Yesterday, January 20, we saw many Latvian flags on buildings and as we came into the doma laukums in the Old City we saw bonfires. These were lit to commemorate the January events...
the Barricades which commemorates Latvian resistance to the Soviets in 1991. This action led to the reestablishment to an independent Latvia that year. As described in the blog http://lettonica.blogspot.com/2007/01/barricades.html..... half a million seven hundred thousand people gathered in Riga to defend, the banners read,
" your freedom and ours". They faced the Soviets. Four people were killed by snipers, two of them journalists filming the events. At that time heavy equipment blocked streets and huge stones and lumber blocked off access to the old city creating barricades. At the Freedom Monument there was a procession to lay flowers as a military band played ending with the playing of the National Anthem. We are in awe of the courage of the Latvians.
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