Latvia's uncertain future: life across the Russian border

In Latvia, a little-known Baltic country sharing a border with Russia, the daily lives of young people have been turned upside down by the war in Ukraine.
With the reintroduction of mandatory military service and the increased pressure on the country's Russian-speaking community, imagining a peaceful future is not an easy task.
Jānis and Ieva tell us about the fears and hopes they have for a country with such rich, unique traditions.
#Latvia #Baltics #Balticstates #balticulture #militaryservice #folklore

[@carognavacca]

Hey! So, originally I’m from Latvia, with some Russian and Polish roots, but I identify myself as Latvian, especially when I’m out of Latvia. I speak Latvian, love our culture, and have Latvian friends. But since 2015, I've been living in different cities - Moscow, Madrid, Berlin. I recently moved back, and here are my thoughts. 1. I’ve never seen Russians so brainwashed by Russian propaganda like in Latvia, seriously, not even in Moscow. Here, I first encountered these ‘vata’ people, which means zombie-like, always glued to Russian propaganda. And I'm like, why the heck didn’t we shut down that propaganda translation since independence? Why did we let our people watch that crap and become so disloyal to our government? 2. I don’t feel this huge division between Latvian and Russian-speaking people here in Latvia if you know Latvian. But yeah, there are folks who only speak Russian. And here’s my beef with our education system - why did we decide to keep these Russian schools still going since independence? What’s the point if after school, everyone's gotta get their bachelor's and master's in Latvian and work using that language? Personally, it blows my mind that after school, my Latvian was only at a B1 level (thanks to my parents sending me to a Russian-speaking school, which was closer to home 😬🙃), and now I'm better at English than Latvian. 3. Latvians are just the sweetest and friendliest people ever. They’re so warm and welcoming. I don’t know any other country where a native speaker would go out of their way to speak the language that’s more convenient for the other person. You’d never see that in Germany, Spain, or even Russia, haha. God bless Latvia!

[@IgorIgorovitch]

Best wishes to Latvia

[@user-fe5lr9zt3y]

not

[@love__and__hope__]

I have loved in Latvia. Really easy life compared to Germany. Wages are kinda low but expenses very low. With 2000 per month can easily save better part and afford everything you need at same time. Getting a job is easy as well. One of best counties I have lived. Probably 2nd after Norway.

[@vikramad36]

Absolutely gorgeous👏🏼💝 work; really loved it. Good luck 👍🏼

[@artursbondars7789]

I understand intention of making such report about Latvia, but why charts, maps and numbers are off? Important correction: New requirements are ment for Russian citizens living in Latvia, not Latvian citizens or Latvian non-citizens.

[@enentr]

Hi, do let us know your issues with the data and we'll cite our sources for clarification. Indeed, what you're saying is precisely what we said in the piece: new requirements are for Russian speakers without the Latvian citizenship.

[@artursbondars7789]

Almost 40% native Russian speakers is not true. Use latest information and better use information from Statistical bureau of Latvia. Foreign media information about Latvia usually are inprecise or false.

[@artursbondars7789]

Other corrections: We already changed government to centrist-liberal, nationalists and others are in opposition. Also You are confusing foreign residents with citizens. There aren't mass recruitment in Latvia at the moment.

[@enentr]

@@artursbondars7789 We said this started with the 2018 nationalist government, not that said government is still in power. No confusion regarding foreign residents and citizens, the issue of citizenship is very complex and detailed, so we couldn't get into the specifics, which is why we were careful with the wording.

[@piggyraccoon5464]

Look at the map 0:55, they included Abrene which was taken by Russia

[@enentr]

Hey there! It's just our designs that make it look larger, but we did not include the region! It's been de facto Russian since 1944 and Latvia gave up all demands about it in 2007, so we did not include it. Hope it helps!

[@huanghermann5207]

Mutual respect for each other is the way to go for all ethnicities. Small countries can do nothing when caught between superpowers.

[@IgorIgorovitch]

🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻👍👍

[@MrDevels]

Piece between communities 🙏❤️🥹

[@davisivuskans3762]

imagine being latvian in latvia and having adusity to speak latvian XD, poor oprest rushens

[@rafaelsanz3441]

This video is not correct at all. Latvia has suffered 6 invasions in XXth century: German invasion in 1914 that lasted until 1920, Russian invasion in 1919, that lasted until 1920, after the Russian invasion of 1940, that lasted until 1941, German invasion from 1941 until 1945, Russian invasion again from 1944 until 1990.

