Latvia. The fight for freedom

With the pact between Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin on 23 August 1939, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania were occupied by the army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in June 1940. One year later, National Socialist Germany broke the pact and invaded the Baltic countries. Just before the end of World War II, and with the Nazis on the verge of defeat, the USSR occupied Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania again in 1944. This occupation lasted 45 years.

Twenty-five years ago, in the autumn of 1989, a wave of freedom washed across Central and Eastern Europe. Poland, East Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, the former Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria were countries that either belonged to the Warsaw Pact (1955-1991) or were a direct part of the USSR. This was the case of the Baltic countries of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania which, in 1991, recovered full sovereignty, and in 2004 joined the European Union as democratic and independent states. The exhibition presents a journey through the contemporary history of Latvia and its struggle for freedom after half a century of occupation.

Leaflet for the exhibition “Latvia. The fight for freedom”