Word: latvians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...conclusions about the legal standing of their republics in the union. Says Estonian Popular Front leader Rein Veidemann: "We must solve the Baltic question and recognize the fact that we were first occupied and then annexed." But what would belated recognition of that historical reality actually accomplish? "Nothing," says Latvian Ideology Secretary Kezbers flatly. "The marriage between the Soviet Union and the Baltic states is de facto if not de jure. It is part of the existing order of postwar Europe...
...petitioned Moscow to put more Estonians in the republic's interior-ministry forces and border guards. There have been calls to restore the tradition of local military units like the Sixteenth Lithuanian Rifle Division, and more radical proposals to create a zone of peace in the Baltics. Says Latvian Popular Front leader Dainis Ivans: "We should decide ourselves how many military bases we need on our territory and move step by step toward making Latvia a military-free zone...
...other Baltic states jest that being Latvian is "not a nationality but a profession," a reflection of the peculiar position of an ethnic group whose cultural survival has long been threatened. In 1935 Latvians made up 76% of the population in their homeland. By 1979 their numbers had dwindled to 53.7%. During the same period, the total of ethnic Russians in Latvia climbed from 11% to 32.8%. Thus, Latvian national aims have to be advanced through the art of compromise. At a time when Lithuanian and Estonian parliamentarians were debating whether to turn down Moscow's election-reform laws last...
Latvia has always had stronger ties to Moscow than have the other two republics. Latvian Riflemen made up the Kremlin's elite Praetorian Guard in the years after the Bolshevik Revolution, and party boss Arvid Pelshe became a fixture of the Brezhnev gerontocracy. Latvian First Secretary Janis Vagris, who gained his post last October when Boris Pugo was promoted to Moscow's Party Control Committee, is viewed by many as a compromise choice whose views on reform and political pluralism are acceptable to party conservatives...
...intriguing measure of popular support for the cause of Latvian self- determination came during the parliamentary elections, when Juris Dobelis, a leader of the Latvian National Independence Movement, ran against four establishment candidates, including First Secretary Vagris. The Communist Party chief squeaked by with 51%, and Dobelis polled an impressive 34%. When the Latvian Popular Front asked its 100-member council last June whether it should "join the struggle for Latvia's complete and economic independence," the vote was a unanimous yes. In May Popular Front members opened formal contacts with the leaders of Latvian exile organizations at a gathering...