The culture of Latvia combines traditional Latvian
and Livonian heritage with influences of the country's varied historical
heritage
Latvian:
Livonian:
History
The area of Latvia
has been inhabited since 9000 BC. Baltic tribes, the ancestors of present-day Latvians,
arrived around 3000 BC. In the 13th century after conquest of today's Latvia, Baltic Germans settled here and
gradually became the upper class and rulers of Latvia, while Latvians and Livonians
lost their positions finally becoming serfs in the 16th century. This caused
the Germanisation of the educated inhabitants of other nationalities, yet
preserved some local traditions. In the 19th century, when serfdom was
abolished, a Latvian nationalist movement, the first "Latvian National
Awakening", begun. Led by "Young Latvians", it encouraged
Latvians to become artists and scholars, while preserving their cultural
heritage and the language. The movement was countered by a period of Russification,
followed by the leftist movement New Current at the beginning of the 20th
century; it is regarded as a period in which Latvian culture thrived. This
caused the second "Latvian National Awakening", leading ultimately to
the proclamation of an independendent Latvia in 1918.
On 15 May 1934, Kārlis Ulmanis seized power in a coup d'etat
and established an authoritarian regime, which lasted only until the outbreak
of World War II and Soviet occupation in 1939-1940. In cultural terms, however,
this period is seen as a "golden age" for Latvia. During the war, with a
period of German occupation from 1941–1945, Latvia
lost its independence as it was occupied by the USSR and became the Latvian SSR.
Soviet rule ended in 1991 during the third "Latvian National Awakening".
The Latvian National Awakening (Latvian: latviešu [or latvju] tautas atmoda)
refers to three distinct but ideologically related National revival movements:
- the First Awakening refers to the national revival led by the Young Latvians from the 1850s to the 1880s,
- the Second Awakening to the movement that led to the proclamation of Latvian independence in 1918, and
- the Third Awakening to the movement that led to the restoration of Latvia's independence in the "Singing Revolution" of 1987–1991.
Application of the term
Though the term "Awakening" was introduced by the
Young Latvians themselves, its application was influenced by the nationalist
ideologue Ernests Blanks and later by the academician Jānis Stradiņš. Stradiņš
was the first person to use the term "Third Awakening" (at the
expanded plenum of the Writers' Union of the
Latvian SSR in June 1988), opposing those who had begun to call the national
revival in the period of glasnost the Second
Awakening (the first being that of the Young Latvians).
Blanks sought to distinguish between the New Current (in
Latvian: Jaunā strāva) — a broad and
radical socio-economic, political, and cultural movement that lasted from the
late 1880s until the 1905 Revolution, led by Rainis and influenced by Marxism —
from the more nationalistic direction taken in 1903 by Ernests Rolavs and Miķelis
Valters; to Blanks, the 1890s "could be stricken completely from the
history of national thought." He saw Rolavs' and Valters' nationalist Latvian
Social Democratic Union (in Latvian: Sociāldemokratu
savienība; sometimes abbreviated SDS) — a radical socialist group critical
of the cosmopolitanism of the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Latvijas sociāldemokrātiskā strādnieku
partija; LSDSP) — as the direct ideological descendants of the Young
Latvians. It was the SDS (and especially Valters) that first began to formulate
demands for Latvia's
political autonomy.
Stradiņš based his view of the national revival in the 1980s
on Blanks, considering the Second Awakening similarly: he viewed the
organization of the Latvian riflemen, the activities of the Latvian émigrés in Switzerland, the Latvian refugees' relief
committee in Russia,
the proclamation of independence and the battles for independence as coming
under the heading of the Second Awakening. Less frequently, some have seen the
New Current and the 1905 Revolution — and sometimes even the Khrushchev Thaw —
as National Awakenings.
People
The majority of inhabitants are Latvians. There is a
culturally and linguistically distinct subgroup, the Latgalians, who inhabit
the Latgale region in eastern Latvia.
Another indigenous group are the Livonians, whose Finnic Livonian language is
nearly extinct. The largest minority group is the Slavic people, notably Russians.
Other well known minorities are Romani people, Baltic Germans and Jews, whose
population decreased significantly after the Second World War, as well as Lithuanians
and Estonians.
Regions
Historical regions of Latvia, together with Latvian
cultural groups
Latvia is
divided into several cultural and historical regions - Vidzeme, Latgale, Courland and Zemgale. Sometimes, Sēlija and Maliena are
also distinguished.
