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The centenary of World War I in 2014 drew attention to the significance of this war in the history of Latvia. The aim of this article is to examine how one of the most vivid “sites of memory” of the war - the Latvian Riflemen - evolved and is still being used. The article reveals not only the preconditions and causes for the construction and development of the image of Latvian Riflemen, but also provides a framework which can be applied to analyse the genealogy of the public understanding of historicity and how our and foreign political elites have manipulated this historicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the image of the men on active service in the Latvian Riflemen's battalions organized during World War I, and the reflection on this image in the collective memory of Latvia. It analyses the making of this image in the 1920-30s (during the years of Latvia's independence), during the Soviet occupation and after restoration of independence. In the analysis of the role of Latvian riflemen in the collective memory of Latvia the theory on the formations of memory worked out by the German researcher Aleida Assmann has been used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]