Latvian residents

Latvia declares restoration of independence

📅 4 May 1990

Latvia’s Supreme Council declared restoration while allowing a transition period. The decision asserted that Soviet annexation had not extinguished Latvian statehood and advanced a legal claim...

Violence erupts during Latvia’s barricades movement

📅 20 January 1991

Latvians maintained barricades around key institutions after the Vilnius killings. Soviet special forces attacked in Riga, killing civilians and accelerating opposition to Union coercion.

Latvia ends its transition period and restores independence de facto

📅 21 August 1991

Latvia’s Supreme Council ended the transitional period and re-established full state authority after the coup failed. The law consolidated a claim grounded in continuity of pre-1940 statehood.