Shadow era dead
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"It's very sad to see what's happening to it now." "Each year, I'd come here with flowers and a portrait of my grandfather, who fought in the Soviet army, and was wounded," she says. She says her country's reassessment of Russian memorials and street names is erasing valuable history. It's such a stupid decision," gripes Svetlana, a retired Russian-speaking resident of Riga who doesn't want to give her last name for fear of being targeted because of the controversy over the monument. But none of the attempts loom as large as Latvia's plans to dismantle Riga's Victory Monument, which is exposing long-held tensions between Latvians and their large ethnic Russian minority. "Previously I would have said 'no,' but given the war, I think yes, we should take it down," she says.Īs Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine rages on, former Soviet republics like Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are contending with their history - and in many cases renouncing it, often by demolishing Soviet-era monuments.
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Petrova, one of the city's near quarter million ethnic Russians, thinks it's the right thing to do. That led to the resignation of the country's interior minister. Hundreds among the city's ethnic Russian population responded by returning to lay more flowers at the monument, which then spurred protesters of Russia's war in Ukraine to arrive, resulting in clashes between the two groups that were later broken up by police. The morning after the holiday, Riga broke with tradition and sent a bulldozer to remove the flowers as quickly as it could. "They lay flowers at this monument," she says, "but they're reckoning with how their homeland is bombing and killing people in Ukraine." It's a huge celebration," says Riga resident Brigita Petrova.īut she says Russia's war in Ukraine cast a shadow over this year's celebration. "There is a concert, fireworks and marches. RIGA, Latvia - Each year on May 9, Russia's Victory Day, thousands of Russian-speaking Latvians gather underneath this capital city's 24-story-tall Victory Monument to commemorate Soviet soldiers who died fighting Nazis in World War II. The site fully named The Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders is a 260-foot concrete spire topped with a star that was built in 1985, in the waning years of Soviet rule in Latvia.Īlexander Welscher/DPA/Picture Alliance via Getty Images A sea of flowers lies at the fenced-off Soviet Victory Monument in Riga, Latvia, on Victory Day, May 9.