Monument to soldiers - Old Believers who died for the liberation of Latvia
Memorial site

Located in Jēkabpils city cemetery.

The monument erected by the Old Believers community to the Old Believers soldiers who died for the liberation of Latvia in 1918-1919 can be viewed.

The community of Old Believers included several families whose representatives had participated in the battles of 1918-1919, when the question of gaining Latvia's independence was resolved. After the Freedom Struggle, these soldiers were given plots of land from the Free Land Fund. For example, for Latvian army officer Nikolaj Lebedev. In 1935, following the suggestion of teacher Tarasija Makarova (1880 - 1953), the chairman of the community of Old Believers, it was decided to erect a monument to the fighters for Latvia's independence. In the Jēkabpils city cemetery, on a cleared and graveled area, which was fenced off by whitewashed posts, an almost three-meter high oak cross was installed under a pine tree. Old Believer carpenters processed the wood and created an impressive eight-pointed cross. Following tradition, the explanatory inscription was created on a separate oak plaque at the foot of the cross. In Jēkabpils, in V. Lukomska's furniture workshop, an inscription was carved in Russian: "For soldiers - old believers who died for the liberation of Latvia." God, give them eternal memory!” Initially, there were no burials in the vicinity of the mentioned cross - only a pine forest. 20th century In the 1950s, the cross was obsolete. The then chairman of the Old Believers community, Vasilijs Jakovlevich Fedotovs, 20th century. In the mid-1960s, he received permission to restore the memorial, only on the condition that the monument should not be in the shape of a cross and with the inscription: "For the liberation of the Motherland".

Restoration of the monument was entrusted to A. Blumberg. He polished a large block of brown stone into a rectangular memorial stele and carved an octagonal cross and oak branches on its front wall. Under the words: "Eternal memory of the liberation of the Motherland for the fallen soldiers", the inscription "Jēkabpils Old Believers Community" was carved in much smaller letters. The monument was installed on a massive concrete base. On the other hand, the previous oak plaque with the inscription was protected by being placed in the church.

Because at the beginning of the Third Awakening, no other monument related to the proclamation of the Latvian state had been preserved in Jēkabpils. Therefore, already on November 18, 1988, the people of Jēkabpil held a memorial moment with flowers and candles in the Old Believers' cemetery near the monument to the soldiers who fell in the Latvian Freedom Wars. Soon, the restored oak plaque returned to the foot of the monument. The oak plaque was soon replaced by a marble one with an identical reproduction of the original inscription. In 2013, following the initiative of the Belovodije association and its project, the monument was restored and cleaned.