Today we want to tell you about a rather ambiguous cultural institution for a Russian visitor. We are talking about the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. The fact is that his exposition is dedicated to 1940-1991. It is easy to guess that the period when Latvia was a Soviet republic was also called occupation. What is represented in this museum? What interesting facts are connected with it? Why do Latvians equate the entry into the USSR during the German occupation? We will talk about all this in the article.
What is it?
The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia (Latvijas Okupācijas muzejs) is one of the museum complexes in Riga located in the historical part of the city. The exposition of the institution is dedicated to the period of Latvian history from 1940 to 1991.
The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia was founded in 1993, on July 1. The institution today has its official website on the Internet. The director of the museum is Gunars Nagels. Institution address: Riga, Raina Boulevard, 7.
Building
The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia is located in the building that once housed another museum - the Latvian Riflemen. It was not an independent cultural institution, but was included in the complex of the Memorial Museum-Monument, which was dedicated to the red Latvian arrows.
The building was erected in 1970. Its architect is Gunar Lusis-Greenberg. By the way, he was awarded the State Prize of the Soviet Union for the project of the building (along with the project of a monument to the Latvian arrows).
The building of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia in Riga divides the city into two parts, equivalent to each other. The first is the medieval Town Hall Square. The second is the relatively recently formed area of the Latvian Riflemen. The latter faces the Daugava - the Western Dvina River, flowing along the north of Eastern Europe.
Externally, the building is unusual, but at the same time it looks concise and strict. Its entire body is sheathed with brazed copper plates. Both the texture of the material and the technology of its processing are characteristic of Soviet architecture of the seventies.
Due to the fact that repairs are being carried out in the main building of the building, the exposition of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia in Riga has moved to a neighboring building. It is nearby. Finding hotels near the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia is easy, as the cultural institution is located in the "tourist" part of the city. That is, in its historical center.
Foundation History
Let's talk a bit about the history of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. This is a private collection, which subsequently passed state accreditation. The museum was founded in 1993.
The cultural institution is managed by the charity non-governmental organization Association of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. It should be noted that both diplomats and officials of many world states traditionally visit it. Among the distinguished visitors can distinguish the Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and the German leader - Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Museum Fund
The main attraction of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia is its foundation. Here are stored more than 30 thousand photographs, documents, oral and written certificates, material objects that reflect the history of the country from 1940 to 1991. Of special value are memorabilia from special settlements and places of detention.
Scientists from different countries of the world — Latvia, the USA, Great Britain, Sweden, and Russia — participate in the museum. The project of the museum "Collection of video testimonies of survivors of deportation" is widely known. It is supported by the European Union.
Another pride of the museum is the archive. For example, by the beginning of 2017, there were 60 thousand items! Many of them were donated to the institution by people who survived the period of occupation, who wanted to leave the descendants with the memory of that controversial era. Museum workers themselves have recorded more than 2, 300 eyewitness accounts of the occupation period to date. This is the largest collection in Europe dedicated to this topic.
Exposition, temporary exhibitions
The entire exposition of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia can be divided into three thematic zones:
- The first year of the occupation of the USSR. 1940-1941
- Nazi occupation by Germany. 1941-1944 A separate exhibition hall is dedicated to the Holocaust in this country.
- Soviet post-war occupation. 1944-1991
We will analyze them in detail below.
The museum also organizes traveling exhibitions in several languages for various visitors:
- For schools and museums in Latvia - "Country in the years 1939-1991 - from occupation to victory."
- For Europe, Canada and Australia (exhibited including in the building of the European Parliament) - "Latvia is returning to Europe."
- For the USA - "Latvia is returning to the free world."
The museum also publishes its own annual periodical - the Yearbook of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. In the building of the institution, various social events are often held.
To visitors
The exhibition is open every day from 11.00 to 18.00. If you want to get into the department of the museum collection, then be careful: it is open only on weekdays, from 10.00 to 17.00.
Entrance to the museum is free. However, as evidenced by the reviews of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia in Riga, at the entrance you must leave a donation amount for the development of the institution. If you want a guided tour, the following prices apply:
- Group up to 3 people - 10 euros each.
