Latvia

Latvia An area colonized by the Teutonic Order of Knights in the thirteenth century. A German merchant and landowning elite emerged whose domination lasted until the early twentieth century. Under Polish rule since the sixteenth century, and part of Russia since the late eighteenth century, there emerged a national, ‘Latvian’ consciousness only during the second half of the nineteenth century, with the development of a Latvian bourgeoisie and landowning elite. In 1918 a Latvian Communist government proclaimed independence and called on the Red Army for help. Against this, with German help a Latvian nationalist government was formed and declared an independent republic on 18 November 1918, under the leadership of Karlis Ulmanis as Prime Minister. The nationalists gradually managed to gain control over the country, and in 1920 Soviet Russia accepted Latvian independence. Though the powerful German landowning elite was expropriated, the country was otherwise notable for its protection of cultural rights for its Russian, Jewish, German, and Polish minorities. Its remarkable stability was challenged by the rise of Fascist groups in the wake of the Great Depression. To forestall their further advance, in May 1934 Ulmanis took dictatorial powers himself, and subsequently tried to balance the interests of the country's varied cultural and economic groups without a parliament. The country was occupied by the Red Army in October 1939, and integrated into the USSR as a Soviet Republic in 1940.

As a result, in World War II many Latvians supported the Germans, who occupied the country, 1941–4. Thereafter, it was again occupied by the USSR. To weaken the Latvians' national identity, in 1945 Stalin ordered the deportation of around 100,000 Latvians to central Asia and Siberia, and their exchange with an equal number of non-Latvians. In response to Gorbachev's reformist policies of glasnost, voices for independence re-emerged in 1986. The regional Communist Party was increasingly supportive of independence, and on 5 May 1990 the country was declared independent again, to the irritation of the Soviet Union. While the Constitution of 1918 was reintroduced, the character of the state had changed markedly. Since the Latvian proportion in the total population was only 54 per cent (as opposed to 75 per cent in 1918), Latvians felt threatened in their still fragile state, and thus refused to allow Russians the minority rights which Latvians themselves had been denied under Soviet rule. The economy suffered a severe crisis, as inflation reached almost 1,000 per cent in 1992. By 2000 inflation had been brought under control, but economic growth had recovered more slowly, and foreign indebtedness remained high. In 1999 inhabitants of Russian descent were given the right to citizenship, although in the subsequent year the Russian minority complained at a law to protect the Latvian language, which prescribed the use of Latvian in official matters. In 2000, Latvia started accession negotiations with the European Union.

Estonia; Lithuania; Baltic Council