The Barricades

Part of Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Date	13–27 January 1991
Location	Latvia, mainly Riga
Result	Inconclusive

Belligerents

Latvia

Riga OMON and other Soviet units

Casualties and losses

2 policemen and 4 civilians killed
4 policemen and 10 civilians wounded

Unknown

The Barricades (Latvian: Barikādes) were a series of confrontations between Latvia and forces loyal to the Soviet Union in January 1991 which took place mainly in Riga. The events are named for the popular effort of building and protecting barricades from 13 January until about 27 January. Latvia, which had declared restoration of independence from the Soviet Union a year earlier, anticipated that Soviet Union might attempt to regain control over the country by force. After attacks by the Soviet OMON on Riga in early January, the government called on people to build barricades for protection of possible targets (mainly in the capital city of Riga and nearby Ulbroka, as well as Kuldīga and Liepāja). Six people were killed in further attacks, several were wounded in shootings or beaten by OMON. Most victims were shot during the Soviet attack on the Latvian Ministry of the Interior on January 20. One other person died in a building accident reinforcing the barricades. Casualties among Soviet loyalists are considered likely, but the exact number remains unknown. A total of 15,611 people have registered as having been participants of the Barricades.

During World War II Latvia had been occupied by USSR. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika policies, hoping to salvage the failing Soviet economy. The reforms also lessened restrictions on political freedom in the Soviet Union. This led to unintended consequences as problems within the Soviet Union and crimes of the Soviet regime, previously kept secret and denied by the government, were exposed, causing public dissatisfaction, further deepened by the war in Afghanistan and the Chernobyl disaster. Another unintended consequence of Glasnost for the Soviet central authorities was the long-suppressed nationalist sentiments that were released in the republics of the Soviet Union.

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