Latvian Miserabilism Marches On
RIGA – Latvian miserabilism wants company.
It’s not enough that Latvians dwell on the past, dipping into an abysmal well of self-loathing and victimization that is an integral part of the Latvian ethnic identity as folk songs and dances. Eighteen years after they own their own house, Latvians want former invaders to feel as miserable as they are. The government is calculating a bill of the Soviet occupation to send to the Kremlin. At the same time, bills aren’t being sent to Germans, Poles, and Swedes who occupied what was to become Latvia. I guess there are occupiers and then there are occupiers.
A notorious victim complex needs a scape-goat. Up until late 1930s, the blame was with the Germans, the long-time oppressor of ethnic Latvians that became a subject of many Latvian folk songs. Following the Soviet occupation, the victim complexed Latvians turned from hating Germans to hating Russians.
On one hand, Latvian intelligentsia takes an immense pleasure in self-loathing. On the other hand, this eternal, “nobody loves me,” “no one has a pity on us” motif is evident in today’s Latvia. It’s other people’s fault for their miserabilism. Always. It is a constantly resurfacing theme in the pubic discourse on government matters. “Look, they steal, they hate us, they are corrupt, but we are poor, we suffer and bear it.” The nation of Latvia strives on appeasement and misery. Facing up to the fact that some Latvians participated in the killing of the Jews during the war is tough because if you accept it, you can no longer claim you’re a victim of the circumstance, but a willing participant.
Compare their mentality with Russians.
Ridden by centuries of dictatorship rule, Russians learned to adjust for survival. When you’re fighting for survival, pragmatism takes precedence over principles. Russians who may not have bought into ideals of a bright, glorious, communistic paradise, still uttered allegiances to the Party in exchange for a better job or some kind of benefits. In the West, they’d be called “sellouts.” In Russia, it was a matter of survival. Principled people were shipped to Siberia, killed, or were forced to flee to the West. It’s similar for ethnic Russians in Latvia. Most of those who naturalized since independence sold out. They gave the expected answered on familiar questions without much faith in what they were saying.
It’s just bizness.
Russians well aware of the Stalin crimes. Even one of the most anti-Latvian newspapers in town, Chas, published several accounts of ethnic Russians being deported along with the Latvians during the Soviet occupation. I’ve yet to talk to any Russian who does not know about “the great resettlement of the people.” Or about the Stalin’s oppressions. It’s no wonder that in 1989, the Soviet government called the Soviet-German pact invalid from the moment of its signing. While some political forces in Russia would like to see that 1989 declaration repealed, it is unlikely to erase what Russians know about that period of history.
In this, Latvian miserabilism isn’t compatible with Russian mentality. Russians don’t dwell on the past. They hardly learn from it. They don’t intend to put on sackcloth and ashes, roaming around the world in a state of perpetual mourning – unless it’s for bizness purposes. Nor should they. The Victory Day celebration is now part of the new Russian national identity - it’s got little to do with the figure of Joseph Stalin himself. It’s accentuated in the Baltics because Russians here feel as if the government or the ethnocentrism of Latvians threatens their own ethnic identity in their attempt to remake local Russians into ethnic Latvians. While some Russians would hold Stalin’s portrait dear and near to their hearts, they are dying out. When new generations of Russians came to the monument that Friday, Stalin was replaced with the Russian tricolor. For the younger generation, it’s a rebirth of the new Russia and May 9 is an integral part of the new Russia’s national identity as much as the Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon’s France was part of the national identity until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
Russians aren’t Germans. Their mentality isn’t European, no matter how much you try to make them to be. Baltic Russians have a chance to become European, but it will takes years if not centuries. Regardless, though, they will not develop a perpetual guilt complex similar to the one espoused by modern Germans, who feel guilty for the crimes of their fathers and grandfathers, nor will they subscribe the perpetual guilt complex of the ethnic Latvians. Russians appear to be pragmatic people after centuries of oppression and fighting for survival under czars, Bolsheviks, communists. Russians want to move on instead of living in the past as Latvians appear to.As any pragmatics, Russians want to make money, have good jobs, raise their children, live in peace, rather than bickering over how many Latvians were actually in the Arajs commando, or how many Russians acknowledge the occupation. Now is the time to shred miserabilism, roll up our sleeves, and press on to a future without forgetting the past.
