Just a single photo remains of Latvia's November 18, 1918 independence declaration in the Latvian National Theatre building – and this testifies to the fact that it was but a single step in the country's struggle to survive.
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August 23, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way – the day in 1989 when Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians joined hands, forming a live human chain from Tallinn to Vilnius via Rīga to protest the Soviet occupation of their countries, which resulted from the signing of the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop pact on August 23, 1939. They called for the renewed independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – a goal that, incredibly, was achieved within two years.
The end of the Second World War marked the beginning of a new war in Latvia. Resistance would last for years. Were the so-called Forest Brothers – Latvia's anti-Soviet partisans – heroes, bandits, or fools? Their fight was hopeless but perhaps not pointless, according to LTV's Atslēgas show (this episode aired last year).
2019 will mark the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way – the day in 1989 when Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians joined hands, forming a live human chain from Tallinn to Vilnius via Rīga to protest the Soviet occupation of their countries, which resulted from the signing of the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop pact on August 23, 1939. They called for the renewed independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – a goal that was achieved within two years.
Why does Latvia need to be a member of the European Union (EU) and NATO? For a full belly and protection, and for a Brussels you can blame for all your problems? Or perhaps these institutions are a door for Latvia, a door that was locked until this point in history.
Back when Latvia had disappeared from the world map, its name became known across the USSR for the Latvija minibus produced at the Rīga Autobus Factory (RAF). Unsurpassed across the union, the factory's minibuses became symbolic, and even today a glimpse of one still on the road can add a dash of nostalgia despite many less pleasant memories of the Soviets. So here is a look at the history of a motoring marque many in the West have never heard of.
In 1991 Latvia closed the KGB Soviet secret service and took over what was left of its archives. These are now to be published before Christmas, but that this step will lead to full justice and clarity is unlikely.
Just a single photo remains of Latvia's November 18, 1918 independence declaration in the Latvian National Theatre building – and this testifies to the fact that it was but a single step in the country's struggle to survive.
As collectivization set in across Latvia's countryside after the Second World War, the landscape was changed utterly. About 100,000 traditional homesteads (viensētas) were demolished. Forced into kolkhozs, or collective farms, by the Soviets, Latvians abandoned their traditional way of life in what was one of the people's most traumatizing experiences of the 20th century.
Baltic Germans had lived in Latvia for 700 years prior to the Second World War.
Historians consider the holocaust – mass murders of Jews and Roma people during the Nazi occupation – the largest crime in modern Latvian history. A recent episode of the Atslēgas (Keys) TV show examines the role local people played in the greatest of 20th-century atrocities.
As the nascent Baltic states were fighting for their freedom, they nevertheless found time to draw borders. In 1919, the Ruhnu island, closer to Latvia than Estonia, was inhabited by Swedish seal hunters. Nevertheless, it fell to Estonian control.
World War II didn't really end in 1945, for Latvia. More than 100,000 war refugees couldn't go back home. The people who did remain were stripped of their property, with collectivization in full swing. Soviet secret service arrested at least 40,000 people in the years following the war. An episode of a new LTV show, Atslēgas shows how the repressive state tried to take away the last freedom people had left. Namely, their freedom to think.