A Tale of Two Cities
VALKA – A three-hour ride on the train (at a cost of what must be the cheapest ride per kilometer in Europe) followed by a short ride on a local bus will get you to the Latvian border town of Valka.
As it is typical among most provincial towns in Latvia, Valka suffers from chronically being short on cash. Most of the money and investment remains in the Latvian capital and the remaining change trickled down to towns like Valka.
Empty unfinished windowless multi-apartment five-story homes decorate the southern outskirts of the town. I see them as the bus rushes me to the town’s center.
Sitting on the bus among mostly elderly Russian-speaking retirees chattering about their pensions, children and grandchildren, I feel myself a stranger. A country music singer Tracy Bird’s words suddenly fill my mind.
Way back up in the country, back in the hills
Down in the hollows where the folks are real
Livin’ with the crazies and the old wildcats
Sawed off shotguns and coonskin caps
That’s where I’m from and I’m proud to say
I’m from the country and I like it that way
Everybody knows everybody, everybody calls you friend
You don’t need an invitation, kick off your shoes come on in
Yeah, we know how to work and we know how to play
We’re from the country and we like it that way
And I thought how similar this American attitude is in this small town in northern Latvia with a population around 7,000 people. Everyone indeed knew everyone. An older gentleman called on a driver by name to stop the bus at a local hospital. People chit-chat about life in the bid city, brushing me with their glances. And I realize before I even say a word, everyone knows I’m a stranger in these parts.
The empty apartment buildings on the way to town have been abandoned back in the early 1990s when the town industry lost its market and crumbled. The town fell into economic depression, typical of small towns in post-Soviet Latvia.
To top off a string of economic problems, new independent countries, Estonia and Latvia, restored their borders. The internal border between two Soviet republics became the national border of two independent states, making it more complicated for people and goods to cross the Latvian-Estonian frontier. It meant customs, passports, paperwork.
Three points for border crossing have been opened, other streets that crossed the border have been closed with an impressive fence to prevent illegal border crossing into the Scandinavian candy-land.
Valka and the Estonian twin town of Valga share an interesting history. Valga and Valka made up the German-sounding town of Walk, and until 1920 it used to be one town with one government. In 1917-18, Estonians and Latvians began fulfilling their independence dreams.
Inside a building, which is now in Estonia, Latvian leaders for the first time called on Latvians to form an independent country one year before the independence was officially proclaimed at the Latvian capital, Riga. In another building, also in Estonia, the Green Peasants, the leading pro-independence party, was formed.
In short, the cradle of Latvia’s first independence movement is now located beyond Latvia’s borders.
Estonians helped Latvians win their independence from Russia. But neither Latvians nor Estonians could agree where exactly the border of the newly-formed Republic of Latvia and Republic of Estonia should be. The frustrated British colonel Stephen George Tallents drew the border through the town, which zigzags through city streets to this day.
On Raina street on the Latvian side (pictured), green moss covers the wet pavement near a patched-up border fence. Marking the border, Konnaoja (Frog Creek) runs underneath the barely-noticeable bridge, which have since developed holes.
A black-and-while metal road barrier stretches along the width of the street and sidewalks in front of the fence. The Latvian side faces a back door of an Estonian supermarket. Ahead of the bridge, a black-striped border poll reading “The Republic of Latvia” stands in the middle of the road.
The beautiful modern-art construction grew in the last 17 years when Latvia and Estonia re-established their respective borders.
A simple metal fence replaced an impressive sharp-pointed fence on Raina street in 2004 and now town officials from both sides plan to take it down altogether to allow pedestrians to cross the border freely when both countries join the common visa space.
December 8th, 2007 at 12.49
I’m thinking of crossing the border from Estonia on the 20th just before midnight, grabbing a beer on the Latvian side, then returning to Estonia past midnight, after the entry into Schengen has taken place. Wanna join me?
December 8th, 2007 at 14.06
Thanks for the invite. I’d love to join you for a beer and the border walk (the cities will have a parade there, I think). I’ll be celebrating Schengen in Tallinn on the 21st. Working.
December 10th, 2007 at 10.02
It depends on the people you meet in Valka. For me it is a very special place, visiting in 1991 already. Criss crossed the border between the two cities then. They know each other in Valka so it seems, and people stayed. Recently I’ve got to know the family which is running a saw mill there. Raised as childrens by their poor mother. Now they are sharing the managment of a successfull plant. They dont’t earn regular income. They just take the money they need for living. And it works. One of the most strange stories about running a company. And the friend who inroducied me to them has a relative who came from Serbia to Latvia due the WWII. But this is another story. And one of the last Latvians I have seen there recently was Lesalnieks, one of the best young off road drivers in Latvia. Another story would be about Elk hunting… .
December 16th, 2007 at 10.18
I enjoyed reading this about ‘no Rigas iet vilciens uz Valku’…that’s a Latvian song, BTW. It’s where my cousin and his wife reside. I was there very briefly, probably in ‘90’ visiting for a mere few hours. So, I didn’t get to see much of the city, other than all the apple orchards growing in their backyard. We were going to chance it and cross the border into Estonia, but decided against it—probably a wise decision. Maybe some day in the future again.
In the meantime, thanks for the virtual tour!
Irena
August 13th, 2008 at 11.59
Interesting.
Anybody knows how the border between Latvia and Estonia was established?
Solely based upon ethnicity/language?
‘Cause as far as I know, the border never existed before 1918.
August 13th, 2008 at 12.46
Latvia and Estonia have to thank British Colonel S. G. Tallents, whom I mention in the article, for establishing the Latvian-Estonian border in 1920. Apparently, the two countries couldn’t agree who should have Valka and two islands. Tallents was so frustrated that he just drew a line through the town, which is how the Valka-Vlaga border came about. The border commission itself was dissolved only in 1927.