After the song finished another one started up. The audience of 100 000 had joined in, so now there were 130 000 people singing in protest. They sang songs left out of the programme, national favourites that hadn’t been sung publicly for many years. Everybody knew what to sing and there was no shutting them up. The people would be gagged no more. Some maintain that the national awakening was born that night. * The authorities turned on loudspeakers blaring military music to drown out the singing. It didn’t work – as the singing continued, Soviet military crept up from behind the grassy mounds that circle the festival grounds, three rows strong, surrounding the singing choir and audience. And this wasn’t the militia, this was the army. In daily life the soviets kept their presence subtle, hidden, ambiguous — this was an open threat. The transparency was shocking. They weren’t hiding behind newspapers or posing as students. The message was clear: we are watching you. * Lija says they sang for 30 minutes to an hour. I asked her what it would have come down to, if they hadn’t stopped singing on their own. She said the authorities did the smart thing – nothing. They let them sing it out, feigning freedom while demonstrating power. What else could they do? How do you fight 130 000 voices? How do you fight sound? They couldn’t gag them and they couldn’t arrest them all. The Soviet regime had not figured out how to deal with sound. *
The 1985 Soviet Latvian Song and Dance Festival was dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War and the 45th anniversary of the restoration of Latvia to Soviet power. Courtesy of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.
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Liepins family photographs
I was there with my parents and they had a hysterical relative telling them it was time to go. They wanted to stay – it was the most moving thing they had ever witnessed. I was six. A relative took matters into his own hands, lifting me onto his shoulders and walking away with me, past the rows of officers. We walked for miles, through the forest, away from the singing. My parents didn’t know where I was for hours – no cell phones then. They had to trust that I was safe with the relatives they had just met the day before.
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