CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Kenins, Laura |
|---|---|
| Title | For Fatherland, Freedom and Mother Russia: The Riga Freedom Monument as Site and Symbol of Resistance in Soviet Latvia |
| Summary | Built by the independent Republic of Latvia in the 1930s, the Freedom Monument (Latvian Brīvības Piemineklis) in Riga is one of Latvia’s most recognizable landmarks and national symbols. The monument was representative of the nationalist movement that began in the nineteenth century and a nationalist sentiment that remained strong in the republic throughout the interwar period. The monument was a unique case in the Soviet Union. Most of the republics belonged to the Soviet Union from the beginning. The Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia achieved independence from Russia in 1918 and had a successful period of independence between the wars, during which the Soviet Union signed treaties with the countries recognizing their sovereignty and “forever” relinquishing all claims to the territory. During the Second World War, the Soviets used forced peace treaties and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Nazi Germany to justify occupying the three countries. The monument thus became a testament to freedom in an unfree state. Lithuania and Estonia lacked similar monuments. As an obvious symbol of the independent republic, known as “bourgeo is Latvia&#x 201d; in Soviet-speak, it is curious that the monument survived the Soviet occupation of Latvia for fifty years. The monument remained a beacon for the Latvian community, who came to lay flowers in silent protest, protest by self immolation, and, by the 1980s, to protest in large, vocal groups. Though resistance activity was mainly individual until the glasnost era, in the 1980s it grew under new Soviet policies and with expansion of the movement for Latvian independence. This thesis explores how the monument was built as a national symbol in an era of high patriotism, how it grew in importance as a Latvian symbol for both Latvians in Latvia and the diaspora exiled abroad during the Second World War, the resistance activity that occurred there, and why and how it was preserved. |
| Supervisor | Rieber, Alfred |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/kenins_laura.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University