From the Awakening to the restoration of Latvia's independence
On the route, you will get to know the events and memorial sites of significant events of the Awakening in the Latvian capital of Riga and its surroundings, starting with the manifestations of non-violent resistance at the Freedom Monument on June 14, 1987 and ending with the adoption of the legal act of state sovereignty expressing the will of the Latvian people - the Declaration on the Restoration of the Independence of the Republic of Latvia on May 4, 1990 and the Law on the State Status of the Republic of Latvia - on August 21, 1991.
What the tour includes
Along with the "perestroika" processes in the USSR in the second half of the 1980s, the national awakening movement developed in Latvia. The laying of flowers at the Freedom Monument by members of the human rights group "Helsinki-86" on June 14, 1987 and the march of the red, white and red flag of Latvia by Konstantin Pupurs from the Freedom Monument to the Brothers' Cemetery on June 14, 1988 practically and symbolically demonstrated the growth of the resistance of individual individuals into the liberation movement of the entire nation . The independence efforts reached their climax on August 23, 1989 in a living chain of almost two million people - the "Baltic Way" , which stretched from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius.
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 . To protect their freedom, thousands of Latvians built barricades in Riga in January 1991, which attracted worldwide attention. The actual restoration of Latvia's independence took place after the failure of the August 1991 coup in Moscow and the victory of democratic forces in Russia. This was followed by international recognition of Latvia as a full-fledged state and its return to Europe.
The route was prepared in collaboration with the National Research Program project "Archaeology of Independence: New Approaches to the History of National Resistance in Latvia" (No. VPP-LETONIKA-2021/2-0003) and the Latvian Occupation Museum project "Popularization of Evidence-Based Information about Events in Latvian History". The implementation of the event is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture .