It was not a new decoration, but the return of a state memory: on 25 October 1994 in Riga, President Guntis Ulmanis promulgated the law “On the Order of the Three Stars.” Its first article was brief and deliberate: to restore the order founded in 1924 in commemoration of the making of the Latvian state. Its motto also returned: “Per aspera ad astra” — through hardships to the stars. The first recipients of the restored order were decorated on 7 November.

The Order of the Three Stars had been independent Latvia’s foremost civilian decoration, but the state honours system was interrupted during the occupation. Its restoration in 1994 was part of recovering the legal and symbolic continuity of the Latvian state after the restoration of independence.