The Latvian Institute has prepared a short and visual introduction to the barricade phenomenon.
Commemorative events are held throughout the day in Rīga and other cities. Latvian Radio went to the Doma Square, where schoolchildren and barricade participants had gathered to watch Youth Guard and high-ranking officials light the symbolic barricade fire.
Despite that some are disillusioned with the government, the people Latvian Radio Spoke to said they'd go to the barricades again today if it was necessary.
"It was simply human unity. Not the one we have now in the government, but real unity. People were like brothers, they shared their last bits. Even remembering it now brings tears to my eyes," Ēvalds Vaivods from Līvāni told Latvian Radio.
Vaivods will receive a Barricade Participant insignia at the Latvian Parliament.
"I think we have lost this determination. We have eaten the ideals that we had - either during times of plenty or by going after goods. And it's a little sad. However, I believe in our future, and - if, God forbid - something similar happens again, people would rise and go," said Ieva Kvāle, a historian at the War Museum. She partook in the Barricades together with her whole family.
"I want our young people to study a little. Some people - 25 or 30 years old - have grown up and don't know anything. I would like our backbone to be stronger, [for us] to stand for our freedom. If I have land and I am standing on it, it's my land!," Juris Pudulis from Cēsis told Latvian Radio, saying he had defended the Council of Ministers in the times of turbulence.
Young people have their own thoughts too on whether they'd attend the barricades today. "I would be afraid, but, well, I would come," said Agnis, a high school student from Vangaži.
"There'd be no other choice. But we would be afraid. Very afraid," his schoolmate Dace said.
"If our predecessors wouldn't have done it, we wouldn't be here today. Why shouldn't we stand for the generations that will come after us?" said Stefānija.
In January 1991 people flowed into the capitals of the Baltic states and erected makeshift barricades around strategic locations like the parliament and the national radio to protect them against Soviet troops that wanted to crush the Baltic nations' independence drive. 2016 marks the 25th anniversary of the events.
The barricades culminated on the evening of January 20 in attack on the Interior Ministry. Five people were killed and several more injured in the attack.
