Abstract
We liv e in present, but past, history and memory accompany us both visibly and invisibly. As stated by Paul Ricoeur, our past 'I' (as opposed to our present 'I', which, due to its experience, is different from our past 'I') is different from but still same 'I' (the one that has retained its identity over time). Our identity is created not only by experience of ourselves, our family and our relatives: we are also influenced by big historical narratives. More and less recent history - even big, over-arching events of history - influences each one of us, whether directly or indirectly. The paper focuses on two memory groups that meet in Latvian capital, Riga, every year on March 16th and May 9th. These groups represent two collective memories, each of which reflects different views of history and politics, and each corresponds to specific social needs. After restoration of Latvian independence, and especially in past decade, political significance of these two dates has increased. Both dates commemorate events associated with Second World War - on March 16th Latvians commemorate soldiers who fought in Latvian Legion, while Ru ssian community celebrates Victory Day on May 9th according to Russian tradition. Every year, these two events remind us that the war has ended, but memory war still continues, that past is not really past and its influence on present still sometimes creates unexpected obstructions. The paper analyses such elements of group memory as territory, language and traditions in an attempt to find answers regarding different symbolic values by analysing life stories of two participants in Second World War and trying to create a hypothetical dialogue between them.
Highlights
Both world wars crossed Latvia, leaving destruction in their wake, and a violent break in people’s memories and their commemoration of the dead
Latvian soldiers who had fought in the Red Army and those Legionnaires who had survived the war and Stalin’s penal camps received social and memory reconciliation only in 1989 [4]
For the whole post-war period, the Soviet system of memory culture isolated those who had fought in various armies; former soldiers were forced to keep silent about their pasts, because anyone who had fought in the Legion was sent to Stalin’s penal camps in Siberia
Summary
Each year on March 16th and May 9th, Riga becomes the site of two groups performing rituals of remembering, two groups that have confronting versions of history and generate contradictory impulses towards the Latvian state. The commemoration rituals of both groups are based in historical references - one group won the war and celebrates this victory and commemorates its dead at the foot of one of the city’s monuments, while the other group, who fought on the losing side, ought to commemorate its dead at the Military Cemetery but have instead chosen a more visible format in the form of a march by the Freedom Monument in central Riga Both memory groups gather at a monument signifying its era – the Legionnaires meet at the Freedom Monument, which was built in 1935, and financed by citizens’ donations and bears the inscription “For the Homeland and Freedom”, while those celebrating Victory Day meet at the monument to the liberators built during the Soviet occupation in 1985. The unresolved memory conflict includes some of the master narratives of conflict, which dramatically differ from each other [17]
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