Looking inside the black box:

May 28, 2008
By Monika Hanley

RIGA - To look at it, one would not think that the giant black box of a building in Ratslaukums is the most visited museum in Latvia. 
Formerly the Latvian Red Riflemen’s museum – and opened on the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s birth – the museum remained closed a few years after independence and re-opened in 1993. The Soviets used the place for youth ceremonies.

The museum pays tribute to the three periods of occupation in Latvia: The first Soviet occupation in 1940, the Nazi occupation in 1941 and the second Soviet occupation from 1944-1991.
A highly recommended starting point is the bookshop and guide station. The guides are fluent in pretty much every language. They have stories to tell that would fill volumes and they are happy to talk about it.
The museum itself is well organized. It begins chronologically with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and ends with the singing revolution, now the subject of a popular documentary.

Though most people have made the museum the first stop on their sightseeing tour, those living here may not have been back for years and it is worth another visit just to see what is new.
The museum is constantly expanding and its newest exhibition is right next to a model of the barracks. Displaying memories, pictures and even more information seems to be the goal of this exhibition. It focuses on the various regions of Latvia and explores the lives of legionnaires, civilians and soldiers from those parts.
The museum does not just contain propaganda leaflets and weapons, as many other occupation museums in the former Soviet Union do. This museum takes a more personal approach and includes items such as embroidered handkerchiefs, accordions and a handmade birch wood Russian-Latvian dictionary from Siberia.
I would recommend going on a weekday in the late afternoon, when there are not as many people –though seeing at people’s faces as they look at the artifacts is also interesting.

The museum is also preparing for an exhibition on Gunars Berzins, a well-known cartoonist and satirist, himself a legionnaire in 1944. The Soviets captured him, after which he spent some time in filtration camps.
He kept on drawing, depicting life in the camps and the living conditions of POWs. But as a cartoonist he wasn’t about to let the lively spirited and prank playing Latvian POWs get away unnoted, making the happier drawings the most enjoyable of the exhibit. 

Be forewarned, this place will not leave you in a blithe and happy mood. As a former volunteer at the museum, I felt responsible for ruining tourists’ otherwise delightful day, but this part of history is so hugely relevant today that in order to really get a feel for Latvia, you have to go to the museum and learn about
it.

Opening hours: 11-6 daily
Admission: Free




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