This year seemed to have assembled many more people than in 2014. Thirty participants alone were comprised of youth freshly sworn-in as Junior Home Guard.
National Armed Forces commander Raimonds Graube was pleased to see more young people attending memorial events such as these. “We the participants of the actual barricades of 1991 are a shrinking pool, so the goal is to keep attracting more youth here. It’s the hope of the future, that we’ll keep it protected. We’re responsible for our own creation,” the nation’s defense forces chief told LTV news program Panorāma.
He further recalled the barricades as an emotional moment: “Seeing tens of thousands come together to reach a single, emotional goal, you can’t but help having special memories, as I do. It’s a fantastic feeling, once in a lifetime. At that instant I was completely convinced, clear that we’d be independent, we’d be free.”