May 24th, 2008 at 13.18
All discussions of “national character” end up calling up the tin soldiers of every outworn stereotypes, I guess — but this is, in my view, the worst post you’ve ever written. “Russians appear to be pragmatic people after centuries of oppression”? “On one hand, Latvian intelligentsia takes an immense pleasure in self-loathing”? “As any pragmatics, Russians want to make money, have good jobs, raise their children, live in peace” — gee… this last one sounds more like the motto of Soviet Man than a sign of “pragmatism,” which quality you do indeed seem to define as selling out. Just who is where, and what does “European” mean? Ca. 84% of ethnic Latvians voted to join the EU — ca. 91% of ethnic Russians in Latvia voted “no.” “Russians want to move on instead of living in the past as Latvians appear to.” Yeah, right.
May 24th, 2008 at 13.21
The sort of “pragmatism” you appeal to depend upon powerlessness, ignorance, and a whitewashing of history. That’s not miserabilism?
May 24th, 2008 at 13.39
Sorry for the typos — need a new keyboard!
“The nation of Latvia strives on appeasement and misery.”
Interesting — but the Latvian nation has also managed to build and rebuild a nation-state that is democratic, with flaws, ranks with Nordic countries in terms of press freedom, and has been able to meet the criteria for entry into the main clubs of the most advanced countries on earth. Granted, Latvians love their miserabilism — but part of that is that we don’t succumb to triumphalist orgies, like the Russians do (since you’ve opened the door to national character and its tin soldiers, this is within the scope of cross-examination). Appeasement? Well, gee — being a pygmy country or whatever the fashionably phrase in Russia is these days, we can’t get our kicks snuffing untold millions of people. So we’re introspective, I guess. Is there really a “perpetual guilt complex”? What are we guilty of? I mean, sure Arājs, mea culpa — but haven’t you noticed that all of the really nasty stuff took place when we were indeed subjugated by others? Some “the ethnocentrism of Latvians threatens their own ethnic identity in their attempt to remake local Russians into ethnic Latvians” — gimme a break. When was the last time you saw Latvians trying to turn Russians into ethnic Latvians? It’s often quite the opposite — don’t join my kindergarten ’cause if you do, everybody in the playground will speak Russian. Unless, of course, asking Russians to learn and use Latvian (which is very different from asking them to stop being Russian, forget Russian, etc.) is coercive assimilation.
May 25th, 2008 at 21.32
I think the “Russians” are just as guilty of “miserablism” as the Latvians. They want everyone to feel their Great Patriotic War pain or their post-Soviet pain.
My relatives fought in World War II, too, and you know what I expect from current generations of global citizens? Nothing. I expect nothing, because “grandfathers’ victory” isn’t actually my victory because I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t even born, nor were my parents. Sitting on your ass and playing video games and then going out and pretending like you had some role in the settling of the Second World War is pathetic.
As for post-Soviet pain, Stalin wasn’t a Russian, but Gorbachev and Yeltsin were. Yeltsin was even elected fairly democratically, at least the first time. All those economic reforms that were assembled by evil American advisers? Enforced by Russians. The Yeltsin-era oligarchy that stole from the people and gave to themselves? Russians. So, yes, they have only themselves to blame for their post-Soviet pain.
Sound familiar?
May 25th, 2008 at 22.55
It comes down, in my opinion, to ideas of national space and national identity. That is why the “Great Patriotic War” is so important for Russians, because their national space was punctured by a totally foreign invader with the threat that it would be replaced — that they would be sold into slavery, their comfortable living room dismantled.
Latvians are smeared as “fascists” to this day in Russian discourse not because of parades or history, but because Latvians, with their Lutheran and Catholic backgrounds, are more culturally connected to that “invader” against whom modern Russian identity is defined.
But, consider the Latvians. They too have their living room. They have their “house” as you put it. And their house was invaded from both sides. The Russians appear too blind to even acknowledge this. “How could something so small and insignificant be someone’s home?” they ponder.
I have no idea how the Germans feel about Riga, but I think that the fact that they were supportive of NATO expansion or EU enlargement in Latvia yet not Ukraine or Georgia or Turkey shows that they very much view the EU as a civilizational project. And that must mean … prepare to be shocked … that they consider Riga as part of *their* civilization.
May 26th, 2008 at 12.22
Aleks, didn’t you mean to post this article under Frightening Thoughts?
