The Museum invites donations for the installation of the monument "Defying Foreign Power"

On 17 March, National Resistance Movement Remembrance Day, our Museum launched a fundraising campaign and appeal for donations to erect the monument "Defying Foreign Power" at Radio iela 1 in Riga, in honour of all members of the national resistance movement.

 

The monument by sculptor Kristaps Gulbis is to be built exactly where, on the morning of 5 December 1963, Bruno Javoišs, then a 22-year-old Riga Aviation Institute student, hoisted the red-white-red flag of independent Latvia atop the 76-metre-high radio tower directly in front of the main Riga City Militia headquarters.  The flag of the Latvian SSR was already on the tower that day, for the upcoming Soviet occupation holiday – Soviet Constitution Day – but Javoišs replaced it with the symbol of independent Latvia. This protest was a very conspicuous event. The Latvian flag flew on the Riga radio tower all day because the militiamen were unable to remove it quickly. For this heroic act, Javoišs was convicted and sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment in a concentration camp in Mordovian ASSR.

 

Our Museum and the authors of this initiative have assigned a broader meaning to the monument. In the words of Museum Director Solvita Viba, "We want to honour all those who fought against the Soviet occupation regime, sacrificing their lives, spending long years of their lives in prison, and subjecting themselves and their families to persecution and social marginalization.

 

“This monument will be dedicated both to heroic members of the armed resistance and to everyone who confronted the Soviet occupation regime with methods of non-violent resistance – raising the Latvian flag in public places, commemorating Latvian holidays and commemorative days, using the red-white-red colours in various ways, forming underground groups, openly criticizing Soviet policy, producing anti-Soviet slogans and leaflets, distributing illegal literature, destroying symbols of Soviet power, appealing to foreign governments and public opinion, and documenting the damage caused by the occupation regime, its oppression and human rights violations. 

 

“We believe that the initiative to create this monument is important now, when there are discussions about the dismantling of occupation-era monuments, and some even publicly take the view that collaboration during the Soviet occupation – accommodation and cooperation with the regime – were the norm, accepted by practically everyone. We need to stress that it was not one, two, a few dozen or a hundred people who defied the foreign power. It was many thousands, and thanks to the perseverance and heroism of these brave people, the Soviet occupation regime did not succeed in stifling the idea of an independent Latvian state during more than 50 years."

 

In 2021, the Museum launched a public competition to design and build the monument. The sculptor Kristaps Gulbis won the competition with his design "Defying Foreign Power", and its creation has now been approved by the relevant authorities. In all,100,000 euros will be needed for the creation of the monument and landscaping the surrounding area.

 

Our Museum invites you to donate for the creation of this monument and landscaping its surroundings by making a donation to the Museum with the memo line Pieminekļa izveidei (Creation of the Monument). Donations can be made at the Museum, or using the following bank information.

 

Museum bank account:

 

"Latvijas Okupācijas muzeja biedrība" (LOMB)  

        ["Occupation Museum Association of Latvia"]

Reg. No. 40008018848

Address: Latviešu strēlnieku laukums 1, Rīga, LV-1050, Latvia

 

SEB BANK

BIC/S.W.I.F.T.: UNLALV2X

 

or

 

SWEDBANK

BIC/S.W.I.F.T.: HABALV22

 

Purpose: Pieminekļa izveidei