At the crossroads
On Aug. 31,professional and amateur photographers from three Baltic States, Ukraine, Russia, other European countries, and the U.S. captured a slice of today’s life — the same way they have done 20 years ago. “One Day in Latvia: 20 Years Later” allows us to compare the life in Latvia today with the way it was 20 years ago when Latvia was still part of the Soviet Union.
Twenty years changes many things. The Soviet Union is no more. Shopping malls and supermarkets replaced empty shelves of the Soviet gastronoms. The wind of change, which began to pick up at the end of the 1980s, blew past us, leaving the three countries free and democratic.
In 1989, people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined together in a live chain connecting three Baltic capitals to show their right to self-determination and independence from the Soviet Union.
That was the peaceful revolution.
Since then, three Baltic brothers went their own ways.
It was important for Lithuania to preserve the farming sector of its economy, along with developing a strong retail market. You cant find an area of the Latvian capital without the most famous Lithuanian import - Maxima stores.
Estonia developed itself into an IT power house, earning a nickname “E-stonia.” It became the birthplace of Skype and the home of the most free economy in the world. The flat tax policies became emulated in other countries, including Latvia and Russia.
Latvia is now trying to develop itself into a transportation corridor between Russia and the rest of Europe.
If Estonia takes a Scandinavian approach to problem solving and Lithuania is culturally and religiously close to Poland, Latvia is stuck between the rock and the hard place.
The rock is the Russian Federation. The hard place is the European Union. Both sides subscribe to different democratic and economic values. And somewhere in between there, you’ll find the small country of Latvia, whose 2.3 million people are also torn between the West and the Wild East.
The role of neither here nor there isn’t new for Latvia. At the dawn of independence from Czarist Russia in 1917, all three nations adopted declarations for self-determination. Lithuanians in Russia and German-occupied Vilnius proclaimed that Lithuanians demand “the right to decide for themselves its political fate and destinies.” At the same time, Estonians demanded their own statehood from the Russian Provisional Government, which wanted to see Estonia as part of the Russian Federated Republic. Estonians would have none of that.
Only Latvia stands unique among the three nations. The Latvian Political Conference said that Latvians have a right to self-determination, however “Latvian shall be a political autonomous unit within the Russian democratic republic.”
Today after two Soviet occupations, Nazi occupation, Latvia still stands on the crossroads between the West and East. Jokingly I say that Latvians are just Russian-wannabes, but it appears that Latvians are more closely associated with Russian values than with those of the West.
September 10th, 2007 at 5.17
I would define Latvia as “a nation that is more concerned about its everyday life that defining its values”. For example, I can easily imagine a world in which Skype got developed in Riga but Latvians did not bother to advertize it to the rest of the world as a sign of e-Latvia.
September 12th, 2007 at 4.53
“Latvians are just Russian-wannabes” – in many ways this is so true – if it were not true why do Latvians prefer to speak Russian than Latvian? – Every time my ethnic-Russian wife begins to speak Latvian with an ethnic-Latvian they always reply in Russian. Latvians are not proud of their culture and language – For the past three years I have been learning Latvian – but every time I try to speak Latvian with ethnic-Latvians they just laugh! How ignorant can one be? On the other hand when I try to speak Russian with ethnic-Russians they bend over backwards to help me. I came to Latvia three years ago with a complete open-mind. Now, from experience I know ethnic Latvians do not respect others so why the hell should I respect them. In my experiences they are the rudest, most self-opinionated race of people I have ever met in all my 61 years. May be there is an ethnic-Latvian reading this who would like to defend his people.
September 12th, 2007 at 5.13
Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians are more like guys who did time together in the slammer than ‘brothers’.
They don’t hang out much since they got out of the big house, but when they see each other on the street, they tip their hat.
September 13th, 2007 at 3.28
But in one case there is always a brotherhood! On the internet, when it comes to sports.
