Riga: WWI to Independence Tour

Riga remembers the twentieth century in layers: independence, occupation, war, repression, resistance and renewal. Your route begins at the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, where the story is placed in its wider European setting.

The 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact assigned Latvia to the Soviet sphere of influence, and the USSR occupied the country in June 1940. Latvia was formally incorporated into the Soviet Union on 5 August 1940. Nazi Germany seized Riga in 1941, but the Red Army returned in October 1944, beginning a second Soviet period that lasted until 1991. As you continue to Latvian Riflemen Square, confront the ambiguity of public memory: the riflemen were formed in 1915 during the First World War, yet their later association with Bolshevik power allowed Soviet authorities to reshape their story into revolutionary mythology.

At Doma Square, imagine the old city becoming a stage for the Atmoda, or National Awakening, when choirs, speeches and demonstrations challenged official silence. The Saeima building then brings the question of sovereignty into view. This former House of the Livonian Knighthood became Latvia's parliament in 1922, and in January 1991 it stood inside the defensive zone created by citizens who feared a Soviet crackdown. Nearby, the Corner House reveals what stood behind the slogans: the NKVD and KGB used surveillance, interrogation and imprisonment to enforce obedience. Look up at the ordinary city above those cells; Riga's most unsettling secret was hidden in plain sight.