Latvia and the Latvians Frederic T. Harned, Harvard University (part of a larger M.I.T. study), 1973

National Attitudes

II. Basic Views of Scholars on National Attitudes

Rein Taagepera of the University of California at Irvine has written that "resistance to the regime has been sporadic, varied, and possibly slowly increasing in all Baltic republics." [1] He is less sanguine about the future of the Latvian nation, however, and concludes that it is in greater danger of assimilation than its neighbors. This is in large part due to the ever-increasing Russian population and the lack of support and protection from its own Party elite.

A major study of attitudes and social behavior in the area of national relations was conducted between 1964 and 1969 by a group of Soviet scholars led by A.I. Kholmogorov. His data showed a strong trend toward the growth of "international features" among the population of Latvia. but with some interesting variations. For example. although census data show that a great many use Russian at work, only 7.4% of the Latvians use Russian in the home. [2] Two-thirds of the Latvians surveyed said that they had friends from among other nationalities, a figure significantly below the 86% average for the non-Latvian residents of the republic. [3] Latvians were also noticeably less favorable to the idea of multinational work collectives than were the others, were less likely to have visited another Soviet Republic, and showed a stronger preference for their national culture. [4]

Other Soviet studies. including one by the ethnographer L. Terent'eva have shown a marked increase in the frequency of mixed marriages in the city of Riga, from 30% in 1948 to 36% in 1963. Janis Vitols has reported that 38% of the marriages in Riga in 1970 were between people of different nationalities. [5] The publication of Terent'eva's results in the Latvian journal Zinatne un Tekhnika in 1970 apparently caused some commotion. as that issue of the journal was almost immediately withdrawn from public circulation. [6] Kholmogorov's sample of several different parts of Latvia, however, indicated that Latvians were less prone to enter mixed marriages than were representatives of other nationalities. Only slightly over 11% of the Latvians he surveyed had made such marriages, vs. approximately a third of the Russian population.

Under Soviet law, the children of such marriages have the opportunity to choose the nationality of either one of their parents as their own for their internal passports. In Riga, the children of Latvian-Russian marriages showed a tendency to prefer Latvian registration 57% to 43%. Children of marriages between Latvians and members of other nationalities chose Latvian with even greater frequency. [7]

Such studies, though inconclusive, do tend to show that nationalist feelings and particularism have. not disappeared among the Latvians. Although they have not been manifested in illegal dissent as frequently as among the other Baltic peoples, there have been other kinds of activities which will be discussed in the next section.

1. Taagepera, 1972: 9.
2. Kholmogorov, 1970: 119. 121.
3. Ibid.: 175.
4. Ibid.: 172. 180. 185.
5. Nauka i tekhnika (February) 1972: 32-35.
6. The article is .translated. with a commentary. in King. 1970. See also Terenteva's article in Sovetskaya etnografya. 1969: 3: 20-30.
7. Zinatne un tekhnika (August), 1970: 8: 12.