Peteris (to me) in LOL: “I haven’t much input into any Vergangenheitsbewältigung, or the lack thereof, among Russians. It’s like with bad breath—you can brush your own teeth, but people are unlikely to let you brush theirs.”
May 26th, 2008 at 19.10
But in this case Grūtups, very recently cited by Ambersun, seems to agree with some of what Aleks wrote:
“Optimisms ir katras nācijas iekšējā enerģētiskā vērtība. Piemēram, krievi pēc savas būtības ir optimisti. Viņiem ir sava enerģija, un ne velti viņi ir attīstījuši impēriju. Tāpat kā katrs cilvēks piedzimst ar iekšēju enerģiju, arī katrai nācijai tāda ir. Ar optimismu var ļoti daudz izdarīt. Turpretī ar depresīvu nostāju valstiskās lietās neko nevar panākt.”
I would rather see my nation ostensibly hampered by its cynicism, miserabilism, skepticism, (name your vice), etc. than I would see it attain the supposed “unity” of the Russian Empire. Because cynicism is quite often quite healthy. And I doubt very much if the health of the polity is what Grūtups and/or Latkovskis are after.
The basic thesis in the Latkovksis you posted, Ambersun, is that if Latvians do not unite — woe to the Latvians. I think it is the other way around, and even Latkovskis hints at that, within the text, like a boomerang gone amok — oh them Letts don’t really believe that tolerance crap? How exquisitely healthy!
This is not 1940. Nobody’s going to invade. For some reason some people prefer to ignore the fact that Latvian has made great strides. Poor Grūtups worries that he can’t communicate with every third person in Latvian. As a friend of Mr. Slice, he very much needs a Latvian Latvia. I am supposed to judge him differently, just ’cause he’s a supposed brother?
I think we should go back to the ditty of Mr LL, written by our favorite dictator himself — my people is closer than my friend. That logic shall surely take you far. On a daily basis! I can’t think of anything more pathetic, Ambersun. The poor lawyer needs to appeal to “patriotism” as a scoundrel’s refuge. Oh please don’t show the shipwreck — our people is going straight up!
OK — I’ll cut the irony… can I? No — I won’t. Because it doesn’t work that way. Latkovskis even says that when it comes down to defending the country, the Latvians will be on board. Is that true? Who knows. I basically agree with that dreaded Bohemian intellectual, Alvis Hermanis.
And you know what he said the other day? That watching the anti-gay protesters helped him see that — yes, Latvians could indeed enthusiastically slaughter Jews.
This polite little people is rather intolerant. You can’t seem to face that, Ambersun. For me — the last straw was exactly this. In the last few years, I have learned that Latvians can be really vile. It has nothing to do with my being from the West (Grūtups equates Latvians from the West with Latvians from Russia — all alien, bearing dangerous ideologies).
That one bigotry feeds another — that bigotry itself is the problem?
In another thread, you asked how the legacy of Ulmanis could matter, what with half a century of foreign occupation. Try to answer that yourself. As Aleks keeps trying to point out — Latvians have run Latvia for nearly two decades.
But it’s an old joke — the history of Latvia: Latvia, under the German yoke. Latvia, under the Russian yoke. Latvia — under the Latvian yoke.
May 26th, 2008 at 20.11
You trying to stir the pot, Aleks? If so, can do better. Comparisons between Russia and Latvia doesn’t work. There’s the scale and scope thing to consider. Sure Russians have suffered, but mostly at their own hands. Latvians, while certainly capable, willing and able, have had few opportunities to inflict pain on themselves. Sure, they excell when given the opportunity, but the opportunities have been few and far in between.
When Russians feel bad about themselves they usually take it out on the other. Ask the Balt, the Chechen, the Georgian, the Ukranian and the Jew, among many, if you don’t believe me. As I wrote elsewhere, to be truly miserable one has to be able to internalize. The moment you externalize you become something all together different.
And as far as pragmatism of the respective peoples is concerned, again, the ability and the power to make choices dictates ones actions. Latvians do not have, nor will they ever have, the luxury of making the same choices as Russia and Russians do.
