At one point, around 700,000 demonstrators had gathered on the streets of Rīga in a remarkable show of solidarity characteristic of the times of change.
As is now traditional, barricade fires and candles are lit commemorating the time and the people who died during the events.
Flowers will also be laid by the Freedom Monument, at Barricades square, the Meža cemetery, as well as by the former Interior Ministry building where the most brutal of the attacks by the Soviet special forces was carried out.
You can find out more about the barricades at a dedicated museum in Riga.
To get an idea of how the streets of Rīga looked during the event, we've a gallery of 25 pictures.
Commemorating Barricade Days in Riga, 28 years ago people erected barricades in the city to protect independence movement against Soviet oppressive power pic.twitter.com/LPRWpsqgda
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) January 20, 2019
