On 8 September 1939, in Rēzekne’s Atbrīvošanas aleja, a white cover was lifted from Latgales Māra – officially the Latgale Liberation Monument “United for Latvia.” The work of sculptor Kārlis Jansons, built with public donations, recalled the 1920 liberation of Latgale and Latgale’s place in a shared Latvia. It did not stand peacefully for long: under Soviet occupation the monument was pulled down twice, and on 13 August 1992 the restored figure returned to the centre of Rēzekne.

Latgale became part of the Latvian state after the 1917 Latgale Congress and the War of Independence; by the late 1930s, that idea also had a public monument in Rēzekne. The Soviet authorities’ repeated demolition of the monument, and its restoration in 1992, made the site a highly visible point of historical memory.