Folklore
Latvians have the rich heritage of traditional folklore,
especially folk songs. Dating back well over a thousand years, more than 1.2
million texts and 30,000 melodies of folk songs have been identified.
Literature
Latvian literature
Music
Music of Latvia
Architecture
Art Nouveau architecture in Riga
A form of traditional architecture in Latvia is log
houses. The position of houses differs between regions. In western Latvia, single
farms are more popular and in villages, the houses are positioned in a circle
around a central square. In eastern Latvia, villages are more popular
and houses are positioned along a main street. This is seen as an influence of
nearby Russia.
Cultural canon
Launched in 2007 and now complete, the Lativan Cultural
Canon was selected by a series of groups of experts in the areas of
architecture and design, cinema, literature, music, stage art, national
traditions and visual arts. It contains a total of 99 works.
LATVIAN CULTURAL CANON
Just like in other European countries, the Latvian Cultural
Canon is compiled as a treasure trove that contains the most important cultural
achievements of all times. The Canon will include the treasures from various
branches of culture: ones that are characteristic of it; that are for us a
source of pride, and that should form the basis of cultural experience of every
Latvian resident, fostering his or her sense of belonging. The
Canon discourse is related to the notion of cultural memory, which can be
considered as knowledge shared by a group of people, representatives of a
certain culture, at a particular time. Thus Canon can be said to represent a
means for creating and disseminating such common cultural memory.
Work on forming the Latvian Cultural Canon was launched in
late 2007. Working groups of experts were formed in seven areas (Architecture
and Design, Cinema, Literature, Music, Stage Art, National Traditions, Visual
Arts). That work is now complete and we have a Cultural Canon consisting of 99
cultural treasures.
Māra Lāce, patroness of the Latvian Cultural Canon, Director
of the National Art Museum, puts it this way: "The Canon and the process
of compiling it have made me realize once again that we possess great if not
vast cultural treasures whose significance, history, and value is unfortunately
less than common knowledge. Of course, it is impossible to know absolutely
everything in this dynamic time that is so imbued with new information. But if
anyone wants to know more about the foundation on which Latvian culture rests,
then the Canon will provide him or her with such an opportunity. Canon
highlights what we can be proud of and explains why we should be proud. As more
time passes since the process of forming the Canon, my feelings about the point
and significance of this project change also. If in the beginning the experts
in each area had rather ambivalent feelings about their task, for the
professionals found dissecting the development of culture and the treasures
created by many people of outstanding talent absurd, in the late going most of
those involved considered the process interesting and fruitful. The compilation
of lists was quite complicated. The experts had many discussions among
themselves, sometimes having a difficult time achieving a consensus on common
values. I think it is a good thing, because it seems that it was these
discussions that pointed thoughts in the direction of assessment.
Now I have had many more positive experiences regarding the
influence of the Canon on various processes. In informal conversations,
teachers have told me that they use the list in the teaching process. A woman
who heads a memorial museum dedicated to a personality included in the Canon
told me that after he made the list it has become easier for her to have a dialogue
with her local government and make sure that the museum is appreciated. The
family of an outstanding artist are now ready to give a national museum a great
number of his works – only because he has been included in the list. It I
difficult to say if that is much or little. But it is clear that the Cultural
Canon is something living.
To me the Cultural Canon represents something akin to
punctuation marks or road markers that identify and highlight certain treasures
in the expanse of culture. That does not mean that people cannot come up with
their own canons. Each and every one of us can have his or her understanding
regarding priorities. The Cultural Canon inspired by the Ministry of Culture
represents the vision of experts in each area of culture, pointing at certain
qualities as they see them. The concept of quality to me is one of the most
essential things in trying to understand the Canon, related to what is unique;
the mentality of the nation and certain assumptions that have formed over a
longer period of time.
The Cultural Canon should not be perceived as a petrified,
unchangeable dogma. It is a process that should be subject to perpetual change
and development. I think that the process of identifying the cultural treasures
could captivate many people, inciting them to exchange opinions and come to
certain conclusions.
The Cultural Canon should be a source for our pride. Yet we
have to acknowledge that the treasures we celebrate are just small beacons in
the vast field of Latvian culture, which deserves to be learnt, preserved and,
most importantly, developed creatively, so that after a while we could look
over the Canon again and name new treasures that have been created and should
be preserved for future generations."
Revised 16 March 2016
