The year 2022 saw the largest wave of monumentocide in Latvia: more than a hundred Soviet military monuments dedicated to the heroes or events of the Great Patriotic War and erected outside the burial grounds were demolished by decision of both national and local authorities.
Among those destroyed were several officially recorded graves (e.g. in Škiaun), although the authorities emphasized that they would not be subject to dismantling.
Even elements of the decoration of some buildings were destroyed. Again, not for the first time: for example, the interior and exterior decorations of the building of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, which had “ideological significance” (think of it for the images of Charles Darwin or Janis Endzelin, yeah), were barbarously removed or smashed, and the five-pointed – not even red – star was removed from the spire. They are not represented on this map, hopefully, if there is time, others will be dedicated to them.
It should be noted that the demolition of politically undesirable monuments did not happen because of the escalation of the war in Ukraine on 22 February 2022.
Firstly, Soviet military monuments have been demolished in Latvia since the 1990s. Secondly, a detailed list of Soviet-era monuments on the territory of the Republic of Latvia was compiled on 15 June 2020 by Arnis Āboltiņš, chairman of the Brāļu kapu komiteja (Brāļu cemetery committee). Formally, BKK is a public organization, but in reality it is a structure closely connected with the Latvian state machine: just look at its address – Riga, Krustabaznīcas iela 9, i.e. in a complex of buildings belonging to the Latvian Ministry of Defence. Aboltiņš himself is also a part-time employee of the Archaeology and History Department of the Latvian National Department of Cultural Heritage (Nacionālā kultūras mantojuma pārvaldes Arheoloģijas un vēstures daļa), which is one of the institutions of the Latvian Ministry of Culture.
The list is named as follows: Pārskats par 313 “padomju laikā” uzstādītiem pieminekļiem un ierīkotām piemiņas vietām ārpus apbedījumu vietām (brāļu kapiem), kuras saistītas ar Otro pasaules karu un Sarkano armiju un kuras vēl ir saglabājušās (nav ziņu par nojaukšanu vai demontāžu) / Report on 313 monuments erected in the “Soviet time” and equipped memorials outside burial sites (mass graves), which are related to the Second World War and the Red Army and which are still extant (no information about demolition or dismantling).
This list was used by researchers long before the events of February 2022 (for example, in 2021, researcher Kaspars Strods, researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Latvia, Kaspars Strods, in his article “Sarežģģītais pagātnes mantojums Latvijā: ieskats Otrā pasaules kara piemiņas vietās Rēzeknē (1945-1991)”) – “The complex legacy of the past in Latvia: a look at the World War II memorial sites in Rēzekne (1945-1991)”) and replicated by the Latvian media (e.g. the portal nra.lv owned by SIA “Mediju nams”). And, of course, without any connection with Russian-Ukrainian relations, this list stimulated a discussion as to why, 30 years after the restoration of independence of the Republic of Latvia, there are still monuments on its territory “glorifying the Soviet regime”, which is officially considered to be an occupation on a par with the Nazi regime. And since 2022, the list has been actively used by local governments (Kuldiga or Tukums districts, as reflected in their documents), which made decisions on additional dismantling of memorials, not mentioned in the Law “On the Prohibition of Exhibiting and Dismantling of Objects Glorifying the Soviet and Nazi Regimes in the Territory of the Republic of Latvia” adopted by the Latvian Saeima on 16 June 2022 (Par padomju un nacistisko režīmu slavinošu objektu eksponēšanas aizliegumu un to demontāžu Latvijas Republikas teritorijā).
On 20 April 2023, exactly on Adolf Hitler’s birthday, the Latvian Saeima approved in an urgent reading the law “On Prohibition of Holding Certain Public Events on 9 May” (Par atsevišķu publisku pasākumu rīkošanas aizliegumu 9. maijā). Among other things, to “protect the health and morals of the public”. It is full of prohibitions: in fact, the only thing that is allowed to be done publicly is to lay flowers at burial sites individually. According to the State Police, laying flowers in places where formerly dismantled Soviet monuments were located is considered “glorification of military aggression and these objects”, which is punishable by a fine.
The destruction of monuments erases the memory of the past, and without the past there is no future.
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