[@enentr]

Hi Rafael. Have a look at the timeline at 2:27, we're speaking about the three consecutive invasions that followed its independence. Such invasions started in 1940: so Russian, then German, then Russian again. Have a good day

[@rafaelsanz3441]

@@enentr Thanks for your answer. But don’t forget the foreign invasions of 1919 , from the German Freikorps, not Germany as state but German nationalist militias and last but not least, the Russian bolchequiks. Both invasions of 1919 were extremely cruel and destructive, with countless war crimes against Latvian civilian population, as both German and Russian troops committed mass murder against local population. You just need to read Ernst von Salomon memoirs to see what they did to the Latvian male population in the villages: they just killed them all. They wanted to kill as Latvians as possible to let space for German colonists and germanize the whole Baltic area.

[@enentr]

@@rafaelsanz3441 Absolutely! We just had to go back to the country's history starting from Latvian independence onwards as we didn't have enough time to explain what you're pointing out -- but thank you for doing so.

[@rafaelsanz3441]

@@enentr Thanks a lot for your interesting video. Unhappily, most of the Russian speaking-community are not as loyal as the Russian girl from your doku.

[@piuswanyaga8361]

5:25, Talk about racism and arrogance. The Ukrainian language is not even banned in Russia, and you want Russian to be canceled in estonia, a country not at war with Russia.

[@enentr]

That's precisely the opposite of what he's saying. He's arguing that he'd like to change the view that Russian is not well-regarded in the country

[@piuswanyaga8361]

@@enentr 22.5% of Estonian population are ethnic Russian. That's like 300k population of Estonia. Do you want them to stop speaking Russian. Over half of Estonia population speaks and understand Russian language. Stigmatising people based on the language they speak is outright discrimination and racism. He doesn't represent the majority of the country.

[@enentr]

@@piuswanyaga8361 again, this is the opposite of what he said, precisely because it’s not a minority he’s saying Latvians should be more accepting.

[@piuswanyaga8361]

@@enentr Well actually confused the two countries and it's funny coz a quarter of Latvian population are Russian. Have bigger population there than Estonia. So my original argument still stands

[@aziatix1168]

​​@@piuswanyaga8361well, Russia basically screwed the entire Eastern Europe in the 20th century, it is destroying right now Ukraine, there are people being killed and millions of people had to escape the country because of Russians brutal aggression. They shot down the aeroplane of Polish politics with president of Poland in 2010 and since then refused to give back the remainings of the plane and dead bodies to Poland. It still to these day provokes Poland with sending drones and rockets over Polish territories only to withrawn it from the country after minutes/hours. One of their rockets fell on the ground and killed 2 Poles. On top of that, Russians are refusing to learn Latvian in Latvia, and it is lack of respect to the country they live in. The worst part is that Russians themselves, normal citizens, are turning a blind eye on what their country is doing and never say sorry to the hurt nations by them. They turn the tables outside down and always put themselves in the role of victims whereas Eastern Eurpean nations...idk, maybe they actually have a right to not like Russians, have you ever thought about that? Tell me why Russians sit silent and talk nothing. Their ignorance on destroyed and killed nations by them is what brings them enemies, it's not Latvians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians nor Poles fault. If you're Russuan maybe you should say sorry, idk? Not many Russians are capable of doing so and it's not even a lie.

[@thomaslanders2073]

Speak about what Latvia and the other Baltics did to the Jews in WW2. They must be held accountable. They will be held accountable...

[@TheTerkzzz]

We don't really bury this information anywhere. We have jews still living here peacefully. This is a complex part of our past for sure and nothing that we celebrate.

[@martinskesteris8664]

It was nazis, equally bad as ruscists back then and, unlike Germans, still today, and it's ruzzia that must be held responsible. Latvia has been the victim, not the agressor.

[@NEO-jb7bb]

So the Soviets were so amazingly insufficient that they could not hold people accountable for the crimes against humanity during the following 50 years of occupation?

[@aziatix1168]

Yeah, blame poor Latvia, Lithuania Poland for something they didn't do and pretend like Russia and Germany weren't the ones phucking up the entire continent and nations in the 20th century, nice.

[@tracywright6908]

thomas the slanderer, Your ignorance on the matter shows