime planned to demolish the Freedom Monument several times, but this did not happen.

Today, you can see one of the symbols of Latvia and observe the traditions of the army honor guard.

A tactile Freedom Monument has been created on the canal bank, next to the Freedom Monument. This special bronze miniature was created by sculptor Ivars Miķelsons on a scale of 1:50.

1991. gada janvārī viens no Latvijas neatkarības pretinieku mērķiem bija neitralizēt pēc 1990. gada 4. maija Neatkarības deklarācijas pieņemšanas izveidoto Ivara Godmaņa vadīto Latvijas Republikas valdību. Promaskaviskajiem spēkiem 1991. gada 9. janvārī izdevās panākt Kazimiras Prunskienes valdības atkāpšanos Lietuvā, mobilizējot savus piekritējus protestiem pret mazumtirdzniecības cenu paaugstināšanu. 10. janvārī ar tādu pat aizbildinājumu iepretim Ministru padomei notika Interfrontes organizēts mītiņš. Tajā ap 10 000 dalībnieku pieprasīja I. Godmaņa valdības atkāpšanos un mēģināja ielauzties ēkā. Milicijai izdevās novērst šādus mēģinājumus. Valdība un Augstākā padome demonstrēja vienotu pozīciju, un valdība neatkāpās.

Pēc traģiskajiem notikumiem Viļņā 13. janvārī, Ministru padomes ēka bija viens no pirmajiem objektiem, ap kuru sāka veidot barikādes, kas sastāvēja no dzelzsbetona bluķiem, baļķiem, smilšu maisiem un smagajām automašīnām un traktoriem. Pēc 1991. gada puča sakāves 25. augusta rītā tika demontēts iepretim LPSR Ministru padomei esošais Ļeņina piemineklis.

Piemiņas vieta „Barikāde” izveidota Ulbrokā, Rīgas-Ērgļu šosejas malā pie Piķurgas upītes tiltiņa, kur 1991. gada janvārī atradās divi barikāžu posteņi. Viens, kas sargāja Rīgas robežu un otrs, kas apsargāja Latvijas Radio torni Ulbrokā. Janvāra notikumu gaitā tieši radio bija galvenais informācijas iegūšanas veids, tādēļ bija svarīgi nepieļaut radiosakaru pārtraukšanu. 125 metrus augsto radiotorni, ko izmantoja Latvijas Radio programmu raidīšanai vidējo viļņu diapazonā, ieradās sargāt gan vietējie Ulbrokas iedzīvotāji, gan kaimiņi no Garkalnes, Ādažiem, Tīnūžiem un Ropažiem.

1991. gada 11. novembrī atklātā un tēlnieka Ulda Sterģa darinātā vertikāli novietotā akmens bluķa “Barikāde” divās šķautnēs iecirsts teksts “Ulbroka.1991.I”. Katru gadu 20. janvārī šajā vietā notiek 1991. gada janvāra Barikādēm veltīti piemiņas pasākumi. 2003. gadā 33 Stopiņu pagasta iedzīvotājiem šeit pasniedza valdības apbalvojumu - Barikāžu dalībnieka piemiņas medaļu.  2024. gadā Ulbrokas bibliotēka ir izveidojusi virtuālo izstādi “Barikādes Ulbrokā. 1991. gada janvāris".