Most victims were shot during the Soviet attack on the Latvian Ministry of the Interior on January 20, while another person died in a building accident reinforcing the barricades.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika policies, hoping to salvage the failing Soviet economy.

The government of the Soviet Union and other pro-Soviet groups threatened that a state of emergency would be established which would grant unlimited authority in Latvia to President Gorbachev and military force would be used to "implement order in the Baltic Republics".

Foreign minister of the Soviet Union Eduard Shevardnadze seemingly confirmed this when he resigned on 20 December 1990, stating that a dictatorship was coming.

[3] On 11 December 1990, the Popular Front released an announcement stating that there was no need for a climate of fear and hysteria in what was dubbed hour X – the unlimited authority of the president – would come and every person should be ready to consider what they would do if that happened.

The Supreme Council officially recognized the taking of the printing house as an illegal act on the part of the Communist Party of Latvia.

Then on 7 January, following the orders of Mikhail Gorbachev, Dmitriy Yazov sent commando units into several Republics of the Soviet Union including Latvia.

That night the Popular Front, after learning that Soviet forces in Lithuania had attacked the Vilnius TV Tower and killed 13 civilians, called on people to gather for the defense of strategic objectives.

[9] At 4:45 on 13 January, an announcement from the Popular Front was broadcast by Latvian radio calling people to gather in Riga Cathedral square.

At 14.00 the Popular Front's demonstration began, around 700,000 people had gathered, Soviet helicopters dropped leaflets with warnings over the crowd at this point.

The evening session issued a call for Soviet soldiers asking them to disobey orders concerning the use of force against civilians.

[10] As night came, following orders from the government, agricultural and construction machines and trucks full of logs arrived in Riga to build barricades.

Part of this crowd gathered in Riga Cathedral Square as the Popular Front had asked in its morning announcement.

This would ensure that if the Soviets did launch an attack, the Latvian forces could hold these locations long enough to inform the rest of the world.

Prime minister Ivars Godmanis regularly held meetings with commanders of individual barricades, the Popular Front also participated to discuss tactics.

[8] On 14 January, the Commander of the Soviet army in the Baltic Military District Fyodor Kuzmin [ru] issued an ultimatum against the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia chairman Anatolijs Gorbunovs, demanding that the adopted laws are repealed.

Later that day 10,000 people gathered for an Interfront meeting, where an All-Latvian Public Rescue Committee declared that it was taking over power in Latvia.

At 4:45 pm, in another attack on Vecmilgrāvis bridge, a driver for the Latvian Ministry of Transport, Roberts Mūrnieks was shot in the back of the head with an automatic weapon and died from the injury at the Riga Hospital No.

Upon its return to Moscow, the delegation reported that Latvia was in favour of the establishment of unlimited authority of the USSR president.

[14] On 20 January, about 100,000 people gathered in Moscow to show their support for the Baltic states, calling on Soviet officials to resign in connection with the events in Vilnius.

That evening turned out to be the deadliest at the Barricades after the OMON and other unidentified combat groups attacked the Latvian Interior Ministry.

Two policemen (Vladimirs Gomanovičs and Sergejs Konoņenko), camera operator and director Andris Slapiņš and 17-year-old schoolboy Edijs Riekstiņš were killed.

[12] The actual barricades remained on the streets of Riga for a long time; for example, those at the Supreme Council were removed only in the autumn of 1992.

[11] In an interview with film director Juris Podnieks, an OMON officer stated that originally it was planned to attack Riga, not Vilnius.

In December before the events, the Popular Front, in its instructions for X hour, asserted that a coup was planned by the "Soyuz" group of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR MPs.

[5] On the basis of these and subsequent events, several OMON officers were tried, although many of them were not convicted, the Communist Party of Latvia, Interfront, the All-Latvian Public Rescue Committee and a few related organizations were banned by parliament for the attempted coup d'état, and two leaders of CPL and ALPRC were tried for treason.

[19] Viktor Alksnis transplanted a large number of the Baltic OMON forces to the Transnistrian territory of Moldova in support of the separatist regime there, where Vladimir Antyufeyev, commander of the Riga OMON forces, took on the role of Minister of Security initially under an assumed name (Vladimir Shevstov), a post he held until 2012.

[20] The Barricades was a nonviolent resistance movement as the participants were publicly encouraged not to carry any weapons despite the Soviet Union taking brutal measures against protesters.

The Popular Front of Latvia developed a plan, called “Instructions for X-hour”, which was published in the press in December 1990.

[2] Notwithstanding Mikhail Gorbachev's promises not to use violent methods to change power in the Baltic states, the USSR army and the interior structures attacked local authorities and strategic sites in Lithuania and Latvia in January 1991 killing officers and civilians.