Mārtiņš Mintaurs (National Library of Latvia)
Remembrance of the WW II experience and the subsequent Soviet annexation of the country is still an issue of social importance in Latvia today. Public debates on collaboration with the Soviet and Nazi occupation regimes during the WW II appear from time to time again touching upon traumatic experiences of the nation that are recalled not at least to be used in political advertising. The public commemoration practice here includes several stages of development since the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991, as follows: 1) institutionalization of post-Soviet remembrance until the late 1990s; 2) corrections in the commemoration practices when joining the EU and the NATO in the early 2000s; 3) restarting debate about the WW II history in Latvia and the communication of “our particular experience” in the context of Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2014 and especially since 2022. In these stages one can follow different approaches and practices of instrumentalization of the traumatic past that affects public attitude to interpretation of history from victimization strategy to critical self-reflection on responsibility, as well as the perception of particular heritage objects related to historical events of the WW II that took place on the territory of Latvia.