Latvia and the Latvians — Media (Part B)

The Latvian and Lithuanian languages are the only surviving members of the Baltic group of Indo-European languages. They are clearly distinct, in vocabulary, structure and morphology, from the Germanic and Slavic languages of the surrounding countries. [1] Books appeared in Latvian as early as the 17th century. The standard literary form of the language was established during the National Awakening of the second half of the 19th century and the period of independence (1918 to 1940). The current system of orthography uses the Latin alphabet, with certain diacritic marks.

In 1970 more than 95% of the Latvians in the USSR, and more than 98% of those resident in Latvia, considered Latvian their native language (see Table B.1.). [2] By comparison, 97.9% of the Lithuanians of the Soviet Union—who are only marginally more concentrated in their own republic than are the Latvians—considered Lithuanian their native tongue. Similarly, almost 96% of Estonians, fewer of whom live in Estonia, considered Estonian their first language. [3] Thus the loyalty of the Latvians to their national language would appear to be slightly less than that of their neighbors. However, it is well above that of the Ukrainians, Belorussians, or Armenians.

In 1970, more than half of the total population of Latvia (56.9%, including some 29,000 non-Latvians) claimed that Latvian was their native language. An additional 8% claimed fluency in Latvian as a second language. Approximately two-fifths of the population claimed Russian as a native language, and another one-third claimed Russian as their second language. Thus the proportions of the total population fluent in either one of the other of the two languages were quite similar—64.9% for Latvian, 67.2% for Russian. [4]

Data from the 1970 census regarding native language by age indicates that among all Latvians in the Soviet Union, those in their twenties and those over fifty-years-old are most likely to claim Latvian as their native language. The following table summarizes the data:

[Numbers as originally published, totals do not sum columns. –Ed.]

1. Estonian, a Finnic language, is even more foreign. Only a few words of Finnic origin have been incorporated into Latvian.
2. Itogi 1970: IV: 20, 280.
3. In 1970, 94.1% of the Lithuanians in the Soviet Union lived in their own republic as did 93.8% of the Latvians and 91.9% of the Estonians in their respective republics. The figures for all three peoples represented increases over those for 1959. CDSP, XXIII: 16: 16-18.
4. Itogi 1970: IV: 280. For the urban population, the figures are 55% Latvian, 70% Russian; for Riga, 51% Latvian, 81% Russian. See Ibid., 281, 283.
5. Data for age groups is for Latvians in the Latvian SSR and other major regions of settlement; 94.9% of the total number of Soviet Latvians is included in this listing, whereas the total given in the table is for all Soviet Latvians. Itogi 1970: IV: 360(n). 363.

Latvia achieved general literacy by the beginning of the twentieth century. Its population has been plentifully supplied with reading materials by the Soviet regime. A total of 76 newspapers are published in Latvia, 49 in Latvian and the rest in Russian (see Table B.2.). Their 1971 average circulation (1,297,000) amounted to 71.8 copies of Latvian newspapers per 100 inhabitants of the republic who considered Latvian their native language, and 39.0 per 100 Russian speakers. [1] The Russian speakers have, of course, the centrally published newspapers available as well.

Of the nine all-republic newspapers, the most important are the two dailies, Cina [Struggle] (in Latvian, with a 1970 circulation of 190,000) and Sovetskaya Latviya (in Russian, circulation, 105,000), organs of the CC CP Latvia and the LSSR Council of Ministers; the Komsomol papers, Padomju Jaunatne [Soviet Youth] (circulation, 157,000) and Sovetskaya molodyozh [Soviet Youth] (circulation, 152,000); and Literatura un Maksla [Literature and Art] (circulation, 48,000), a weekly organ of the Writer's Union as well as those of other creative artists. [2] Dzimtenes Balss [Voice of the Homeland], a.weekly publication for Latvians abroad, is counted among the all-republic papers.

The eleven city newspapers include Latvian and Russian language pairs for the cities of Riga (and Jurmala), Jelgava, Liepaja, Ventspils, and Rezekne; Daugavpils is served by a Russian paper alone. The 1970 circulation of Rigas Balss [Voice of Riga] was 78,000 in Latvian and 61,000 in Russian. [3]

Two-thirds of the 27 magazines published in Latvia are in Latvian. In 1970, they had a total per issue circulation of 1,043,000, 93% in Latvian. Thus, Latvian-language readers are far better supplied with locally produced journals than are the Russian readers. Magazines published in Moscow are readily available in Latvia, which redresses the balance. The most important journals, with their 1970 circulation figures, are Padomju Latvijas Komunists (16,300; also published in Russian as Kommunist Sovetskoi Latvii, circulation 5,100), the Party monthly; Zvaigzne [Star] (111,700), a popular fiction fortnightly; Karogs [Banner] (18,000), the journal of the Writers' Union; Veseliba [Health] (162,000), the Ministry of Health's journal of popular medicine; Padomju Latvijas Sieviete [Soviet Latvian Woman] (169,700), a political and literary journal for women published by the CC CP Latvia; and Dadzis [Burdock] (76,400), the official satirical journal.

