Pskov wants to take away the monument to Barclay de Tolly from Riga

In Pskov they announced that they would like to take away the monument to the Russian commander, Field Marshal General Mikhail Barclay de Tolly, from Riga. In the capital of Latvia they are going to dismantle it.

This proposal was made by Russian State Duma deputy, head of the Pskov regional branch of the Russian Military Historical Society, Alexander Borisov. He recalled that the monument to Barclay de Tolly was erected in Riga in honor of the centenary of the end of the war with Napoleon.

The Field Marshal himself, who has Scottish roots, has repeatedly mentioned in written sources that he is from Riga. Alexander Borisov believes that the current deputies of the Riga City Duma made such a decision cross out and dishonor their own predecessors, showing absolute disregard for them and their history.

“Rodina” wrote that the Riga City Council, by a majority vote, decided to remove the monument to the Russian commander Mikhail Barclay de Tolly from the park in the center of the capital of Latvia. At the vote, only deputies of the Russian Union of Latvia spoke in defense of the cultural site. They called the dismantling a manifestation of Russophobia and a rewriting of history.

Supporters of the demolition referred to statements by the State Security Service of Latvia, which accused Russia of using monuments to increase its influence. After dismantling it will be returned to entrepreneur Evgeniy Gomberg. It was he who initiated the return of the replica to the historical pedestal in 2002.

The pedestal was made in Finland, the bronze sculpture was cast in Germany. In 1915, during the First World War, the statue was removed from Riga for safety reasons. Then she disappeared somewhere. Its copy was created in 2002 by St. Petersburg sculptor Alexey Murzin.