Monument in Victory park will be demolished by 15 November – Latvians, how do you feel about this?

30 comments
  1. I donno, this feels a bit wrong. I know there is a lot of things attached to this structure, but I feel that if we just put our thought into this and stand together as humans then we could do it a lot faster.

  2. Very happy if we do it, but not celebrating until it is actually torn down. I’m worried that the responsible institutions and bureaucracy will take their sweet time and delay it until the matter loses its steam and we will remain with the status quo.

  3. Well Ulmanis plan is a bit too big and included place where the national library now is but I think it is scalable.

  4. Monuments are a symbol – they have a meaning that is defined by the populous. Nowadays this monument, for most of us, sybolise the greatness of Russia, may it be a great evil or a great liberator. Factual information about Russias actions gives us enough reason to tear down this monument. I do belive that we should preserve parts of it in a museum, maybe scan it digitally to preserve it for historical reasons, but it is in a very public place reminding of our sour history with Russia. Russia does not deserve our thoughts.

  5. Finally!
    I remember being a kid and asking my grandma ( who was deported by the Russians) what is this monument and why she doesnt like it if it symbolizes victory. But it doesnt symnolize victory for us, it symbolizes occupation by USSR and to the russians shouting that we are nazis for demolishing it, theres plenty of actually soviet soldier cemeteries where they can go and place flowers on 9th of may. Those cemeteries are empty on 9th of May, russians celebrating 9th
    dont give a shit about the actual soldiers that died.

  6. I really don’t care. Exactly 0 things will change in my life. I hope that spot will look pretty after demolishing and there won’t be some Lidl built there or something of that sort.
    I’m not ignorant to 5th column activities tho. Even made a woodcut art piece featuring trash in the park after celebrating 9th of May. It’s just that the monument means nothing to me personally.

  7. I don’t really care, but people are celebrating this like it will instantly solve all of our country’s issues or something.

  8. From the first day since this “monument of victory” was erected Latvians simply called it “monument of occupation”. So my reaction to these news is – fuck yeah, should have done this 30 years ago.

  9. English man, married to a Latvian, which is why I’m here sometimes. Just want to say I’m happy it’s being torn down. Anything that commemorates the Soviet Union needs to die.

  10. I support the idea of demolishing it, but recently I had a conversation with a (russian speaking and reasonable) friend and he said it should be redesigned and turned into an occupation memorial of russian war crimes and propaganda. I don’t know, maybe its a good idea.

    Edit: the concept could be something like the Gedenkskirche in Berlin

  11. I think it should have been done a long time ago, but I also feel that this is just posturing because of the upcoming election.

  12. Man ir kauns un manuprāt tas ir nepieņemami, ka nojaukšana atlikta līdz 15. novembrim. Tas ir jādara tagad, iespējami ātri nevis jāatstāj nākamajai Saeimai un jāizčakarē visa priekšvēlēšanu kampaņa novēršot uzmanību no svarīgā.

  13. I can understand the reasoning. I’m not Latvian but married to a Latvian. I think demolishing is a bit too extreme though.

  14. Some people from this sub told me I am not Latvian and won’t ever be (apparently because I was born outside of Latvia and my mother tongue is Russian), but I am actually happy. The problem with any monuments is that they are almost always politicised and thus are highly controversial, and monuments dedicated to war especially so. Especially when it’s so obnoxious and grandiose, as if war is something to be proud of.

    It’s better to not have a monument at all than have one that glorifies murdering other people, for whatever causes

  15. Happy!

    But I’d love it if it happened a lot sooner. Like for midsummer celebration, so I can celebrate like there is no tomorrow. Celebrating November 18 without it is also nice, but it doesn’t feel appropriate to go all out, you sorta are expected to respectfully be patriotic, if you understand what I mean.

    Technically midsummer is the time when one cycle ends and a new one begins spiritually, naturally, agriculturally, etc. So starting a new beginning would have been amazing without the monument.

    I still think that people will absolutely party like there’s no tomorrow regardless. I’d love to watch it be demolished live.

Leave a Reply