Brīvības Piemineklisby Jānis Siliņš
published by the Brīvības Pieminekļa Komiteja, 1935

Brīvības Piemineklis, newly unveiled after its restoration, July 2001

Latvia's Brīvības Piemineklis (Freedom Monument) is perhaps the most familiar of Latvian symbols after the Latvian flag itself. Designed by the sculptor Kārlis Zāle, who also designed Brāļu Kapi (Breathren Cemetery), it pays homage to Latvian culture and history—its figures and bas-reliefs depicting heroes, heroines, and the common Latvian people. Atop, the Liberty statue, known more familiarly as Milda, holds three stars atop her head for the three major regions of Latvia: Kurzeme, Vidzeme, and Latgale. (It was erected where Riga's prior central monument, that of Peter the Great, had stood at the entrance into the old town—thus reinforcing its symbolism of freedom.)

The monument was erected using funds gathered from private donations—Peters' mother recalls their own family answering the call “Ja ikviens tik vienu latu...” (If there were just one lat from each of us...)—and so was truly a monument erected by the people.

In Soviet times, its symbolism was co-opted: now, the three stars stood for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and the monument had been erected as a thanks to Stalin for his “liberation” of the Baltics. As with most of Soviet propaganda and fiction, this story took on a cloak of veracity through its endless repetition—even ten years after Latvian independence a British tourism brochure told the “Stalinist” version.

Following the re-establishment of independence, the monument was cleaned and restored, again through donations. Peters made a donation while in Latvia on vacation, carrying on the family tradition—and adjusted for inflation. Today, the monument stands proud as ever once more.

As for the deeper and detailed symbolisms of the monument, we have to admit that we've been more admirers of form than scholars of metaphors. However, the monument's meaning took on more clarity for us when we came across the book "Brīvības Piemineklis", written by Jānis Siliņš and published in 1935 by the Brīvības Pieminekļa Komiteja (Freedom Monument Committee). (Siliņš himself began as an artist before embarking on a career as a respected art historian and critic.) Hopefully you will find Siliņš’ narrative as informative as we have in terms of not only the monument itself, but also historically, that is, how it was being represented and viewed at that time.

Each page of the book has been scanned separately into an image file, graphically restored, and resized for web display. We have also embarked on an effort to translate it. If you would like to contribute your linguistic talents to this (or other needed!) translation efforts, please contact us!