To commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Baltic Way and to highlight the importance of this event in the history of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Latvia (UL) in collaboration with the Oral History Researchers Association "Dzīvesstāsts" (Life Story) invites Latvian residents to participate in the experience story competition "My First Steps of Awakening" by submitting their memory story by October 31.
Residents are invited to write down or record their memory story and send it to the organizers of the competition by October 31, 2024. The stories will be preserved in the Latvian National Oral History Collection, while the most vivid stories will also be awarded and published. The competition rules and application form, as well as additional information, are available on the website of the Oral History Association "Dzīvesstāsts".
The aim of the competition is to encourage contemporaries to recall the moments when they first became involved in the Awakening processes between 1986 and 1991.
"It was a time of events and change, experienced by different generations. Each has their own unique story of how their consciousness began to transform and how, through their actions and participation, the first conscious steps towards Awakening were taken," said the organizers.
"The Awakening happened everywhere - in the nation, in the individual, in the family, in the neighborhood, in the interest group, outside Latvia, in schools, choirs and sports teams. These memories deserve to be heard and become part of the national memory. It can be a vivid story of experience, highly concentrated in time, but it can also be a memory of specific events that prompted us to speak out against the Soviet occupation."