May 27th, 2008 at 2.18
Peteris,
I posted that article to generate discussion and not as a reflection of my own personal beliefs. You always manage to rush to judgment, especially when the target can be another Latvian. How sad. In a way, that’s what I got out of the article, actually, this lack of a fundamental belief in one’s own people. While many Russians in Latvia join hands in togetherness and blindly follow “the Russian leader” and happily sing off-key hallelujah praise to their glorious past in oblivious disregard of the ugliness of the past or the performance, Latvian-excoriating Latvians “pluck the feathers off each other’s backs” until once-beautiful, soaring birds finally become evidently ugly - and gawkily earth-bound.
The profound difference between you and me about our “Latvietiba” is that I extend the benefit of the doubt to Latvians and give them probably at least three strikes before they are out, if then. I don’t assume the worst because I like my people in general and look for the best in them, which is there. I expect to have profound differences with individual Latvians, and do. Unlike you and Alvis Hermanis, I expect to see shocking imperfection in all of humanity, not just in Latvians. It’s a huge world of intolerance out there. The Russian world in Latvia is even bigger, darker, and less tolerant than the Latvian world in Latvia. I daresay it’s the Russian historic intolerance, and unwavering homophobia that in fact leads the way for Latvian intolerance, and overwhelms in number and vigor. But I digress. When I see homophobia in Latvia, I don’t immediately think this reflects the Latviesu tautas bloody killer instinct, especially against Jews in particular. Your statement about your friend Alvis Hermanis commenting “[t]hat watching the anti-gay protestors helped him see that - yes, Latvians could indeed enthusiastically slaughter Jews” would be funny if it weren’t so awful and absurd. You see the handfull of violent Latvians but I fear the the mob-full, country-full of violent Russians - for myself - and the Jews. I don’t want to deny any Latvian those “aha” moments in his eternal quest to catch any one Latvian at his dastardly worst, but it just seems a shame to limit the “aha” euphoria to only Latvians in a world of ugly and evil people. I invite you and Alvis Hermanis to take a vacation to San Fancisco, you appear to have forgotten how imperfect “enlightened” freedom really is, and talk to some life-long homosexual activists and listen to some hair-raising stories of past and present homophobia in the mecca of gay-activism - in the home of the long-evolved-and-never-darkness-occupied free - with our equal rights inspired policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
I don’t want to carry on about homophobia in Latvia since I’m more concerned about homophobia in the beacon of liberty where I live, and which illuminates the way to the future. I’ll have to deal with Latvia when I get there. I’ve been to the gay parades in SF for a long time and it hasn’t been a big party from the beginning. I don’t expect a good gay parade in Latvia until the violence-prone, homophobic Russians reform or leave (I’m not worried about the arguing Latvians); Vanags finds Jesus and recognizes mother Mary; and the Old, new, Russian, Catholic believers practice what they preach.
I can’t conclude without a mention of the layers of intolerance that I hope you won’t find shocking and disillusioning in your bad Latvian/good homosexual, good Jew categorization: Not all homosexuals like each other. Many gay men don’t like lesbians and vice versa. Now I’m telling you more than you want to know unless you’re gay. Also, not all Jews like each other and are not in political lock-step in their support of Israel and hatred of Palestinians. Some Jews here in Berkeley on KPFA peoples’ radio even are accused of hating themselves as Jews by others Jews who actually hate them because they don’t hate Palestinians. Now I’m probably telling you more than you want to know about Jews. Certainly not all Latvians deserve your support, but then neither do all homosexuals and all Jews. Some homosexuals and some Jews even deserve our Latvian wrath, individually and collectively. I hope this is not telling you more than is helpful in your role as sentry against the impending onslaught of violent, bad Latvians.
May 27th, 2008 at 17.05
Sorry, Ambersun. I am all for extending the benefit of the doubt to fellow Latvians, but if you think that the only thing that is wrong with Mr. L.L. is the lack of political correctness then you are either not paying attention or willfully ignoring the obvious. Willing to extend you my benefit of doubt, but it is rapidly depleting.
May 27th, 2008 at 22.00
Andrejs,
Stop riding this issue with me. It should be obvious, even to you if you were “paying attention” to ALL the issues, that Mr L L and I have many political differences. Some of his comments would be vulgar and offensive even if he had Tourette Syndrome. Since you don’t know what I think, please stop thinking that I am thinking that “the only thing that is wrong with Mr L L is the lack of political correctness. ” When I wrote that “[t]his forum requires a certain amount of politically correct restraint,” I was attempting to encourage some self-restraint and self-censure by ALL the bigots, misogynists, racists, homophobes, “Lettophobes,” equal-opportunity-offenders obliviously posting their favorite prejudices rather than checking their worst bigotry-baggage at the LOL door. No one is without baggage and some have too much. That there is still a festering “bruce” (sore) between “some Latvians” and “some Jews” should be addressed constructively and Mr L L’s comment revealed some personal “bruce” without explanation. Ask him what he meant.
