The Dogs of Riga

Today I went with my American-Latvian friends to the Brāļu kapi (The Brother's Cemetery). I like to call it the Arlington of Latvia and it is one of my most favorite places in all of Latvia. It's a cemetery built during the interwar period to commemorate all the fallen soldiers during the World War I and the War for Independence. We went early in the evening before dusk, and we were asked why we were going to the cemetery in the afternoon. I guess Latvians only go to cemeteries in the morning. We were really the only ones there except for a grounds keeper and some Russians who apparently didn't know the Latvian rules about cemetery visits. As we made our way to the grave of Janis Cakste, the first Latvian President (which is actually located in the Meza Kapi cemetery) the sun had set and there were three seemingly wild dogs sort of guarding the grave. You never really know if the dogs here have owners, the other day I saw an owner put the leash in his dogs mouth so the dog could walk itself.

OK back to my story......As we approached the grave I started to tell my friends the story of how during Soviet times this grave became a pilgrimage site in Latvia. People would come to lay flowers and remember the freedom they had during the interwar period. The KGB of course didn't like this so they posted a guard for the grave to keep track of people who visited who visited. In the Occupation Museum they even have a KGB picture, taken from the archives, of a KGB guard and people walking past. We tried to take pictures of the dogs at the grave but none of them turned out....It was all very creepy. We were thinking that maybe the dogs are ghosts of the former KGB officers who used to guard the grave! On a side note The Dogs of Riga is also the title of a book I bought in Sweden by Kurt Wallander, a famous Swedish crime writer, I of course knew nothing about.