Latvia is a European nation in the Baltic region. It borders the Baltic Sea, between Estonia and Lithuania. It is slightly larger than West Virginia. The capital is Riga. Latvian is the official language.

For 700 years the Baltic people have suffered under the rule of the Swedish, Germans, Polish, and, lastly, the Russians. In an all-too-brief time period between the two World Wars, Latvia was a free country.

At the start of World War II, a secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Protocol to the Hitler-Stalin Pact gave Tatvia to the Russian realm of influence. The Latvians were not privy to this arrangement as their country became the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1940. Within a year, over 100,000 people were deported or murdered by the new Soviet regime. In support of Operation Barbarosa, the Germans occupied Latvia in July 1941, taking what resources they could in support of the war effort. Russian tanks returned to Latvia in October 1944. The Germans retreated, destroying everything they could and moving thousands of people westward to work for the German war industry.

It is difficult to describe the Latvians' lives during their fifty years of Soviet occupation. Russian immigration drastically changed the region's demographics. Russians comprise about 30% of Latvia's ethnic composition, compared to 57% native Latvians.

In the late 1980s, demonstrations against Communism became a commonplace activity. On May 4, 1990, Latvia declared its independence from the USSR. In January 1991, Moscow's OMON ("black berets") stormed the press building in Riga. A half-dozen Latvians (armed only with sticks) died. In August of that year, the Soviet coup started, the USSR crumbled, and, on August 23, 1991, Boris Yeltsin recognized the independent state of Latvia. Latvia was, once again, a free country.

Related Image:

> Relief Map of Latvia