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A Personal Introduction
Peters' parents and generation in particular—born
in the 1900's or shortly thereafter—were lucky enough to have come to
adulthood and prospered in that first all-too-brief flowering of twenty years
of Latvian independence. To understand the birth of that independence, the
impact of half a century of occupation, the path to the Latvia of today, we've
been exploring the past through materials contemporary with their times. Our
greatest challenge has been in finding objective "windows" into the Soviet
occupation—that is, not written from the viewpoints of either the
occupier or the occupied.
We were quite excited when, now a couple of years ago,
we came across "Project: Attitudes of the Major Soviet
Nationalites"—a study by the Center for International Studies at
M.I.T., published in 1973. It's a 5-volume, SEVEN inch thick typewritten "slice
of life" of the Soviet Union from the viewpoint of its ethnic constituencies.
While its greatest value to scholars is in comparing and contrasting across
ethnicities, it's also quite informative for the more casual reader.
The study is a treasure trove that was lost even to
M.I.T.—they needed two weeks to find a copy when we first inquired about
permission to reproduce it! We intend to republish it in its entirety over
time. As our first step, we present: "Latvia and the Latvians"
(section two out of Volume II, The Baltics), prepared by Frederic T.
Harned of Harvard University.
Navigate via the table of
contents at the bottom of each page.
We have also provided it in PDF format
for your convenience.
The work reported in this document was
conducted under contract between the U.S. Information Agency and the Center for
International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The distribution
of this paper does not indicate endorsement by the United States Information
Agency, nor should the contents be construed as reflecting the official opinion
of that Agency.
Center for International Studies,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
retains all rights to "Project:
Attitudes of the Major Soviet Nationalites"
 Project: Attitudes of the Major Soviet
Nationalities: Latvia and the Latvians
Adobe Acrobat format (413 KB), 50 pages
preserves essential
formatting of the original except for font and footnote
sequencing
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