Latvia and the Latvians Frederic T. Harned, Harvard University (part of a larger M.I.T. study), 1973

General Information

VI. External Relations

Unlike their neighbors, the Estonians and the Lithuanians, the Latvians have no unambiguous established external race which can provide support for their national distinctness. Estonians in Tallinn can receive and understand the radio and television broadcasts of their Finnish cousins across the Gulf. The ethnic and linguistic tie reinforces their own national awareness of being non-Russian and non-Slav. The Catholic Lithuanians have the Church and can argue for religious policies on the model of those prevailing in neighboring Poland. The Latvians have no ethnic relatives except the Lithuanians and the role of Lutheranism as a national church is not clear. Although they received a great deal of German cultural influence, the memory of the Baltic Barons and of German policies during the two World Wars is still strong. Sweden is home for several thousand Latvian émigrés and serves as a center for many of their political and intellectual activities. But it is ethnically and linguistically foreign. Great Britain gave Latvia some support in the struggle for independence, but on the whole the Latvians are relatively isolated.

Their position as a small, developed, Europeanized segment in a large, mostly Slavic state is shared by their two small neighbors. There was some limited cooperation among the three Baltic states during the period of independence, but it was not carried very far. This was in part due to Lithuania's involvement in the dispute with Poland over Vilnius. The Soviets have allowed a slowly increasing amount of inter-republic cooperation among the three. For some purposes they treat the Baltic region (the three republics plus the Kaliningrad oblast) as a unit, with Riga as the principal headquarters. This practice has contributed to the flow of Russian officials into Riga, however, and under Soviet conditions could at best be of only limited support in maintaining the distinctiveness of the region.

The Latvians are one of those USSR nationalities who have a relatively large and nationally conscious emigration. Latvians in the emigration population have worked to preserve and expand their national culture and have maintained contacts and communication with their homeland. They have also tried to make world opinion aware of the node of Latvia's accession to the Soviet Union and the position of its people.

Latvian language periodicals are published in the West, and several Latvian publishing houses are maintained by the émigrés. Latvians played a leading role in the establishment of the Baltiska Institutet in Stockholm and of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, headquartered in New York. Latvian National Associations exist in almost every city that has a Latvian community. They sponsor special schools for their children, cultural festivals, radio broadcasts, and news publications on the developments in Soviet Latvia. Judging from the reaction of the Soviet press, their influence in the homeland is not inconsiderable. The authorities of Soviet Latvia make a special effort to reach their emigrant co-nationals through special broadcasts and publications, as well as through encouraging tourism to their former homeland. [1]

1. Personal conversations with a number of such tourists in June, 1973 gave a clear impression that the effect of these programs is not necessarily favorable to the regime, either among the tourists or among their relatives and friends in Latvia.