All About Latvia

RIGA – For 18 years since independence, Latvia has tried to prove to the rest of the world that it’s a real country. It’s not one of the former Soviet republics. Nor is it one of the new EU member states. It’s Latvia.

In 2006, the tiny Latvia hosted the Ice Hockey World Championship. It was seen as a sensei stamp of approval of this little kingdom of ours by the rest of the hockey world. In 2003, Latvia hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, signifying Latvia’s arrival into the glitzy and glamorous European world of pop songs. Joining the EU and NATO, in 2004, definitely signified that Latvia indeed was somewhere on the map - you just need to look closely.

Latvia, you’ve finally arrived.

Hosting the ice hockey world championship drew crowds of foreign hockey fans to this small country of ours. The tourism industry saw a boom which now dwindles down under stories about drunken nude British people roaming around town and Latvians’ displeasure at behavior of foreign visitors.

After hosting Eurovision, Latvia became one of those boring European countries that sends parodies of songs, like the Pirates of the Sea, to vie for the European approval we no longer seek.

Joining NATO and the EU meant that reforms that brought us into these two exclusive organizations can be shelved.

But that low self-worth persists in our lives. Even the defense minister Vinets Veldre had to place restoring national traditions (presumably the honor guard) at the bottom of its top 15 priorities. That’s below equipping our military and, perhaps, learning to fly jets to patrol our own skies. And below sports.

Because horses will make us feel like a real country - like that Great Britain where the change of the Honor (or Honour) Guard is watched by millions of tourists every year. Or like Denmark where the change of the guard takes place while a beautiful military orchestra plays contagious marches.

Never mind that economically we’re still near the bottom of the EU food chain. Never mind that our economy appears to be heading toward some kind of crisis. Never mind that unlike Estonians, we cannot even utter the phrase economic crisis – much else to take blame for it.

We need horses. That’s right - horses. The defense ministry plans to pay Ls 2,000 per horse for its 28-horse and, presumably, 28-men honor guard that would restore our nation as it as before. So that we would finally feel like a people, like a real country, like we matter. Perhaps not to our big partners like Germany or Russia, but certainly to ourselves.

But if joining NATO and EU, hosting events of international magnitude didn’t put us on the map, why should the honor guard bring honor to this country?

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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.

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