A Day to Learn About Latvia

Almost every day during our trip, we take time after we reach our destination to read about the places we've been through that day. We do our research online, thanks mainly to Google and Wikipedia. Today (Wednesday) was a rest day in Riga, so our "learning" was accomplished by walking extensively and visiting a few sites. As we walked, we often chose streets that are noted for their art nouveau buildings. We also visited two museums (a rarity for us): The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia from 1941-1991 and the Museum of Jews in Latvia. We had a few minute delay before being admitted to the Occupation Museum, as we waited for a Korean Government delegation to end their tour of the museum and race away in police-escorted limousines.

Latvia was, to its great detriment, occupied by Russia or Germany from 1940 to 1991. Under the infamous Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939, which divided northern and eastern Europe into German and Russian spheres of influence, Russia "got" Latvia and forcibly annexed it shortly thereafter. In June 1941, the Germans invaded and drove out the Russians, and held Latvia until 1944. From 1944 until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Latvia was again under Russian control.

Each of these occupying powers was brutal, though in different ways. Russia sent many Latvians to Siberian camps as political prisoners, set up secret surveillance networks looking out for "enemies of the state", took farms from landowners and handed them to peasants (thus drastically reducing agricultural output), and tried to stamp out religion and other aspects of Latvian culture. The Germans brutally and efficiently rounded up and murdered tens of thousands of Jews (including 25,000 murdered in two days in late 1941 in a forest near Riga), as well as approximately 2000 Gypsies. Latvians played both positive and negative roles in the German actions: there were Latvian collaborators who voluntarily aided the Germans, while other Latvians hid Jews and saved the lives of several hundred of them.

Latvia gained its independence from Russia in 1991. Since then, it has been working to move into the modern world, making up for decades of lost time.

Some of our photos of the famous art nouveau buildings in Riga follow: