Law orders dismantling of non-existent Nazi monuments

The Nazi regime, whose glorifying monuments are ordered to be dismantled, is included in the law only because foreigners still tend to call Latvians Nazi glorifiers. In fact, there is not a single monument to Hitler, his workers or any event of significance to the Nazi regime in Latvia.

Even the National Cultural Heritage Board had not thought about this issue. The law “On the Prohibition of the Display and Dismantling of Objects Glorifying the Soviet and Nazi Regimes in the Territory of the Republic of Latvia” talks about both regimes, and logically it follows that both Soviet and Nazi artefacts are glorified in Latvia, but this is not the case.

Hitler is forgotten

Not a single statue, stone or plaque has survived in Latvia that celebrates Adolf Hitler, his army or the events associated with it. The law thus already in Article 1 mandates impossible acts:

2) to express a condemnatory stance against the illegal occupying power, the policies pursued and the crimes committed by both the USSR and Nazi Germany;

4) to ensure the restoration of historical justice - to prevent false, inaccurate and biased reporting of historical events and to honor the resistance of the Latvian people to both the USSR and Nazi Germany's occupying power.

At the request of Neatkarīgā, the National Cultural Heritage Board reviewed the list of objects potentially to be dismantled and found no objects that glorified the Nazi regime, its persons or events. There is a logical explanation for this:

"The absence of objects is due to the fact that the Nazi occupation of Latvia lasted for a relatively short period of time - about four years - and no special monuments were created during World War II. If any sites with Nazi symbols were created, they were removed during the subsequent Soviet occupation period of more than 45 years. Nor were Nazi symbols used in the subsequent graves of German soldiers who fell in World War II."

"Eternal memory of the heroes"

Why, then, did Nazism have to be enshrined in law? Arvils Ašeradens, the chairman of the responsible Saeima Education, Culture and Science Committee, explains: because Latvia is often accused of asymmetrical behavior - we condemn Soviet rule, but supposedly glorify Nazism. Now the law makes it clear that both regimes are equally condemnable. It is true, however, that unlike the non-existent Nazi monuments, there are still plenty of objects glorifying the Soviet regime in Latvia more than 30 years after the restoration of independence. Moreover, there are municipalities which, even after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, cherish and even allow the creation of new monuments to the Red Army, ignoring the fact that the current armed forces of the Russian Federation are the direct heirs of the history and crimes committed by the Red Army. Thus, every monument, statue or stele erected in honor of the Soviet army today glorifies not only the fact of the occupation of Latvia, but also the murderers of the Ukrainian people. For example, last year a completely new monument to the Red Army was erected in Madona. This was done on the occasion of the reburial of an important Red Army soldier, General Nikolai Yakunin, in the Brethren Cemetery. The municipality allowed the Embassy of the Russian Federation to erect a completely new monument there, with a laudatory inscription in erroneous Latvian: "Eternal memory of the heroes." So the Latvian occupiers and the murderers of the Latvian people are still being hailed as heroes. And this case is not an exception created by a mysterious coincidence of circumstances.

Design contest for a new monument

A year ago, Rēzekne City Council launched a design contest for an environmental object/sculptural composition dedicated to the soldiers of the Red Army. So already after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, the jury of the competition was made up of Evgeny Kolesnikov, Consul General of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Daugavpils. An official representative of a country hostile to Latvia was allowed to pursue his country's interests directly.

Various offers were received in the contest, and prizes were paid to the best Red Army glorifiers. If the Rēzekne municipality goes ahead with the plan, this memorial will be yet another weapon in the Kremlin's propaganda war of monuments against Latvia, in which the Red Army soldiers are the “liberators”, not the occupiers of Latvia, but everyone else - Nazis and their supporters. For the time being, however, the monument has been postponed for an unknown period of time. Most probably because the majority of Latvian society has demanded that all Soviet monuments be dismantled, and the Saeima has partially granted this demand. A new monument to the Red Army would be very untimely.

One will certainly be demolished

The law orders the dismantling and prohibits the display of monuments glorifying the Soviet and Nazi regimes that have no burial underneath. This would not apply to the new monument to the Red Army in Rēzekne, as it is intended to be built on the burial site of an existing memorial to the Red Army. In fact, the way municipalities deal with monuments that glorify Soviet power depends directly on the position of the leadership. The Daugavpils City Council, headed by Andrejs Elksniņš, has even appealed to the Constitutional Court to prevent it from having to demolish monuments glorifying the Soviet regime with its own money. So far, only one monument in the country is 100% certain to be demolished. The largest and most influential monument to the Soviet regime - the "Monument to Soviet Soldiers - Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from German Fascist Invaders". This object is mentioned in the law. However, other objects to be dismantled in the country will be listed in special Cabinet Regulations. A list has already been drawn up, but for security reasons, it is not being made public for the time being. It should be recalled that the report on monuments and memorials erected by the Soviet authorities outside the Brethren Cemetery, compiled by the Committee of the Brethren Cemetery, lists 313 objects. However, the National Cultural Heritage Board is only proposing 69 for dismantling.

Why so few?

Here’s the explanation Neatkarīgā received: "A working group prepared a list for the draft Cabinet of Ministers' Regulations based on the Law ‘On the Prohibition of Displaying Objects Glorifying the Soviet and Nazi Regimes and Their Dismantling in the Territory of the Republic of Latvia’. The list included 162 objects, 23 of which had already been dismantled. Taking into account the criteria laid down in the law, it was decided to dismantle 69 of the objects examined, while 21 objects of cultural, historical or artistic value were recommended to be preserved in a fragmentary manner in museum conditions. It was asked that the list of objects to be dismantled should not be closed so that it could be supplemented."

According to the law, objects glorifying the Soviet regime and non-existent objects glorifying the Nazi regime must disappear from Latvian soil by November 15 this year. Only the "Monument to Soviet Soldiers - Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from German Fascist Invaders" will be allowed to stay longer - in a partially demolished state. The dismantling of its underground part and the clearing of the vacated area are to be completed by June 30, 2023.

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