In Cēsis on October 22, 1988, the red-white-red flag returned not as a badge in someone’s pocket, but above a city. It was raised in the tower of Cēsis New Castle by activists of the Cēsis district branch of the Latvian Popular Front – Valdis Atāls, Imants Timmermanis, Normunds Broks, and Druvis Skulte. The castle garden was packed; later, the then mayor of Cēsis, Jānis Beikmanis, recalled the feeling that KGB men were watching from behind the trees. Cēsis became the first Latvian city where the national flag again flew above a publicly significant building.
It happened in the first year of the Third Awakening, when national symbols were not yet merely ceremonial objects but a public challenge to Soviet rule. Cēsis was a fitting place for such a moment – on September 11, 1988, the city had already founded the first Latvian Popular Front branch outside Riga.
Related events
- 1875On October 22, 1875, Emīls Dārziņš was born at Jāņaskola in Jaunpiebalga – the Latvian composer whose Melancholic Waltz later became one of the best-known works of Latvian symphonic music.
- 1915On October 22, 1915, the 2nd Riga and 3rd Kurzeme Latvian Riflemen battalions entered heavy fighting near Sloka; the 3rd Kurzeme Battalion lost 318 killed and wounded riflemen.
- 1896On October 22, 1896, the free people’s library of Stukmaņi parish was founded – a local reading place by the Daugava that later became part of Klintaine parish’s cultural memory.
Footnotes
- 1.https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/251854-C%C4%93sis
- 2.https://www.president.lv/sites/president/files/article/item_1752_LV90.pdf
- 3.https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/32412
- 4.https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/95280-latvie%C5%A1u-str%C4%93lnieku-kaujas-Slokas-apk%C4%81rtn%C4%93-1915-gada-ruden%C4%AB
- 5.https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/195663