The Riga Monuments Agency has received information about the vandalism of the monument depicting Barclay de Tolly (1761-1818) and it will now be cleaned.
Kristīne Kļaveniece, chief communication specialist of the Riga Municipal Police, said information about the damage to the monument, which appears to be minor, has been handed over to the State Police. The Riga Municipal Police does not have surveillance cameras at the location.
As recently reported by LSM, the monument to the Napoleonic-era Russian general does not need to be removed from public display, the Council of Monuments of the Riga City Council decided on Friday, August 23.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine there has been renewed momentum to remove symbols related to the times of Soviet and Russian imperialism. The council decided August 23 not to continue discussions on the removal of the monument to Barclay de Tolly from the Esplanade gardens beside Rīga's Orthodox cathedral.
Barclay de Tolly (1761-1818) was one of the most successul Russian generals of the Napoleonic wars. Despite his French-sounding name, he was of Baltic German and Scottish descent and rose to the rank of Field Marshal, becoming a national hero in the Russian Empire.
The statue of Barclay de Tolly in Rīga is more modern, having originally been unveiled in 1913 but then melted down for scrap during the First World War. A reproduction was re-erected on the same spot in 2001, financed by local businessman Jevgenijs Gombergs.
Another monument to de Tolly can be found in the center of Tartu, Estonia, and his impressive neoclassical mausoleum is located in southern Estonia, not far from the Latvian border.
