Dark Secrets of the Corner House

About 2 blocks from our apartment here in Riga, is a large unassuming building that blends perfectly with all other surrounding buildings. It’s the “Exhibition- History of KGB Operations in Latvia” or known by locals as the “Corner House”. Today, we attended an English speaking tour to see the inside this building.

The KGB, or Russian State Security occupied this building as their Headquarters from the 1940’s. This was after the invasion by Russia into the Baltic States and controlled by Communist Soviet Union. The building is a prison and used to interrogate and torture citizens that were suspected of anti-communist beliefs or activities. KGB agents arrested persons, often at night, and brought them to this building through a back door.

Once inside, all were identified, fingerprinted, and strip searched while buttons, zippers, and clasps were removed from clothes to eliminate all escape or suicide plans.

In the original interrogation room; beatings were common to illicit confessions. A person would be coerced to name friends, associates, or family members which could result in more arrests. All were forced to sign a confession of their anti-communist views which brought harsh punishment. If they did not sign then cruel and inhumane acts of submission and intimidation was forced upon them.

After a long 4-12 hour interrogation, the inmate was shoved into a basement cell with up to 20 other prisoners. A bucket in the corner was provided for excrement. Temperatures inside the cell could be sweltering hot as a form of torture. Bright lights were constantly lit to inhibit sleeping and be under consistent observance by guards outside the cells.

The kitchen served thin soup, stale or rotten food with no concern for the well-being of the prisoners. It was a living hell hole for those who were captured and suspect of speaking ill of the communist or having a friend who was anti-communist. Inside the building, you were considered an enemy of the state and treated like a traitor.

Prisoners who signed a confession were either sent to the Gulags, Soviet labor camps, to work decade long sentences with hope to escape or were executed and shot in the back of the head. The execution room was located next to the garage for easy disposal.  Hundreds of bullet holes are still visible in the walls where men, women and children were shot in the head.

Late at night, dead bodies were tossed into the back of a truck and driven to the outskirts of town and dumped in the thick forest. Other bodies were exhumed from the backyard of this house of terror. These atrocities and horrific acts of inhumane violence occurred in this very building. 

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990, the building has been vacant until recent years when it was turned into the KGB Museum to remind people of Latvia’s tragic past.

A visit to the KGB museum is a good way to re-boot our appreciation for our liberties and freedoms.