Vernacular voices and contested meanings: contemporary uses of the swastika in Latvia

ABSTRACT

Similar visual forms can have different meanings and the messages that symbols carry are context specific. Some of the symbols are inevitably contested due to their historical uses. This article explores what is probably the most notorious of contested symbols: the swastika and its local variant in Latvia, the ugunskrusts (Cross of Fire). With the aim of analyzing vernacular narratives connected with contemporary uses of the ugunskrusts in Latvia, the article focuses on situations in which there is a conscious choice to use the ugunskrusts with the intention of reclaiming and rehabilitating the symbol for artistic and spiritual reasons, based on a belief in the symbol’s benign nature and with the help of narratives of cultural heritage. Despite these claims, however, the cases are not just about symbols or cultural heritage, but are just as much about historical conflicts in the past and current political affairs. Thus, the article shows how different national experiences of crimes committed by totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century determine the interpretation of, and attitude toward, the use of symbols connected with these regimes. I examine how collective memory battles are mirrored in the use of this contested symbol. Despite the voices that deny the negative connotation of the symbol locally, the image of the swastika in the western world is inevitably tied to Nazism. Therefore, I look at how the attitude toward this symbol correlates with the interpretation of World War II in the collective memory of Latvia. The article is based on in-depth ethnographic interviews conducted since 2017.

KEYWORDS:

• Contested symbols
• vernacular narratives
• collective memory
• swastika
• ugunskrusts
• Latvian folk ornament

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Estonian Research Council under grant No. PSG 48 “Performative Negotiations of Belonging in Contemporary Estonia.”

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Interviews cited

Edgars, 9 March 2018, interviewed by the author

Gaida, 20 October 2017, interviewed by the author

Kārlis, 16 February 2018, interviewed by the author

Marina, 9 November 2020, interviewed by the author

Notes

1. In this article, I have used direct quotes from four interviews; however, my material consists of 15 in-depth ethnographic interviews in total.

2. Examples of how the Holocaust has been integrated into collective memory is the public visibility of the Žanis Lipke memorial, established in honor of the memory of the Latvian rescuer of Jews, or the lighting of candles on 30 November by the Freedom Monument in Riga to commemorate the Rumbula massacre when 25,000 Latvian Jews were murdered.

3. The five-pointed star, in this case, refers to the symbol of communism and the years of Soviet occupation.

4. Laima is one of the main female deities in Latvian mythology.

5. The Baltic song and dance celebrations were inscribed in 2008 on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (originally proclaimed in 2003): https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/baltic-song-and-dance-celebrations-00087

6. Māra is one of the main female deities in Latvian mythology.

7. The interviewee’s name has been changed, as agreed during the interview.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Eesti Teadusagentuur [PSG 48].

Notes on contributors

Digne Ūdre

Digne Ūdre is a PhD candidate at the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu. Besides her PhD studies, she is a researcher at the Institute of Literature, Folklore, and Art, University of Latvia.