Soviet Riga Walking Tour: Life Behind the Iron Curtain｜Latvia

Latvia spent 50 years under the Soviet Union. The occupation began in 1940 and ended in 1991. Riga kept most of the buildings, monuments and scars from that period, and this tour takes you to and through them.

The route covers about 2 kilometres of the Old Town and the city centre. You start at Town Hall Square and finish at the Freedom Monument. Along the way your guide explains how the Soviet system worked in practice: housing, work, shortages, censorship, deportations and the KGB.

Stops include the Occupation Museum building, built in 1970 as a museum to the Latvian Red Riflemen, and the Riflemen Monument beside it. You also see the Orthodox Cathedral, which the Soviet authorities closed and converted into a planetarium and café. It reopened as a church after independence.

A large part of the tour covers January 1991. Soviet forces moved against the Baltic states, and people in Riga blocked the streets with concrete blocks, trucks and farm machinery. They held the barricades for two weeks. Several people died. You visit the memorial stones at Bastejkalns, the memorial sign on Dome Square, and the Museum of the Barricades when it is open.

The tour ends at the Freedom Monument. It stood through the entire Soviet period, and people who left flowers there risked arrest.

Our guides are local. Most either lived under the Soviet system or grew up with parents who did, so you get first-hand detail alongside the dates and facts. Questions are welcome at any point.