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The Baltic Way- the singing revolution.

You can learn so much about a people from their history. And history can explain so much about a people and who they are and where they come from.

Today we visited the Occupation Museum which basically told the history of Latvia and their journey of freedom (or journey through occupations). From being occupied by Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and then Soviet Union again, it is amazing to see where they are at as a nation today. But the journey has definitely been a very hard and painful one, which I am sure still affects not only the nation, but also the people.

We had a lovely young man give us a guided tour (instead of just reading the displays), and it really helped bring it to life. He was a well of knowledge, but at the same time it was easy to tell that it was all very personal to him, which it is to any Latvian person I would imagine.

The story of the “Singing Revolution” or “Baltic Way” as it is called, touched me the most. On the 23rd of August, 1989, 2 million people from the three Baltic countries (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania- all illegally occupied by the Soviet Union) joined hands to form a 600 km long human chain in a non-violent demonstration against the occupation. It was called the “singing revolution” because a choir in Riga performed some piece at that time. It is hard to even imagine getting 2 million people to simultaneously join hands across 3 entire countries at the same time. An amazing statement of the will of the people.  And as the young man shared, he added that he too was part of it. His mother had participated with him as a little infant in her arms. So powerful, and really brought into perspective how recent all of this is. This isn’t ancient history, but a history of oppression which affected many people who are still alive today.

And so as I think of Latvia and all they have walked through, I see that even as a nation, it’s a nation walking into freedom. And my prayer is that the people wouldn’t remain in the past oppression, but embrace the freedom they are now living in and building their lives upon.

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