Walked around parts of Riga today. Through all of the Art Nouveau buildings and past all the embassies. Kept walking until I reached a part of town that got much less attention. The weather was off and on, sometimes lightly raining, sometimes with a bit of sun, but mostly just grey and just above freezing. I got a ton of pictures, and a lot that I liked, but no clear favorites. So it goes.

This is at the base of a monument to Latvian independence that is guarded by two soliders in the fashion of royal palaces or the tomb of the unknown solider in Washington DC. Amazingly, it remained up for the entire Soviet occupation, as they just reinterpreted the statue, placed a huge statue of Lenin opposite, (which has since been removed) and deported anyone who laid a wreath at the monument's base to Siberia.

Problem solved.

As the light disappeared, I tracked back to the old city and visited the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia that I mentioned yesterday. It had a ton of original items and documents from the period, and many good reconstructions and pictures. What is particularly effective is the juxtaposition of the propaganda literature (Latvia's workers demand to join the USSR!) and the reality (provocateurs shipped in from Moscow, Red Army forcibly setting up military bases in the country, the country's political, military, and cultural elite secretly arrested and sent to the Gulags).

Even calling it an 'occupation' is an act of rebellion. Russia continues to pretend that Latvia willingly and happily joined the USSR. I've always struggled to understand how modern governments and nations can completely ignore history and assert their own facts on certain issues. Turkey with the Armenian genocide is one example, Russia with the occupation of the Baltic states is another. Surely deep down rational people in these countries must know the difference? But as we can see everywhere, rational people can accept irrational beliefs all the time, so perhaps not.

While all three Baltic nations have been quite hostile to Russia since independence, I'm working my way up the fiestyness chain. Lithuania, my last destination, is still demanding reparations from the Russian government. It'll be interesting to see how the time period is viewed in that country.