On 14 June 1987, the anniversary of the 1941 deportations, the human rights group "Helsinki-86", which had been founded a year earlier, organized people to place flowers at the Freedom Monument (Latvia's symbol of independence, which was erected in 1935). This is widely cited as the beginning of the National Awakening. However, the Latvian Song and Dance Festival of 1985 also had been sometimes named as such for choirs requesting and performing the song "Gaismas pils" conducted by Haralds Mednis after the main event. The song, which speaks about the rebirth of a free Latvian nation, usually a staple of the festival, had been removed from the repertoire and the conductor, disliked by Soviet authorities, sidelined at the closing concert, but the performance, aired live on Riga Television, carried on.