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“We are going to Moscow to undo the unlawful marriage of Latvia to the USSR!” These are the exact words of Dainis Ivans that he said standing on top of a truck, its flaps unhooked, to a crowd of many thousands that gathered at the Market square in Riga on May 21, 1989.

The Latvian Institute’s new offices are located on the busiest street in Riga. Kaļķu street runs through the heart of Riga’s Old Town, from the Freedom Monument to the Stone Bridge that crosses the Daugava River. It’s lined with stores, restaurants and currency exchanges, and it is always filled with people. A lot more people in June than in January, but even on the most blistery bitter winter nights, Kaļķu iela is always alive with laughter, music and activity.

It was a nice morning. I picked up may mail. There was an envelope with an unusual logo on top of it. Three geometric figures were connected as a symbol of a man’s linkage to the past and the future. Below it was written: A GARDEN OF DESTINIES. In the envelope, there was a leaflet with the same logo and a printed text:

In 1951, the late Latvian diplomat Alfred Bilmanis described Latvia, Lithuana and Estonia as the “three natural guardians of the freedom of the Baltic Sea”. All three were occupied by the USSR then, and the world was entering a bitter Cold War that would bring a political Ice Age to half of Europe. At the end of his book, A History of Latvia, Bilmanis wrote this:

The twentieth century will forever hold memories of many tragic events for various people of our planet. However, for humanity as a whole World War II, unfortunately, will undeniably remain the most tragic memory of all. Even today this war is continuing in the press, taking the form of a new type of aggressive stand-off – the war of different historical memories. The other, the real World War II had an ending date – May 8th 1945. For Russia it is Victory Day which it celebrates a day later – on May 9th.

Ideas form and then they need to be realized... For me, as a Film Director, the idea about a film formed, which could show how events unfolded and developed in Latvia 90 years ago, in the chilly month of November, when Latvia’s independence was declared. I have researched accounts of that time in many museums, gone through piles of documents, spoken to many people... I have found some sensational, even unknown facts..., which provided the key for the film’s structure. In my diary, I would like to show, how this short film develops and what thoughts come to me during the filming. The first entry was made on the first day of filming – 30th March this year.

No, the Latvian Republic never had any colonies. But the Duke of Courland did back in the 17th century, and Courland today is a part of Latvia. Duke Jacob bought the Caribbean island of Tobago in 1640 and used Latvian sailors on Latvian-made ships to bring sugar, tobacco, and coffee back to Jelgava. Back then Jelgava was a major distribution point for these precious West Indian goods to Eastern Europe.

The Latvian tradition of assembling in great numbers at periodic Song Celebrations has developed over the past two centuries as an important National Awakening movement. Far more than a mere social gathering or even a musical event, each Latvian Song Celebration has always been a major happening, which includes a strong element of consciousness raising, both in the socio-cultural and in the political sense.

Has anyone ever asked you ‘What is Latvia’? Ironically, it is probably easier for a non-Latvian to answer this question. Someone looking in from the outside can simply use some handy labels – a country on the Baltic Sea, a place where Latvians live, a member of the EU and NATO.

One does not pick his homeland, as a well-known Russian saying goes. It so happened that I was born in Riga in a Russian family and thus Latvia became the only country on this planet that I call my homeland. Another one I don’t have, there simply cannot be any other. Oh, of course I love the ethnic homeland of my ancestors – Russia, too. I am proud of Russia and I feel for it, I resent historical mistakes made and am glad to see Russia’s achievements in culture, science, sports…