Overthrow: Riga razes Soviet victory monument to the ground

A gigantic splash to say goodbye. The Latvian authorities demolished a monument from the Soviet era in Riga on Thursday. The huge stele entitled ‘Memorial to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders’ was erected in 1985 to commemorate the Soviet Army’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. At that time, the Baltic country, which today belongs to NATO and the EU, was still part of the Soviet Union. The obelisk, crowned with a star of the Red Army, was considered controversial at least since Latvia’s independence in 1991. Ethnic Russians, who make up around 24 percent of the country’s population, use the monument as a meeting point on May 9, Victory Day, which is celebrated in Russia. Before and during the demolition there were protests, four demonstrators were arrested for resisting the police, as reported by the Latvian media.