Romualds Razuks, the Advisor of the Ministry of Defense of Latvia and the former chairman of the Latvia Popular Front from 1990-1992, was gracious enough to take time out of his busy schedule to answer some of our questions. We would like to thank him for his time.

Below you will find our questions and his answers.

Q: How were you and your family treated under the Soviet Union?

RR: "Best characteristics for this period of life: double standards. You could be open-minded only with your family members, closest friends and relatives. Publicly no other opinions except the official Communist Party point of view could be expressed. A huge network of KGB (secret political polics) and its informers supervised it.

Western democracies were divided from the Soviet Union and its satellite socialistic countries of Central Europe by the so-called "Iron Curtain" that made it impossible to leave or enter the country freely for anyone. Communist authorities under Soviet supervision took the decisions on who would be lucky to travel.

Mass media was controlled 100% by the Communist Party, no international TV or radio broadcasting was allowed. The news we heard every morning was based not upon what really happened but what the Communist Party wanted us to hear."

Q: How did you participate in the Latvian Independence Movement?

RR: "As many men and women of my generation, I had a brilliant opportunity to release all my energy during the independence movement. We had plenty of that and it was suppressed all the years of the Soviet occupation.

I joined the LPF [Latvian Popular Front] in 1988 as an ordinary member. In 1989, I became a member of the LPF Council and the board, and in 1990 I was elected as a Chairman of the LPF.

For me and my colleagues in the LPF, it was always clear that the strategic goal of all of us was an independent Latvian state, and as soon as the historical situation created such opportunity we used it immediately, in a democratic, non-violent way."

Q: What do remember about the barricades around Riga?

RR: "The ideology of the barricade defenders of January 1991 was based on the strategy of non-violent resistance using no arms. This ideology was worked out by American scientist Gin Sharp who studied experience of non-violent resistance in India and other countries. Based on that, the LPF created an "Action Plan for Hour X" which included defending of the strategically important buildings in Riga. Actually barricades were not "around Riga" but around  these important buildings in Riga: Parliament, Government, TV, Radio, Telephone, etc., and blocking main streets to them. The epicenter of the barricades was in the Old City of Riga where the Parliament, Radio, and LPF headquarters were located. Barricades were outside of Riga too: in Liepaja, Ulroka, Kuldiga --- around the strategically important communication centers. The beginning of the barricades was connected with the bloody events in Vilnius, Lithuania where Soviet troops attacked defenders of Lithuanian TV, killing 13 people. LPF at the same night of the tragedy in Lithuania issued a radio appeal for the nation to come to a protest in Riga the next day at 2PM. About 600,000 to 700,000 people participated: one out of every six Latvians. After that, the LPF asked people to guard the strategically important objects in Riga and part of the people stayed in Riga. The barricades were constructed starting on January 13th and existed for two weeks. Five people, defenders of the barricades, were killed by the Soviet military. As a result the military coup was opposed, Parliament and Government of Latvia prolonged their course for the full independence of Latvia."