Vladimir Buzaev, the Riga City Council deputy on behalf of our party, tells how the Riga City Council is trying to get rid of the Soviet heritage.
On November 7th the city of Riga Development Committee at the City Council discussed the proposal entitled “On the dismantling of objects glorifying the communist regime”.
The documents contains the list of the following sites proposed to be dismantled: the symbols of the hammer and sickle on the buildings at Kalnciema 57 and Brivibas 318, the commemorative plaque to Martin Poga who was a Soviet military agent, the “time capsule” at Ganibu Dambis 24. All these objects are proposed to be dismantled by November 15th in accordance with the law on the dismantling of monuments.
As for the 46 ”hammers and sickles” which are elements of the metal fence at the embankment, the document proposes their gradual destruction within the slowly moving project of “rebuilding the promenade in Mukusalas”.
The law on dismantling of monuments not only obliges local governments to demolish 70 monuments listed in the government regulations, but also provides them with the right to broaden this demolition list. The draft decision by the Riga City Council proposes to implement this optional right.
The similar project was approved by the Riga city Development Committee already on September 26th. However, the issue was taken off the agenda of the City Council assembly as the government agency on the protection of the cultural heritage had tabled their recommendations which proved to be a lot more tolerant.
Therefore, the Spilve Airport building, also densely decorated with sickles and hammers, was excluded from the initial draft document because of its “artistic value”. The commemorative plaque to Martin Poga was proposed not to be turned into rubble, but to be moved from the entrance of an apartment building where Martin Poga fought back some 200 Nazis to the Museum of Occupation.
The facade of the building of the Academy of Sciences decorated with currently banned symbols was also excluded from the list for an incomprehensible reason. I reminded the speaker, an Australian Latvian who acts as the director of the Monuments Agency, that not only the facade, but the entire building, as well as the academy itself, founded 9 months after the liquidation of the Courland Pocket in May 1945, are undoubtedly symbols glorifying the communist regime, but I have not received an intelligible explanation for the academy to ”be rescued” from the destruction list.
There was only one addition to the initial proposed destruction list which is a time capsule hidden under a sign on the wall of the building at Ganibu dambis 24 with the inscription exclusively in Russian: THE APPEAL TO DESCENDANTS. To be opened on May 9, 2045.
I suggested to strike this object off the list as it is not obviously anything “glorifying the communist regime”. Besides, by 2045 quite a lot of things might change, including the attitude towards those things which are now so fashionable to trample down.
At that, the main debate unfolded over the terms of demolition indicated in the document under discussion. The majority of the objects were to be dismantled until November 15 (that is within 8 days after the session) and with regard to the embankment fence the term was not identified. The Monument Agency just was not able to realise the first part of the decision while the second one contradicted the law which orders to demolish all monuments before November 15.
I proposed to take the draft decision off the agenda as contradictory to the law and common sense, but legal nihilism triumphed and the decision was approved in its initial variant. There is no reason to be surprised as the authorities of Latvia ignore the decisions of the UN Human Rights Committee to suspend the demolition of monuments. These very monuments were included to the government’s demolition list.
There is no doubt that the draft decision will apparently be approved already next Wednesday while and the procedures in the UN Human Rights Committee referring to the legality of the demolition of monuments in Riga, Daugavpils and Liepaja will be updated in the coming spring.
It would be useful to remind that the UN owes its very appearance to that very “criminal communist regime”, which turned out to be surprisingly strong at a break in the events of 80 years ago.
