Latvians in Russia

Latvians in Russia are a small ethnic minority scattered across various regions of Russia. According to the 2010 census, 18,979 people in Russia identified themselves as ethnic Latvians, down from 28,520 in 2002.

History

There have been several waves of migration of Latvians to Russia following the annexation of the Latvian lands by the Russian Empire in the 18th century.

During the 19th century, many landless Latvian peasants have moved eastwards, establishing settlements in Siberia and the Urals. Thousands of Latvians migrated to Russia as refugees during the First World War. A number of Latvian Bolshevik politicians and activists settled down in Russia after the Russian civil war and became members of the Soviet state leadership.

In the 1930s and 1940s, thousands of Latvians have faced repressions by the Stalinist regime. About 70 thousands Russian Latvians were killed during the repressions.^[2]

After the Soviet re-occupation of Latvia in 1944 and establishment of the Latvian SSR, a few Latvians migrated within the USSR, in particular to Moscow and Leningrad.

Latvian settlements in Russia

An autonomous Latvian municipality exists in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan - the Arch-Latvian Selsoviet. Latvian settlers came to the region in the 19th century.^[3] The Latvian municipality was established in the 1920s, during the ethnic emancipation of the early Soviet years (Korenizatsiya). The Latvian kolkhoz Jaunā dzīve was established there in 1929. Today, Latvians make up approximately 300 out of almost 2000 inhabitants of the municipality.

In Siberia (modern Krasnoyarsk Krai), the village Lejas Bulāna (Russian: Нижняя Буланка, Nizhnyaya Bulanka) was founded by Latvian settlers in 1859. The village still exists and has less than one hundred inhabitants.

Organizations

Since the 1990s, there is a number of Latvian organizations and Latvian Lutheran parishes in Russia, primarily in major cities such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Omsk, Tomsk, Smolensk and others.^[4]

Notable Russians of Latvian descent

• Petr Aven, businessman and former government minister
• Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza, politician and human rights activist
• Valdis Pelšs, television presenter
• Dmitry Nagiyev, actor, TV-host, musician, showman and radio host

Notable Latvians in the Soviet Union

• Otto Schmidt, scientist, explorer of the Arctic, Hero of the Soviet Union
• Pēteris Stučka, first president of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union
• Jukums Vācietis, the first commander-in-chief of the Red Army
• Yakov Alksnis, commander of the Red Army Air Forces from 1931 to 1937
• Jānis Rudzutaks, Soviet government minister, member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Valērijs Mežlauks, Chairman of the State Planning Committee (Gosplan) in 1934 — 1937
• Jānis Mežlauks, first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR
• Boris Pugo, Minister of Interior in the USSR, member of the GKChP in the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt
• Arvīds Pelše, member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Jānis Bērziņš-Ziemelis, Ambassador of the Soviet Union to Austria between 1925 and 1927

Notable Latvian Baltic Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union

• Sergei Eisenstein, film director of Baltic German or Baltic Jewish origin
• Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, Russian Field Marshal during the 1812 war with Napoleon
• Ernst Johann von Biron, Regent of Russia in 1737-1740

See also

• Latvian diaspora

References

1. ↑ Тома официальной публикации итогов Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года - Том 4. Национальный состав и владение языками, гражданство - 1. НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ СОСТАВ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ
2. ↑ Т.КОНСТАНТИНОВА. Машина времени // АМЫЛЬСКИЕ ПЕРЕКАТЫ. Август 2001
3. ↑ Juris Lorencs. Baškīrijā, latviešos
4. ↑ Латышская община в России [Official website of the Embassy of Latvia in Moscow]