Saule spid

When the sun is out Bob and I explore more of Riga, so this past Monday we took the tramvajs to The Brothers Cemetery also known as the Cemetery of Heroes. There are about 2000 graves beginning with 1915, the soldiers who fell during the first World War. In another section of the cemetery are white crosses representing some of the victims of the years of the Stalin terror...these remains were removed from a mass burial site in Riga and reburied here. The obelisk with names of the victims including the "nezinams" (unknown) The plaque reminds us that people remember and commemorate the events that occurred in the past. The eternal flame burns ....there always seem to be fresh flowers at many of the memorials throughout Riga.....people do remember. The statue of Mate Latvija (Mother Latvia) overlooks the vast rows of tombstones of her fallen sons.

Gunars Astra a human rights activist sentenced during the Soviet regime said in court....

"I fervently believe that these nightmare times will end one day. This belief gives me the strengh to stand before you. Our people have suffered a great deal but have learned to survive. They will outlive this dark period in their history." He was sentenced in 1983 to seven years' imprisonment and five years' internal exile by the Soviet regime for the crime of possessing recordings of radio programs, photo negatives and subversive books and for writings of a personal nature. In was sentenced in 1983 he died in 1988 and is buried in this cemetery.

In 1991 the people of Latvia were at the barricades to regain freedom.