Foreign rulers

State, the fourth series of the largest national collector coin programme Latvia. Times and Values tells the story of Latvia rising from obscurity, then suffering through a dark era to re-emerge once again free. 

The foreboding of Zigfrids Anna Meierovics (1887–1925), the first Foreign Minister of the Republic of Latvia, in regard to the longevity of independence came to pass in 1940 when, in accordance with the Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact, the state borders were levelled by the Soviet tanks. The horror regime of Stalin, then Hitler, then Stalin again proved lethal to anyone who dared to resist but did not succeed to escape. 

Yet the people's prayer written by Andrejs Eglitis and put to music by Lucija Garuta God, Thy Earth is Aflame!, safeguarding the spiritual borders of Latvia in the hearts of Latvians all over the world, was not entirely forgotten. The remnants of statehood were kept from vanishing from the world's awareness by Latvian legations in those countries that never recognised the fifty-year long occupation of Latvia. Symbolic beacons were the Freedom Monument in the very heart of Riga, the Mother Latvia figure in the war memorial and the graveside monument to Janis Cakste, the first President of the Republic, serving as reminders of the independent past and rallying points when the time came for a concerted effort to restore the Latvian statehood.