Bruno Javoiss

Bruno Javoišs was a member of the Latvian national resistance movement during the USSR occupation of Latvia, a political prisoner, historian.

He graduated from Riga Secondary School No. 50, studied at the Riga Aviation Institute, his studies were interrupted by arrest and deportation.

In 1963, on the night of December 5, which was the Constitution Day of the USSR, he climbed the 76-meter-high Riga radio tower and put on the red-white-and-red Latvian flag he had sewn himself instead of the Latvian SSR flag, thus protesting against the Russification of Latvia.

Immediately after this action, he was arrested when he came down from the tower, because it turns out that the tower had an alarm installed.

The case was investigated by KGB investigators A. Rēvalds and E. Kaķītis.

Convicted "for anti-Soviet propaganda and cold steel" (he was "armed" with a knife) for 7 years, which he spent in Mordovia.

He spent his years in prison together with Gunārs Astra, Jānis Ziemeli, Knuts Skujenieks and many other participants in the national resistance movement.

In 1971, after serving his sentence, only the director of the Natural History Museum, Vilis Krūmiņš, a former Red Army soldier, was not afraid to accept a "dissident" as a driver, but the KGB monitored him. Therefore, already in the same year, B. Javoišs moved to Tartu, because in Latvia he was practically forbidden to work normally and get an education. At the University of Tartu, B. Javoišs received a degree in art history.

After the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Estonia, B. Javoišs founded and headed the South Estonian Latvian Society, which at that time united about 100 Latvian compatriots.

Thanks to the activities of the leader and the association, the cemetery of the Latvian riflemen and refugees of the First World War was restored in the New St. John's Cemetery in Tartu. Mr. B. Javoiš lived in Tartu, but regularly traveled to Latvia, participated in various national-patriotic events.

Awarded the gilded badge of honor of the Order of the Three Stars, Commander of the Order of Viesturs.

Together with the Occupation Museum, the idea of ​​​​Javoiš's son to create a monument "In defiance of foreign power" in place of the radio tower has begun to be implemented, donations are being collected for its creation. Javoiš's son Bruno Lielkāja said:

"I tell my father, how do you perceive it that we would build something like this here. He says, - it is definitely not for me. It would be for all participants of the resistance movement, it would be intended for everyone, because those stories of the flag are not one, they are several, even those that we do not know."