1905 – Bloody Sunday Monument

On Sunday, 9th January 1905 (Bloody Sunday) hundreds of workers protesting against oppressive labour practices and seeking improved living conditions were killed by the Tsar’s guard in St Petersburg. This heavy handed response by Tsar Nicholas II set off the failed 1905 Revolution. Some say it also spurred on the successful 1917 Revolution, which saw the Bolsheviks seizing power from the Tsar and the creation of the communist Soviet Union.

In a show of solidarity with their counterparts in St Petersburg, Latvian workers staged a strike and protest in Riga which also demanded greater autonomy for Latvia (independence from Russia and a break from local Baltic German tyranny) in a show of patriotism more evident here than in other labour protests of the day. On 13 January, 1905 the demonstrators felt the heavy hand of the Russian police descend upon them. Over 70 demonstrators were shot dead or drowned, when they fell through the thin ice into the Daugava River, as they tried to flee the scene. Hundreds more were wounded. The snow of Riga had been turned bright red.

Related strikes were not limited to Riga but occurred all over the Russian Empire, at the time severely economically weakened following its defeat in the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War. Weakened or not, retribution against protesting strikers was swift and severe. It is estimated that between October 1905 and April 1906, 15,000 peasants and workers were hanged or shot, 20,000 injured, and 45,000 sent into exile.

In 1960 this typically brutalist Soviet statue, simply inscribed 1905, was erected at the spot where the workers of Riga were attacked by Tsarist forces in 1905. Designed by Kārlis Plūksne and sculpted by Alberts Terpilovskisit, it depicts a very determined looking proletariat worker taking a flag from his fallen comrade and maintaining it aloft during the 1905 protest.

The street running from the statue toward the old town is also named after this incident – 13.janvāra iela.

Address: Cnr 13 janvāra iela & 11 Novembra Krastmala

This blog entry is one of a group (loop) of entries on the Old City area of Riga. I suggest you continue with my next entry – St. John’s – Riga – or to start the loop at the beginning go to my first entry – SamaraH Hotel Metropole – Riga.