Grave markers for revolutionaries killed in 1906, 1907 and 1920 in Riga

Pictures and text by Mark R. Hatlie

These pictures were taken in Riga during the first week of September, 2007, in the Matisa cemetery. The markers are spread around a large area, but all visible from each other.

This collection of markers was probably erected in the 1950s over the mass graves of those who were executed. This collection has come to be known as the "Alley of Death" (Naves aleja). Nearby there are memorials to the fallen revolutionaries of several Riga factories. I missed those, however. See Zelce, Vita (Ed.): Zimes. Mes. Pieminesana. Piektais gads. LU Akademijas apgads: Riga, 2007, pp. 120-121.

	A memorial to fallen members of the postwar anti-communist resistance is in the background. That memorial is not yet online.
	This marker is over the remains of eight party members executed in 1907 after trying to escape from the nearby central prison.
	a closer view of the same marker
	Men from the Leutner Factory who were executed by a military tribunal in 1908.
	This stone is barely legible. It says something about an execution in 1907. The top is a call to remember them in eternal glory.
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	five men shot in 1906
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	Three workers from the railway car factory shot in 1907.
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	Two combattant workers, one male and one female, shot in 1905.
	Three men who fell in 1906, "surrounded by soldiers and police."
	Two combattant workers, one male and one female, shot in 1906.