- A group of up to 10 people - 3 euros each.
- A group of more than 10 people - 2.5 euros each.
We remind you once again that the museum is located in Riga at the address: 7 Raina Boulevard.
Exhibition "History of the Cheka"
Until September 30, 2018, on the basis of the museum, an interesting exhibition is open - “The history of the Cheka (Extraordinary Committee in Latvia). Entrance is also for a donation to the museum. The cost of excursions with a guide through the cameras is as follows:
- Adults - 5 euros.
- Students (with valid student ID), pensioners - 2 euros.
Opening hours are different from the opening hours of the museum:
- Monday - from 10.00 to 17.30.
- Tuesday - from 10.00 to 17.30.
- Wednesday - from 12.00 to 19.00.
- Thursday - from 10.00 to 17.30.
- Friday - from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.
- Saturday - from 10.00 to 16.00.
- Sunday - from 10.00 to 16.00.
You can find the exhibition in another museum - KGB History. It is located at: st. Brivibas, 61.
Visit Features
The museum building itself is rather gloomy. The same atmosphere inside it is gray-brown shades that complement the blood-red blotches. Entrance, as already mentioned, for a voluntary donation. A clear amount is not indicated here - everyone leaves as much as he sees fit. The bulk of visitors to the institution are foreign tourists.
Information about the exhibits is written in two languages - Latvian and English. In some places there are signs in Russian, but they are pretty selective.
General impression
Russian tourists who spent the night at the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia note that the entire exhibition has the same goal: to denigrate the period of Latvia's stay in the Soviet Union. This time is equated here with the German occupation. The attitude of other foreign tourists to the USSR reading the stands is correspondingly formed: horror, disgust, neglect.
It must be said that a visit to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia is an obligatory part of the educational program of Latvian schoolchildren. Consequently, from childhood they have a negative attitude to the Soviet history of their state.
It cannot be said that the Museum writes its fantastic history of Latvia as a republic of the Union. The facts that are described here do take place in history. But they are presented too one-sided, exaggerated. The visitor’s attention is focused on negative aspects. There is practically not a single word about the positive that really appeared in Latvia during this period. Of course, Soviet history was not completely positive, but it is very strange why museum workers are silent about the good changes at this time.
Exposure Features
The first thing the visitor sees in front of him is the portraits of Hitler and Stalin hanging nearby. And this is not an accident. Latvians really think that these state leaders have done the same harm to their country.
The beginning of the occupation of Latvia here is considered the date of signing the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on the delineation of the interests of Germany and the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. This happened on August 23, 1939, almost two years before the start of the Second World War. According to the document, Latvia, Finland, Estonia, Bessarabia, and Eastern Poland went into the zone of interests of the USSR, and the rest of Poland and Lithuania into the sphere of interests of Germany.
Then the visitor visually sees what the period of occupation in Latvia led to:
- Models of barracks. It was in such buildings that a special category of repressed in the Union lived. It is impossible to erase from history that part of the Latvians went through this hell.
- The silent witnesses of those years are propaganda posters and photographs: “Hitler the Liberator, ” “Glory to the October Revolution, ” and so on.
- Soviet postcards.
- Information for curious foreign visitors, revealing what is hidden behind the Russian "bucket".
Details are also disclosed about the beginning of the Soviet occupation - June 15, 1940. It began with the attack of the NKVD detachment at the Latvian border posts. Latvian border guards are being killed, civilians are being taken away in an unknown administration. Similar conflicts also provoke on the borders of the USSR with Lithuania and Estonia.
On June 16 of the same year, Molotov presented the ultimatum to the ambassadors of these states: to form pro-Soviet governments, to allow the location of the Red Army on their territory. The next day, Soviet troops were already entered into the territory of these countries.
It all ends with the fact that on August 5, 1940, Latvia was forcibly included in the Soviet republics. The property of an independent state is nationalized. The Soviet Pravda wrote about this event, as about the voluntary entry of the Latvian people into the USSR, and “welcomed” the Latvians.
