Latvia topples massive 79-meter Soviet-era monument | DW News

A concrete obelisk topped with Soviet stars, which was the centerpiece of a monument commemorating the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany, was demolished in Latvia’s capital, Riga, on Thursday. Two diggers with pneumatic hammers brought the 79-meter (261-foot) obelisk down to the applause of numerous onlookers. A number of large-scale bronze statues had already been removed from the monument in the preceding days. In view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Latvia issued a decree that all objects glorifying totalitarian regimes must be destroyed by November 15. This included the Soviet victory monument erected in 1985.

“This monument was a steady reminder of our occupation and the associated fate of many people: deportation, repression, and so on. We do not need this kind of monument,” Latvian President Egils Levits said during a livestream of the demolition. Mayor Martin Stakis called the demolition a “historic moment for Riga and all of Latvia.”

Divisive monument
Some members of Latvia’s ethnic Russian community had protested the removal of the monument. Every year on May 9, thousands of ethnic Russians gather at the monument to commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. Most Latvians see this date as the start of the Soviet occupation, which lasted until 1991. A group of activists attempted to demolish the monument with dynamite in 1997 but the explosives detonated unexpectedly, killing two people. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February has prompted authorities in several Eastern European countries to speed up the removal of Soviet-era symbols. Latvia’s parliament voted in May to demolish the victory monument, and Riga’s city council followed suit.

Russian backlash
Riga’s monument was dismantled a week after neighboring Estonia took down a Soviet-era memorial of its own in Narva, a city with a large Russian-speaking minority. Tallinn had accused Russia of using such monuments to stir up tensions. There were concerns that Moscow might try to exploit differences between the Russian-speaking minorities and the national governments in Estonia and Latvia to destabilize the countries. Estonia’s removal of the Soviet monument prompted the Russian hacker group Killnet to hit back with a major wave of cyberattacks on public and private facilities last week

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latvia’s largest soviet memorial has been destroyed on the orders of national parliament a concrete obelisk rising nearly 80 meters into the sky formed the centerpiece of the monument it commemorated the red army’s victory over nazi germany in the second world war its toppling is the latest example of an ongoing trend in the baltic states and eastern europe where relics of the soviet union are being removed two’s killian byer reports from riga meter upon meter of concrete steel crashing to the ground the monument may have been destroyed but it leaves a political divide in its wake i feel wonderful because i experienced the awakening of latvian independence in the 1990s and now it feels like this chapter’s finally closed just a few months ago riga’s victory park looked like this it was the symbol of the red army’s victory over nazi germany a place for ethnic russians to lay down flowers on victory day to commemorate their ancestors sacrifices in the second world war but the war in ukraine changed something around one in four people living in latvia are of russian descent many of them cherish their soviet past the majority of ethnic latvians however see this monument as a symbol of russian imperialism and are glad that it’s gone for latvians this monument symbolize lattice occupation after second world war and after russia’s invasion in ukraine we can’t tolerate it anymore on june 16th the latvian parliament voted to remove all soviet-era statues the monument in riga was the largest in all of latvia it took hours of continuous hammering to eventually make it fall with it gone some hope that the scars of past can finally heal and that russians and latvians can live together peacefully you