Museum of the Occupation of Latvia

The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, founded in 1993, tells the story of the country and its people under totalitarian regimes between 1940 and 1991. Latvia's strategic location on the Baltic Sea made it a target for the USSR, which invaded without declaring war in June 1940, claiming "security reasons." This invasion led to mass arrests and the deportation of over 15,000 people to Siberia and Kazakhstan in June 1941. On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the USSR and quickly occupied Latvia. This dark period is marked by the Holocaust, where nearly 70,000 Jews were killed, particularly in mass executions like the one at Rumbula, near Riga, in 1941. The Jewish population was almost entirely wiped out, with ghettos set up in Riga, Dvinsk, and Liepāja. After the Nazis were defeated, the Red Army retook Latvia in 1944, and the country became a Soviet republic again. Under Soviet rule, Latvia faced further repression, including the deportation of 43,000 people in 1949. Forced Russification and the armed resistance of the "Forest Brothers," a Latvian guerrilla group fighting for independence, marked this era. The independence movement gained momentum in the 80s, leading to the restoration of Latvia’s independence in 1991. The museum, now housed in a building that was originally constructed by the Soviets as a propaganda site, holds tens of thousands of objects, archives, and filmed testimonies from deportees, resistance fighters, and survivors. Right next to it is the memorial to the victims of Soviet deportations, inaugurated in 2021. This memorial features a two-sided symbolic wall, with the front side decorated with patterns inspired by traditional Latvian covers. Walk to the other side to see a reproduction of an embroidered handkerchief by Mērija Stakle, a Latvian deportee sent to Siberia. During her captivity, she secretly embroidered the names and signatures of 88 fellow deportees using threads from her own clothes, resisting a system that sought to erase their existence. You can see the original handkerchief displayed at the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.