The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia 1940-1991 is a private institution. It was established in 1993 by a group of 11 people, who founded the Occupation Museum Foundation (OMF), now the Occupation Museum Association (OMB), to establish, administer and finance the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. As a private museum, the Museum of the Occupation is financially, and thus politically, independent. The mission of the museum is as follows: ‘to identify, research, elucidate and commemorate the wrongs committed by foreign occupying powers against the state and the people of Latvia from 1940 to 1991; to preserve the historical memory of the Latvian people about the occupation period; and to inform and educate the people of Latvia and other nations about the history and the consequences of the occupation period, in order to strengthen the Latvian state and its place among the free and democratic nations of the world.’