Lietuviai Latvijos Respublikoje 1918–1940 metais

Описание

On the eve of World War I, there were 37,000 Lithuanians living in Riga, which had a population of over half a million. Based on the total number of Lithuanians living there, Riga had become the most Lithuanian city in the world. As a result of labour-related migration, Lithuanian communities also formed in other Latvian cities at this time. The Republic of Latvia was formed in 1918 and the Lithuanian community became one of the national minority groups in the national Latvian state. This book reveals how Lithuanian community life developed in Latvia in 1918–1940 – how the Lithuanian community tried to preserve the national identity of its members, the measures that were used to hold back the community’s assimilation and what role the Lithuanian state played in this struggle. The number of Lithuanians living in Latvia during World War I dropped significantly, however, the main concentrations of Lithuanians remained basically unchanged – Riga, Liepāja and the Zemgale region bordering Lithuania. Living in different regions of Latvia, Lithuanian communities faced a range of problems caused by the economic, demographic and cultural features of the region. However, all Lithuanian communities had one common problem – the danger of assimilation. If until World War I it was thought that the main threat to Lithuanian identity is the transformation of Catholic Lithuanians into Catholic Poles, then with the formation of the Latvian state, the main problem became the potential for Lithuanians to become Latvian.