On February 13, 1919 the Revolutionary Military Council of Soviet Latvia decided to create a network of concentration camps in the territory of Latvia. They were nicknamed "menageries" (zvēru dārzi) for the brutal conditions inside.
Not far from Rīga's busy Central Railway Station is a bunker. Built during the Soviet occupation years, it was known by a suitably anonymous and sinister name: Object Number 100. Its purpose was simple: to protect select railway workers from chemical warfare and atomic bombs. To that end the bunker was equipped with an air purification system, its own power supply and heating equipment.
In January 1991 people flowed into the capitals of the Baltic states and erected makeshift barricades around strategic locations like the parliament and the national radio to protect them against Soviet troops that wanted to crush the Baltic nations' independence drive.
January 12 marked fifty years since one of the largest catastrophes in Latvia as a gas explosion took the lives of 41 persons at Raiņa street 9, Jelgava, in 1969.
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.
Since the first batch of Latvia's KGB documents were published on the Internet, a number of individuals have turned to courts, wishing to prove that they did not collaborate with the KGB, the Court Administration of Latvia representative Inara Makarova told the LETA newswire December 27.
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.
The files held by the KGB in Latvia, known colloquially as the "Cheka bags", will be published online before Christmas, the director of the Latvian National Archives, Māra Sprūdža, told Latvian Radio December 3.
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.
Latvia marked 100 years of statehood November 18 with events across the country and beyond to celebrate the historic occasion.
With Latvia marking the centenary of its founding on November 18, events and celebrations to mark the historic occasion are taking place all around the world, with social media recording many of them for posterity.
In cooperation with the Satori.lv magazine, we present another of the pieces which appeared in the final installment of the Centenary magazine, paid for by the Culture Ministry. This piece by historian Roberts Rasums examines the role of the army in securing Latvia's independence.
Latvian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and former foreign minister Sandra Kalniete will be awarded the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom in the United States of America on November 14.
Memorial services and other ceremonies were taking place across Latvia November 11 to remember those who have fallen in defense of the Latvian nation.
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.
A new documentary film examines the activities of the KGB - often colloquially known as the Cheka in Latvia - during Latvia's occupation by the Soviet Union, concentrating on the KGB's approaches to various well-known figures in politics and the arts even as the prospect of renewed independence for Latvia began to gather momentum.
Latvian Radio has been broadcasting since 1925. However, early on from its inception it had to become a mouthpiece for the powers that be, with its history serving, today, as a warning against the politicization of media, according to LTV's Atslēgas show.
Baltic Germans had lived in Latvia for 700 years prior to the Second World War.
On October 19 the politicians Miķelis Valters and Eduards Traubergs submitted a resolution to the German chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden, asking the German government not to impede the establishment of an internationally recognized, independent Latvian state, as per the wish of the people of Latvia.
One of Latvia's best-preserved castles will be open to tourists next year as restoration work gets underway.
On October 14, 1918 the Baltic Higher Technical School (Baltijas Tehniskā augstskola, German: Baltische Technische Hoschshule) was established, continuing the technical education traditions in Rīga which were interrupted during the First World War.
September 28 to 30 will bring a great opportunity for members of the public to explore the industrial heritage of Rīga and its surrounding region with many famous factories and sites opening their doors, some of which are normally out of bounds.
On the night to August 29, 1918 the Bolsheviks shot colonel Frīdrihs Briedis, one of the most popular and talented of the Latvian Riflemen. Several plans to set him free failed, and the news over his death shocked his contemporaries.
August 23 will see the opening of a new installation in the town of Cēsis which bears witness to the many years of resistance to the 50-year occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union and the high price many ordinary people paid as a result.
On August 6, 1918 units of the Czechoslovakian legion took Kazan by storm. The Eastern Front of Red Army, commanded by Latvia's Jukums Vācietis, as well as the 5th Regiment of Red Latvian Riflemen was located there. Czechoslovakians were able to quickly take the city and the Russian gold reserves stored in it; they took more than 100 Latvian riflemen hostage, but, miraculously, Jukums Vācietis managed to escape.
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.
Napoleonic battles will be the orders of the days in Latvia's second largest city, Daugavpils, this weekend.
The Baltic Sea has supplied what may be a significant archaeological find, with what is believed to be an ancient shipweck washing ashore at Bolderāja, not far from Rīga.
July 4 sees ceremonies taking place in Latvia in remembrance of victims of the Holocaust.