photo from The Boston Globe

There is not much visible evidence of the Soviet Union left in Riga. There are a few monuments, such as the Red Riflemen and the Victory Monument, that were built during the Soviet Era. The most lasting evidence of the Soviet times is with the people of Riga and Latvia. As we found out, not all people found the Soviet times to be bad: everyone had jobs, everyone received education, and everyone felt secure. Although times are difficult today, all the people we talked to prefer Latvia today, as an independent country, to those times under the Soviet Union.

Below you will find some of our comments on what we learned about Latvia's history by participating in this competition.

The Soviet Union – everybody’s heard of it, some people (hint: our class) are obsessed with it. But what is it really? Here’s what I know: The Soviet Union took over Latvia in 1941, and left in about 1991. I believe they were communists, which means that they wanted every person to be the same, and have everything the same. You would think that would be good, because then there would be no racism, or anything like that, but as far as I know, people didn’t get that much of the things they actually needed.

I was one of the people who helped interview people, and I learned a lot from the interviews. One of the things I learned, and half-knew, was that the Soviet Union placed Russian families in houses to live with other Latvian families. This would end up with being something like each family had one room and they shared bathroom and kitchen. How would you like to live with a Russian family were the dad is maybe an alcoholic, the mother never home, and two babies screaming their heads of 24-7! I know I wouldn’t!

I also learned that they were very strict about freedom, and I have heard that in those times the dictionaries didn’t have words like freedom, liberty, independence, free will, and other words like that. The Freedom Monument had already been built in that time, and I know that many young people tried to put flowers there, but it was forbidden so quite a few got arrested for a short period of time.

Now that the Soviets have left, I know that some Latvians regret it it because the Soviet Union gave the Latvians the money they needed to survive, and now that they’re gone, many people in Latvia are poor. On the other hand, the older Latvians feel exactly the opposite. I think they are more than happy the Russians have left. I can’t count how many times I have heard of Latvians getting angry at people who speak Russian. I think that shows a little about how sensitive they are about being Latvian, and Russians being in Latvia.  

I know that in Riga, there used to be a statue of Lenin, but after the Soviets left, it was pulled down, and now there is a statue symbolizing Riga’s 800th anniversary. Quite a change!

The Soviet era lasted about 50 years, during which thousands and thousands of people were killed. So, what is there to think about a group of communists who killed thousands?

I think they were awful, first of all they deported people, thousands of people, to Siberia, which means that one night everyone was kicked out of their house and stuffed on trains and sent to Siberia and were put to work on whatever the Soviets wanted them to. Another really bad thing about them was that they didn’t have any religion! And because they didn’t use the churches, they just turned them into whatever they wanted, for example they used some churches as concert halls and disco places, one of them was even a planetarium! Isn’t that nice, huh?

Besides that they just did bad things like just shoot people for pretty much nothing. Their most famous leaders, Stalin and Lenin’s dream was probably to rule the world, so I guess they started with the Baltics!

---Martin from Estonia

I think that the Soviet Union was kind of mean and violent to the Latvians. If you have seen the stones in a park in Riga, well they are a sign of the men who where shot and killed there. I think that they where kind of strict about freedom things; we interviewed a woman in the office and she told us that she had lived with two other families, but they did not really have a choice. We also interviewed our librarian who told us that everything was equal, even sugar. Every month they would get a ticket and you could use that ticket to buy sugar, and each and every family in Latvia got this kind of ticket for one kilo of sugar  a month.

After they became independent, they have been much happier and more open and caring about other people. Some people are kind of sad about the Russians leaving because they gave everybody money and now they are very poor and they can't afford food and it is kind of sad.

---Selma from Iceland

What have I learned? I learned most things about Art Nouveau; I know what is National Romanticism and what is Eclectic style. National Romanticism is a style that isn’t very colorful and it has many symbols that are Latvian. The Eclectic Style has many colors and is has many shapes and lines. These styles are mostly found in Riga. I also learned is that there are many important monuments and many people know most of them. One is the “Freedom Monument”, that monument is an important one because the people built it when they were free the first time. You can find that monument near the old town.   I also learned things that I knew but this project gave me more information; one of those things is the Jewish Synagogue. I am Jewish, but this project taught me more about that synagogue. I went to one of the interviews and I think that I learned more about Latvian people, how they felt, and if they liked the things that were happening. The project included information about some churches; the stories were really impressive and unusual. One of the things we learned about too is that there were many people that wanted to destroy them Victory monument and that were really bad thing we learned. So I think that Riga is a really nice city.

---Tal from Israel

All of the statues of Lenin and other Soviet leaders are gone. They are either stored in a warehouse or have been melted down to make other statues. In the town of Cesis, the Lenin statute is placed in a big pit, like a grave!

Ineta Ilenane is the International School of Latvia's office manager. Click here to read our interview with her.