“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.”
― Theodore Dalrymple
That was the purpose of this monument. To humiliate Latvians and to show them that Moscow is in charge and can force this lie of “liberating” on them at least in public spaces.
Years ago I remember reading how Latvia was at risk because a quarter of their population is Russian; the obelisk should have been removed decades ago for that very reason.