In 1988, on 19 April, Gunārs Astra’s funeral took place at Riga’s Second Forest Cemetery and grew into a quiet but powerful demonstration of public solidarity. Astra, a political prisoner of the Soviet occupation era and a symbol of national resistance, had died in Leningrad only a few months after his release. Despite obstruction by the authorities, several thousand people attended the funeral, and his grave was filled in by hand.

Gunārs Astra became one of the most prominent symbols of non-violent resistance during the late Soviet occupation. His “Last Word” in court in 1983 and his funeral in 1988 are among the events that, on the eve of the Awakening, showed society’s readiness to openly affirm loyalty to a free Latvia.