In the realm of book publishing, only Estonia publishes more titles per capita, or larger editions per capita, than Latvia does. However, the proportion of Latvian-language books out of all books published in Latvia has steadily declined from a high of 81% of new titles in 1945 to slightly over 50% in 1970. [4] Almost all the rest are published in Russian. In volume, Latvian books have consistently outnumbered the Russian by three or four to one. In 1970, nearly one-quarter of the titles appearing in Latvian, encompassing over two-fifths of the total volume, were translations from other languages, especially Russian. [5]

The Baltic republics are far better supplied with radio and television receivers than the rest of the Soviet Union. In 1971, Latvia had more TV sets per 1000 inhabitants than France had in 1969. [6] There was a radio or radio-phonograph for every third inhabitant. Wired loudspeakers constituted only 16% of the radio receiving points in Latvia, less than half of the all-union average. [7] This supply of selector receivers, coupled with Latvia's geographic position, suggests that the country has a high capacity for receiving foreign broadcasts. Radio Luxembourg, in particular, is a popular source of western music.[8]

In 1968, Latvian SSR Radio broadcast four separate programmes, including one in stereo, for a total of 27 hours daily. Broadcasting is in Latvian and in Russian. A foreign service in Latvian and Swedish is also maintained. [9] Small local stations also exist in the cities of Jelgava and Rezekne, in 26 raions, and in many sovkhozy, kolkhozy and large industrial establishments. [10] Amateur radio is widely popular. Organized and encouraged by DOSAAF, some 30,000 amateurs, operating 300 stations, were registered in 1968. [11]

Eight TV stations existed in Latvia in 1970, but none originated local programming except the one in Riga. There are two programmes available. TV Riga broadcasts approximately five and a half hours per day, roughly two-thirds of which is of local origin (in both Latvian and Russian), the rest from Moscow. Central television broadcasts about 14 hours per day. On TV Riga, programming in Latvian averages just under two hours per day, out of the total five to six hours; on Central television, all programming is in Russian. [12]

1. Computed from Pechat' 1971: 189 and Itogi 1970: IV: 280.
2. Preses Hronika, December 1970: 79-111. This is a monthly listing of publications in Latvia. Once a year it carries complete information on journals and newspapers.
3. Ibid.
4. LTS,1971: 418. Latvian-language books are published in larger editions, so that four-fifths of all copies of books published in Latvia in 1970 were in Latvian. This percentage has been increasing since 1965.
5. Pechat' 1970: 96.
6. 202 vs. 201, or one set for every five persons. Nar. khoz. 1972: 628; UN Statistical Yearbook, 1970: 805.
7. Computed from Nar. khoz. 1972: passim.
8. Personal communication, June 1973.
9. LME, 1970: III: 119.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid. 116.
12. See, e.g., schedules in Sovetskaya Latviya (July 23), 1972.

General education in the Latvian Republic is provided chiefly in unified eight-year schools. The abolition of Khrushchev's educational reforms in the early 1960s included a return to the Soviet standard of general seven-year education. Pressure from Baltic educators and writers, however, led to the decision to allow these three republics to resume the more traditional eight-year period. [1] Four-year primary schools exist almost exclusively in rural areas, and their number has been halved since 1945. [2]

Official reference sources do not distinguish among these schools by language of instruction. One Western source estimated that Russian-language general education schools enrolled about one-third of all students in 1955-1956. [3] During the 1960s this proportion may have been reduced by the marked increase in schools with classes taught in both Latvian and Russian. There were 240 of these bilingual schools in 1967, out of a total of some 1200. Almost one-third of the country's school children were enrolled in them. [4] The proportion of children of any given nationality attending the bilingual schools is not known. It may be presumed that they include many of the largest schools, especially in the cities and that the continued consolidation of rural schools has added to their number. In Latvian-language schools, Russian is a compulsory subject, beginning in the second grade. [5]

Roughly two-thirds of the graduates of the eight-year schools continue their education in either general secondary or specialized secondary schools. [6] About one-third of the students in these schools have a chance to go on to one of Latvia's ten higher educational institutions or vuzy. [7] In 1971, the enrollment in Latvia's 55 specialized secondary schools was 38,600. [8] The most important vuzy in Latvia include the Latvian State University named for Peteris Stucka, at Riga; the Riga Polytechnical Institute; the Latvian Agricultural Academy, and other specialized institutes for medicine, pedagogy, music, and art. [9] Both Latvian and Russian tend to be used for teaching at these institutes, except for the University, where many courses are available in Latvian only. [10]

