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Vārdu diena / Names’ day (3 / 7) — Ella, Elmira
EETtimeis
Dom Church Square, Rīga Latvia

Latvia is one of the three Baltic states, sandwiched between sisters Estonia and Lithuania, Russia, Belarus, and the Baltic Sea. Steeped in ancient traditions, it is a domain of lush forests and river valleys, sandy coastlines, and medieval architecture. Home to a culture that migrated westward to settle along the Baltic Sea, where it as has thrived for four millennia.

The Crusades, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Poland-Lithuania, France, and Russia have all swept over Latvia — a touchstone of European history.

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Estonian economist Villibald Raud's 1943 monograph, "The Baltic States as a British Market in the Past and Future," looks ahead to post-WWII rebuilding and recovery. From how many tractors to replace how many horses to dealing with the reality of war-time population loss, he frames the Baltic States as a counterintuitively significant—given their size—historical and projected market for British industry. His study consolidates economic statistics across all three Baltic economies for a rare integrated portrait. Facsimile and transcription. latvians.com/en/CFBH/BaltStatesBritMkt/bsbm-000-synopsis.ssi Facebook 2026 Feb 26
You can now read the "Fourth Letter" in a 17th century series about Livonia, tracing the Teutonic Order's humble beginnings from a charitable hospital founded by Germans in Jerusalem during the Crusades to its formal establishment as a military knightly order in 1191, and highlighting the leadership of its fourth Grand Master, Hermann von Salza, and conquest of Prussia and Livonia. We've also improved our page-bottom chronological browsing to encourage you to explore our timeline. latvians.com/en/CFBH/AccountLivonia/acctliv-100-letter04.ssi Facebook 2026 Feb 22
Transcribing the "Third Letter" in a 17th century series about Livonia, we discovered the 9th century Curonians (Kurši), a tribe inhabiting the Baltic coast from the Gulf of Rīga down to today's Klaipeda, were far from uneducated pagans. Indeed, the Curonians had two kings, one each in today's Estonia and Latvia, and conducted diplomacy and concluded treaties in Latin. Plus the original Latin and our translations of their Investitures by Henry VII as Imperial Prince-Bishops of Hermann (1223, Dorpat) and Albert (1226, Livonia). This granted rights such as minting coinage. These investitures formally incorporated Tartu and Riga, respectively, into the Holy Roman Empire. latvians.com/?en/CFBH/AccountLivonia/acctliv-100-letter03.ssi Facebook 2026 Jan 20
Our weekly Latvian news digest looks back at 2025. Our year-end issue. Happy New Year! Daudz laimes jaunā gadā! #latvia #latvija latvians.com/?en/Mailer/archive2025/month-12/issue-2025-12-31.wiki Latvia awaiting the melting of the snow in spring, from the "1947 Exile's Calendar." Facebook 2025 Dec 31
If you haven't already, check out our news "mailer", resurrected as a weekly news digest in English plus items of more local interest in Latvian. And a photo from our Latvian travels. Our digest for the week ending December 14: latvians.com/?en/Mailer/archive2025/month-12/issue-2025-12-14.wiki Facebook 2025 Dec 15
We’ve significantly expanded our coverage of life in the post-WWII Displaced Persons camps. The new material interweaves our parents’ stories with dozens of contemporary newspaper articles (transcribed and translated) and reports, and it also answers a long-standing family question: where Peters' parents first stayed in Germany before the end of the war. We’ve also updated our site navigation—our left-side menu now mirrors the top dropdowns and expands for easier browsing. If you’re familiar with latvians.com or haven’t visited in a while, we hope you’ll explore our new content and reconnect with this part of Latvian history. latvians.com/?en/Exile/ Facebook 2025 Dec 06
You can now read the "Fourth Letter" in a 17th century series about Livonia, tracing the Teutonic Order's humble beginnings from a charitable hospital founded by Germans in Jerusalem during the Crusades to its formal establishment as a military knightly order in 1191, and highlighting the leadership of its fourth Grand Master, Hermann von Salza, and conquest of Prussia and Livonia. We've also improved our page-bottom chronological browsing to encourage you to explore our timeline. latvians.com/en/CFBH/AccountLivonia/acctliv-100-letter04.ssi Facebook 2026 Feb 22
Our weekly Latvian news digest looks back at 2025. Our year-end issue. Happy New Year! Daudz laimes jaunā gadā! #latvia #latvija latvians.com/?en/Mailer/archive2025/month-12/issue-2025-12-31.wiki Latvia awaiting the melting of the snow in spring, from the "1947 Exile's Calendar." Facebook 2025 Dec 31
We’ve significantly expanded our coverage of life in the post-WWII Displaced Persons camps. The new material interweaves our parents’ stories with dozens of contemporary newspaper articles (transcribed and translated) and reports, and it also answers a long-standing family question: where Peters' parents first stayed in Germany before the end of the war. We’ve also updated our site navigation—our left-side menu now mirrors the top dropdowns and expands for easier browsing. If you’re familiar with latvians.com or haven’t visited in a while, we hope you’ll explore our new content and reconnect with this part of Latvian history. latvians.com/?en/Exile/ Facebook 2025 Dec 06
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