"Fireflies in the Dark*
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Out and about, as is my wont, (see the blog Urban Wanderer) I happened across a new Riga monument, one installed in 2021.
Caption: Gunārs Astra in prison stripes.
According to its sculptor Gleb Panteleev, it’s an “awkward” tribute to the Latvian dissident Gunārs Astra (1931-1988) because Mr. Astra was himself an awkward, difficult, stubborn, and implacable human unwilling to accommodate the Soviet's Orwellian imposition on personal freedom such as the daily indignity of prohibiting the use of his native language, Latvian.
Opposed to communism and Russia’s occupation of Latvia, he was under constant surveillance by the secret police and twice sent to Siberia’s labor camps.
At his second sentencing (seven years of hard labor) in 1983 for anti-Soviet behavior, he risibly confessed that he had indeed photographed some pornographic images and shared them with friends.
But, he denied the trumped up charges of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.
His words to the Supreme (kangaroo) Soviet court live on:
"I believe that this time will fade away like an evil nightmare. It gives me the strength to stand here and breathe."
Given amnesty in 1988 as the USSR was falling apart, he died under mysterious circumstances soon after his release – likely, Putinesque poisoning.
Mr. Astra’s unshakeable resolve for freedom, reminds me of the fictional character from the 1967 TV show, The Prisoner. Imprisoned, he has no name, just a number, 6.
Like Mr. Astra he resolutely asserts, “I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.”
No doubt Riga’s new monument was not appreciated by the Kremlin who for decades was avoided by its neighbors as a bear not to be poked, even after its illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Then came Russia’s full out war on Ukraine on 24 February 2022
Astra’s prophesy of the "evil nightmare" fading away is slowly happening. But, it is now 40 years later and Latvia and other former Soviet captives are finally and decisively ridding themselves of the many lingering physical and psychological reminders of Soviet times.
The so-called Victory (more aptly, Occupation) tower crashed down in a cloud of dust and much chagrin amidst Latvia’s post-1944 Russian population some of whom stubbornly, to this day, resist speaking Latvian and a few (one only hopes!) still yearn for “the invasion”.
Well, the invasion has come but it’s 600 miles away in Ukraine.
Caption: Only the dirt base remains.
More pointed and apolitical is the removal of the Pushkin statue in Kronvalda Park this summer.
Placed there in 2009 by an administrative fiat by Riga’s pro-Russian mayor, Nils Ušakovs, it took the war on Ukraine for Latvia to reach its limits for humoring Russia's explicit smuggery and thuggery.
Obviously, Pushkin, the famed Russian writer, was put there to insinuate to Latvians the superiority of Russian literature.
Instead it was just another Russification attempt, even 18 years after Latvia became a free republic again in 1991!
*”Fireflies hint that there is light in the dark. If there is darkness and there is no light, then there is no idea about it." Gunārs Astra.
__________
ONLY a click away:
And, my book on democratic workplaces, which incorporates much of what Emery and Herzberg professLeading from the Middle, is available at Amazon.
© Copyright all text and photographs by John Lubans 2023
Caption: Gunārs Astra in prison stripes.
According to its sculptor Gleb Panteleev, it’s an “awkward” tribute to the Latvian dissident Gunārs Astra (1931-1988) because Mr. Astra was himself an awkward, difficult, stubborn, and implacable human unwilling to accommodate the Soviet's Orwellian imposition on personal freedom such as the daily indignity of prohibiting the use of his native language, Latvian.
Opposed to communism and Russia’s occupation of Latvia, he was under constant surveillance by the secret police and twice sent to Siberia’s labor camps.
At his second sentencing (seven years of hard labor) in 1983 for anti-Soviet behavior, he risibly confessed that he had indeed photographed some pornographic images and shared them with friends.
But, he denied the trumped up charges of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.
His words to the Supreme (kangaroo) Soviet court live on:
"I believe that this time will fade away like an evil nightmare. It gives me the strength to stand here and breathe."
Given amnesty in 1988 as the USSR was falling apart, he died under mysterious circumstances soon after his release – likely, Putinesque poisoning.
Mr. Astra’s unshakeable resolve for freedom, reminds me of the fictional character from the 1967 TV show, The Prisoner. Imprisoned, he has no name, just a number, 6.
Like Mr. Astra he resolutely asserts, “I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.”
No doubt Riga’s new monument was not appreciated by the Kremlin who for decades was avoided by its neighbors as a bear not to be poked, even after its illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Then came Russia’s full out war on Ukraine on 24 February 2022
Astra’s prophesy of the "evil nightmare" fading away is slowly happening. But, it is now 40 years later and Latvia and other former Soviet captives are finally and decisively ridding themselves of the many lingering physical and psychological reminders of Soviet times.
The so-called Victory (more aptly, Occupation) tower crashed down in a cloud of dust and much chagrin amidst Latvia’s post-1944 Russian population some of whom stubbornly, to this day, resist speaking Latvian and a few (one only hopes!) still yearn for “the invasion”.
Well, the invasion has come but it’s 600 miles away in Ukraine.
Caption: Only the dirt base remains.
More pointed and apolitical is the removal of the Pushkin statue in Kronvalda Park this summer.
Placed there in 2009 by an administrative fiat by Riga’s pro-Russian mayor, Nils Ušakovs, it took the war on Ukraine for Latvia to reach its limits for humoring Russia's explicit smuggery and thuggery.
Obviously, Pushkin, the famed Russian writer, was put there to insinuate to Latvians the superiority of Russian literature.
Instead it was just another Russification attempt, even 18 years after Latvia became a free republic again in 1991!
*”Fireflies hint that there is light in the dark. If there is darkness and there is no light, then there is no idea about it." Gunārs Astra.
__________
ONLY a click away:
And, my book on democratic workplaces, which incorporates much of what Emery and Herzberg professLeading from the Middle, is available at Amazon.
© Copyright all text and photographs by John Lubans 2023
John Lubans - portrait by WSJ