Word: riga
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Locals in Riga, the Latvian capital, have a favorite trivia question: what was the biggest city in the 17th century Swedish empire? (Hint: it wasn't Stockholm.) For centuries, the stately medieval port on the shores of the eastern Baltic Sea served as the bustling gateway between Russia and the West. Then, following World War II, it withered after the Iron Curtain fell across Eastern Europe, cutting it off from the outside world. But Riga is now experiencing a renaissance. It may not have re-established the prominence it enjoyed 400 years ago, but as any of its trivia-wielding...
Today, the ancient city has emerged as one of a string of economic miracles on Europe's northern fringe. Trade volume in Riga has more than doubled over the past 10 years, and the average annual income has almost tripled to $6,200. Nearly 80% of Latvia's exports - from timber to textiles to farm machinery - now heads to markets in the West. Tourism is booming, too: last year, ferries, cruise ships and low-cost airlines disgorged 1.5 million visitors in Riga, up from 1.1 million the previous year. Visvaldis Lacis, an 83-year-old author and parliamentarian, recalls that...
...Riga's revival is part of a broader expansion that has buoyed the Baltic Sea region, an area that comprises about 70 million people living in nine countries bordering the sea. Established players like Sweden and Finland are pairing up with emerging economies (and recent E.U. inductees) like Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia to transform a region once better known for herring, bad weather and cold war naval maneuvers into a global economic dynamo. "It's a hot spot for growth," says Peter Egardt, a Swede who heads the Business Advisory Council at the intergovernmental Council of Baltic Sea States...
Trading ships have plied the Baltic for more than 1,000 years. In the 13th century, the ports of Riga, Tallinn, Danzig (now Gdansk) and Hamburg, among others, belonged to the Hanseatic League, the world's first free-trade alliance, which dominated east-west commerce in Europe for the better part of 400 years. The cold war did not freeze trade altogether, but it introduced a bitter chill. Ships continued to sail the grey waters, carrying grain to Russia, and Lada automobiles to Africa and Latin America. But cities like Riga that had ties with Western Europe were compelled...
...rith Anti-Defamation League's task force on war criminals, became one of the most influential and relentless Nazi hunters in the U.S.; in New York City. Welles got his start seeking to avenge the murder of his mother, who had been executed in the woods near Riga, Latvia, where his family had recently been deported. Haunted by the face and name of the officer who ordered her transport, Welles, with the help of the Justice Department, tracked him down in Germany--where the man was put on trial in 1976 and convicted...