September 13th, 2007 at 3.48
Back what you consider. I think the Latvians can deal better with the Russians: After the Tallinn riots a Latvian manager told me:‘Listen! I am going to Estonia frequently, I am regulary meeting them, the Russians, there is no problem, no problem at all. Somehow the Russian youngsters in Estonia have some problems, they are biased by wrong information from Russian media.’
Personally, I think the Latvians are just Europeans. We saw more than 25 of them as guests in our tiny apartment in Germany, sometimes coming back, in the mid 90s. They were playing music in the streets then or buying used cars to get some money from selling them back home. Legally, I did the paper work. Before the year 2000 none of them came back anymore.
This year I’ve met one, on the White Lake near Riga, in his house, with huge windows facing the water, I was impressed, speechless. All from legal job, legal business, he bought it at the right time.
September 14th, 2007 at 1.58
Thank you for all your comments.
Andris, Estonians too have a tendency not to tell anyone about their accomplishments. Judging from a conversation with the country’s economic minister, I think Estonians need to learn to get the word out. Even in the case of Skype, it all came down to two Scandinavian businessmen to get it off the ground. Latvians may be concerned about their everyday life, but they’re not willing to do anything about it.
I didn’t mean my post to be an attack of any kind. It’s just an observation from a stand point of someone who’s been confused about my own national identity. A patriotic friend of mine says that Latvia will always be between Russia and the West in their mentality. And the way the Latvian presidency changed from Western-educated Vaira Vike-Freiberga to home grown Valdis Zatlers is just one example of how different Latvians can be.
To take to Guistino’s metaphor, the difference between three nationalities is that Latvians long to be back in the slammer where they had free food and shelter, while other two don’t. No, they don’t want to be in the Soviet Union, but they don’t mind being influenced by a former overlord when it comes to economy and finances.
September 14th, 2007 at 8.16
I believe that latvia has after some dire time have started to become a true community:
I am truly impressed
September 15th, 2007 at 10.30
Aleks,
Estonians are more blunt than either of their neighbors, the Finns and the Latvians. They are not afraid of telling Russia, quite frankly, ‘fuck you’.
In fact, I think they somewhat delight in it. I can imagine Juhan Parts getting the border treaty, blowing his nose in it, and saying ‘here, sign this Russia.’
The Estonians reward this kind of behavior. When it was announced that some Russians were pulling investments from Estonia following the monument fiasco, the commentary pages at Postimees were ablaze with “good riddance!” and enthused that more Russian capital might flee.
The current Latvian government seems like it is looking for fatherly approval from Russia. It is a tad too excited that Daddy Lavrov might come and visit Riga sometime soon. That speaks to the politicians, not to the actual Latvians.
I can say that when Boris Gryzlov’s delegation came to Estonia in early May following the monument BS, the best part of his trip was when he and his comrades got on the plane at Tallinna Lennujaam and headed back to Moscow.
And in Finland there is a big controversy that the defense minister said that Russia is a threat. As if any other country in the neighborhood would be.
Estonian bluntness wins them support from others who are inspired by the small country tells larger country to f*ck off paradigm. But it also doesn’t help smooth relations.
September 18th, 2007 at 5.29
I am about to come to Riga to teach and your comments frigthen me! I was under the impression Lativa was a welcoming and friendly nation, not one, as appears from you comments, whose main preoccupation is thinking about how to define its identity and somehow spearate itself from its neighbours. Surely there is more to daily life in Latvia than some notion of life being a throwback to Soviet days, and an ensuing identity crisis because of it??
PS can one survive on 640 lats plus free accommodation??
September 18th, 2007 at 5.35
Don’t be frightened. This post is devoted to Latvia’s politics, not life in Latvia in generally. Politically, we’re stuck between the rock and the hard place and it looks like we’re going to stay there for a while.
On a day-to-day level though it’s hardly noticed unless the conversation veers into topics of Russian-speaking population here and the results of World War II and even then, you can build relationships with people even though you may disagree with what they say.
One can survive on 640 lats (before or after taxes?) plus accommodation.