Latvians
The Latvians (own name: latvieši ) are a Baltic people . They speak the Latvian language of the eastern Baltic language group and two-thirds are Protestants and a good quarter are Catholics . With 62.1% (2011) they form the majority of the population in today's Latvia , but in a political sense all Latvian citizens form the Latvian nation .
history
The Baltic tribes of Latgals , Semgallians , Selenium and the Kurds were the indigenous people of what is now Latvia. In addition, there are the Livs who inhabited the coast of the Gulf of Rigas . Albert von Buxhoeveden , Bishop of Livonia and canon of Bremen, began colonizing the area in 1199 with the help of the Brothers of the Sword (later Teutonic Order ) and the war troops of the Christianized Latvians and Livs that were allied by him. After the submission, Selenium, Semigallians, Kuren and partly the Livs became part of the new ethnic group of Latvians. Georg Mancelius , professor of theology at Dorpater University , wrote the first German-Latvian lexicon "Lettus" (1638). The term Latvian nation was first used by the Evangelical Lutheran pastor Paul Einhorn in his writings "Reformatio gentis Letticae in Ducatu Curlandiae" (1636) and "Historia Lettica" (1649). The pastor Gotthard Friedrich Stender (1714–1796) played the decisive role in the development of the Latvian literary language . Until the 19th century, the Latvians lived in the country mostly as a peasant people under the rule of the German-Baltic manor owners. The Germans dominated the cities.
Only after the gradual liberation through agricultural reforms and the sale of farm land did the situation change from the middle of the 19th century. A small layer of large Latvian farmers emerged. With industrialization , the port cities of Riga and Libau grew and the Latvians now made up the majority of the population in the cities. The result: a Latvian proletariat, a Latvian middle class and a small Latvian educated middle class, from which the first signs of a national awakening came. Under the Russian Emperor Alexander III. From 1881 there was a targeted Russification of the Baltic provinces. The Latvians revolted against this double pressure from the Baltic Germans and Russians in the 1905 revolution . By the end of the year, landowners and the Russian military were almost completely evicted from the plains. The Latvian Revolution aimed at the administrative unification of the Latvian territories, introduction of the Latvian language as an administrative and school language, and autonomy. With the overthrow of the Tsar in 1917, these demands became loud again. A first success was the recognition of a democratically elected district administrator by the Russian transitional government. However, Kurland was occupied by German troops since 1915. In 1918 a Latvian People's Council proclaimed the independent Republic of Latvia, which was able to prevail in protracted battles against the first Latvian Soviet Republic . In 1920 peace was made with the Soviet Union and Germany. In 1934 a fascist system came to power under the slogan “Latvia to the Latvians”, which was directed primarily against the Jewish (1935: 4.8% of the population) and German minorities (1935: 3.2%).
As a result of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact , Latvia was added to the Soviet sphere of interest and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The Germans occupied Latvia from 1941 to 1944/45. Over 150,000 Latvians were deported under the rule of Josef Stalin . Russian workers immigrated for industrial companies. In 1970 the proportion of the Latvian population in Riga was smaller than the Russian proportion. In 1988 the Popular Front of Latvia ( Latvijas Tautas Fronte ) was founded. In July 1989 Latvia declared itself sovereign again, on May 4, 1990 the independent Republic of Latvia was restored and recognized by the Soviet Union in August 1991.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Henricus Lettus : Livonian Chronicle. 2., unchanged. Edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1975, ISBN 3-534-00605-4 . (Reprograph. Reprint of the 1st edition. 1959).
- ^ Gotthard Friedrich Stender : New, more complete Latvian grammar, along with an adequate lexico, as well as some poems. Braunschweig 1761, OCLC 78003458 .