Latvia is well supplied with educated manpower. With Estonia, she tops the list of Soviet republics in specialists with higher or specialized secondary education working in the economy (78 per 1000 inhabitants). [11] Only 55% of these, however, are Latvian. [12] Only 47% of the students in Latvia's vuzy in 1970-1971 were Latvians, down from 64% in 1960-1961, whereas the Latvian share of the population had diminished only from 62.0% to 56.8% during the same period. [13] When ranked by nationality, Latvians are sixth in the ratio of specialists with higher education to population. [14] Their ranking in the proportion of students is lower; Latvians are eleventh among the nationalities in this study in the ratio of vuzy students to population. and tenth in students in specialized secondary education. [15] Complete secondary education in Latvia is more thorough than in the other republics: it entails 11 years of study instead of the ten years required elsewhere.

1. Vardys, 1967: 60-61; Bilinsky, 1968:424; Pennar, 1971:241.
2. LTS, 1971: 389
3. Rutkis, 1967: 574.
4. Izvestia (Jan. 5), 1967: 3. See also Vardys, 1967: 60; Pennar, 1971: 241.
5. LME, III: 160.
6. Computed from LTS, 1971: 391, 397. Many others continue in evening schools for working and rural youth. See Ibid.: 392.
7. Nar. khoz. 1972: 629. In the USSR, the term vuz (vyssheye ychebnoye ' zavedeniye [higher educational institutions]) refers to such institutions as universities, technical institutes, agricultural academies, etc.
8. Computed from average class size and rate of vuz matriculation. LTS, 1971: 397; Nar. obraz., 1971: 173.
9. For a complete list, see Rutkis, 1967: 575-576. For enrollments, see LTS, 1971: 400.
10. Dreifelds, 1970: 4.
11. Computed from Nar. obraz., 1971: 234.
12. Pennar, 1972: 249.
13. Computed from Nar. obraz., 1971: 201. 88% of Latvian college students are in school in Latvia.
14. The first five, in order, are: Jews, Georgians, Armenians, Estonians, Russians. From Nar. obraz., 1971: 240.
15. Nar. obraz., 1971: 196. The comparatively low proportion of the Latvian population in the corresponding age brackets should be considered here.

The Latvian Academy of Sciences was founded in 1946. As of January 1970, it encompasses 14 research institutes organized into three divisions (physics and technical science. chemistry and biology. and social sciences). plus a general library. Its presidents have all been ethnic Latvians, although K. Plaude, president since 1960, and both of the vice presidents spent the inter-war years in the Soviet Union. The Director of the Institute of History, A. Drizulis, who is also a secretary of the CC CP Latvia. was reared and educated in Russia. At the end of 1968. the Academy had 23 full members and 25 corresponding members. Twenty of the former and 19 of the latter have Latvian surnames; the rest appear to be of Slavic origin. [1]

The 1971 production of the Riga Film Studio included 7 full-length films (six features and one documentary). and 79 shorter films. cartoons and newsreels. There are 1,172 movie houses and 129 mobile film units in Latvia. The average citizen of the republic goes to the movies 16 times per year. somewhat less than the average Soviet citizen (19 times). [2] Russian-language and foreign films are shown with Latvian subtitles. This substitution for the Russian language occurs only in the Baltic republics and Kazakhstan. [3]

Except for cinematography. publishing and the electronic media. cultural affairs in Latvia are guided by the Ministry of Culture. Its guidance includes budgetary allocations as well as well as controls over the "ideological and .artistic quality" of dramatic, musical, and artistic works. [4] Museums, libraries, clubs. parks and the zoo are all under the Ministry of Culture. V. Kaupuzh, a musician reared in independent Latvia, has been Minister of Culture since 1962. [5]

Ten professional theaters were operating in Latvia at the end of 1970, including the State Opera and Ballet Theater. Seven are located in Riga, and three in other cities. Four perform only in Latvian, two only in Russian, and four perform in both languages. Amateur theater has always been very popular. The best amateur companies are awarded the title of "People's Theaters." Eighteen of these existed in 1969, 13 Latvian, 3 Russian, and one (in Rezekne) with both Latvian and Russian companies. [6]

1. LME: I: 411. 677; III: 42. 606, 761-763.
2. Nar. obraz., 1971: 327, 330; Nar. khoz. Latvii 1972: 358-359.
3. Taagepera, Estonian Events (December), 1970: 23: 5, citing Sirp ja Vasar (September 4), 1970.
4. LME, 1969: II: 580.
5. LME, 1969: II: 56.
6. LME, 1969: II: 708-709; and 1970: III: 501; Rutkis, 1967: 552-553.