I am concerned with the open and growing sore between many Latvians and many Russians. I found Mark Ames’s (?) article “Burn Baltics Burn” in “All About Latvia” (look in the archives) disgusting but informative about the raw hatred of some against Latvians (Balts). There are many issues of misunderstanding and hatred that need to be addressed.
You still haven’t answered me why you, as a Latvian who lived under Soviet occupation and as a Jew who fled to Israel because of Soviet persecution, would “understand” the “Soviet nostalgia” displayed at the May 9 “Victory Day Celebration” in Riga?
May 28th, 2008 at 8.11
I posted that article to generate discussion and not as a reflection of my own personal beliefs. You always manage to rush to judgment, especially when the target can be another Latvian.”
I’m so sorry! Overwhelmed by the quantity of your cutting and pasting, I failed to realize that your cuts and pastes do not reflect your views. They probably don’t even reflect the tendency of your views — that must be why so many of your cuts and pastes are about the scary Russkies. Of course, what you say doesn’t reflect your views, either (as in your worry about the political correctness of Mr LL). What does reflect your views, I wonder?
“I don’t expect a good gay parade in Latvia until the violence-prone, homophobic Russians reform or leave (I’m not worried about the arguing Latvians)…”
Does this reflect your views? I guess it does — in fact, it may as well be your answer to everything and anything. “I don’t expect __ in Latvia until the violence-prone Russians…”
Your “beacon of liberty” has already illumined the way for homophobia in Latvia — LPP, in the ruling coalition and the party of our homophobic Minister for Integration (!), has looked to the US for inspiration. Ledyaev has dined with Dubya, and dines at the Latvian version of the National Prayer Breakfast. The Latvian Constitution was amended to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. This “family amendment” is cited by the Cardinal as grounds for a battle with what the Archbishop calls the spetsnaz of liberal secularism.
Much of the homophobia in Latvia is quite Latvian, Ambersun — only six of the “hundred wise heads” heads in our Parliament voted against that amendment. The debates on that and other issues, like the gay pride events, have been heavily spiced with hideously bigoted remarks by Latvian politicians, some of whom happen to be ultra-nationalists as well. The Cardinal even participated in a contest organized by Aivars Garda, “Latvia Without Homosexualism,” lest God smite our Sodom. In case you don’t know, Garda has a habit of doing things like printing Russian-language newspapers (to be inserted into neighboring colonists’ mailboxes) about ridding one’s house of human cockroaches.
“You see the handfull of violent Latvians but I fear the the mob-full, country-full of violent Russians - for myself - and the Jews.”
Hmm.
Your fear seems to blind you to whatever Latvians do, and I’m not talking only about the little handfuls of extremists. Extremism in Latvia is actually rather weak, and probably more pronounced among Russians than Latvians (i.e., Barkashovists, etc.).
What matters a lot more is bigotry in the mainstream — on both sides. Latvians love to wail about the poisons of the Russian-language press, which is indeed poisonous — but I suggest that you pay attention to what seeps into the national discourse on the Latvian side. Listen to Dobelis and Tabūns, among others, sometime.
I don’t have a “bad Latvian/good homosexual, good Jew categorization,” sorry (heh, for one thing, it’d be a bit difficult to oppose Latvians to homosexuals, considering that most homosexuals in Latvia are Latvian!). Extreme nationalism, however, usually comes in a package — it is often laced with homophobia and anti-Semitism. Not a few of the remarks by Grūtūps could be made by the Far Right in any Eastern European country. It would be silly to pretend that Latvian nationalists get some sort of exemption because of the constantly reiterated horrible sufferings of the Latvian people. It would also be silly to pretend that Russophobia is not a problem, or that it can be excused because of “what the Russians did to us” (which is anyhow a perversion of history), or because some Russians are yucky radicals and chauvinists.
P.S. Mark Ames is a Californian, not a Russian.
P.P.S. The latest from His Excellency the Cardinal can be found here –
http://blogentreaspas.blogspot.com/2008/05/latvia-cardinal-gay-pride-marches-in.html