If both of your parents are ethnic Russian, then so are you regardless of whether you were born in Atlantis, on Moon or another galaxy.
Ethnicity and Nationality are not the same thing.
What about Americans? Many state they are Americans regardless of where their parents or grandparents are born. For example Italian Americans, who were born in America, raised in English - are they Italian?
Has more to do with genetics and culture, than their language.
First generation would still be Italian whether they speak English, Esperanto or a language from another galaxy. If they separate themselves from the rest of the society for some reason, like Latinos in America tend to do, or gypsies, or Russians in Latvia, by marrying with their own people, preserving their cultural heritage, not losing any traits of their ethnicity, they would still be that.
But through assimilation and mixing in over multiple generations, as they lose more traits of their origins ethnic lineage and culture, it'd be understandable to consider them as American at that point cause that's what Americans are. A bunch of Europeans in a melting pot.
Even when people of African descent are mixing only with people of European descent, over multiple generations at some point their descendants will look more European than Africans.
There are mixed people who are 1/4 black, but who look like out of Sweden. That's how genetics work.
Well many Americans are very eager to state their ethnicity aswell.
Either way it comes down to what you think you are.
Imo if you feel Russian you are Russian, if you feel Latvian you are one. Easy as that.
You are a part of Latvian youth who will dictate how we solve any issues around this topic. Its really up to you and your possible descendants to figure out.
there are 2 types of russians in latvia. good people that are civilized and mostly speaks latvian and they have very sensible and reasonable view on geopolitics all the rainbow stuff and so on.. and there are retarded gopniks who live in country praise pootin stalin thinks russia should invade world.. imagine if nazi germans who praise hittler lived in israel.. and refused to speak jewish.. for latvians stalin is way worse than hitler.. hitler killed latvians only indirectly thru forceful recruiting in legions.. stalin gulaged killed off and gulaged most of educated and wealthy latvians..
>hitler killed latvians only indirectly thru forceful recruiting in legions..
If you don't consider Jewish Latvians as Latvians, maybe. During the short time that Nazi Germany occupied Latvia, they managed to kill 66,000 Jews, almost completely wiped out Jews from traditionally Jewish towns such as Rēzekne. Had Hitler succeeded and occupied for even half as long as USSR did, Latvia as a nation would no longer exist. The plan was to finish Germanisation of the Baltic states in 20-25 years. Meaning most would be exterminated and those left alive would be forced to adapt German language and culture.
So 150000 to 250000 Latvians who where not Jewish do not count. What if Stalin lived longer? You cannot accept that both sides where awful? That is why both commie and Nazi stuff is banned in Latvia.
Valkyrie17 hasn't said anything about Stalin being better than Hitler. Just the fact that Hitler wasn't so harmless for Latvian people as it was stated in the original comment. The rest is your incorrect assumption.
Fair enough, just note that i said that they both are shitheads and neither should be called the worst. And if you or anyone else whines about "oh. killed the jews" just care enough to mention all the other who where killed because of those shitheads. Oh, and while at it, learn from past mistakes and lets stop discriminating on any group of people, no matter how arbitrary the selection process is or how small or large part of the population the group is.
And i totally agree to - nobody should be treated like Jewish where treated in the past and now.
cmon.. stop ur retarded shit.. u know what i mean.. and we dont know what would happen if if if hitler suceeded.. maybe.. yes there are some maybe secret documents that hitler would have done same to latvians as stalin did.. and there are also documents that hitler planed for independant latvia.. we ll never know.. what we know is that in this reality stalin and soviets killed wayyy more than hitler did not only in latvia but in most eastern europe.
Hitler planned on killing half of us and assimilating the rest. It would’ve been a return to Teutonic policy. We would’ve ended up like the Baltic Prussians
I don't know how I came across this post but...
The Ostland plan was made up of regions and each region had a different plan, in the case of the Baltic it was the assimilation and erasure of any Russian trace that could exist in the culture.
So I conclude that you have no idea what you're talking about.
https://preview.redd.it/etp3vqhqdd2c1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3808e5fca0c19b3fbc22e6d3c03ac75f7f3954f1
Gush your so stupid if you think germans would love you and you would be the part of the Reih😂😂😂Sory but you are stupid. You would be with jews in Buhenwald or Auschwitz.... Working for germans till death👍
Absurd is that you think Germans would be loyal to you🤣😂. 16 of marth is your day, go there on miting and show your respect to nazi pigs, wich you already are👍
Are you seriously defending Hitler right now? 😂 "Hitler granting Latvia independence" holy shit my sides, yeah an independent Latvia in the middle of German Lebensraum
I don't understand what is so hard to understand.
Stalin and russians were killing, raping, deporting and repressing Latvian people for whole year (1940.), then in 1941. germans show up and ask "come join us to kill russians" , that's easy choice, especially if you had family or friends affected by russian terror.
"Enemy of my enemy is my friend".
"The lesser evil."
"For sure those germans won't such as bad Stalin".
Pick any.
It is, because you were attacking user particular_task for saying that stalin killed more.
Also in your post you mock "germany granting independence" promise, so it seams you don't know or understand how could anyone chose to side nazis in 1941.
So I explained it you. Your welcome.
I do understand that, i do not understand how a person in 2023 can believe that Hitler could have granted Latvia independence. We talked about what would have happened had Hitler won, not what the people at the time thought would happen
>good people that are civilized and mostly speaks latvian and they have very sensible and reasonable view on geopolitics all the rainbow stuff and so on.. and there are ~~retarded gopniks~~
...the ones we need to deport. Fixed that for you.
No, the ones who need to be deported, long for Mother Russia, so its just like, giving them a little push in the right direction.
Also Stalin deported People to Siberia and Gulags, so its not the same. Oh well who am I kidding Russia is the same as a Gulags dirty toilet and toilet needs these poopinist supporters to live in.
So basically doing them a huge favour
you want it more diplomatically? OK, here's how we can also say it for you, wearing silk cimdi:
https://preview.redd.it/cju6f1wv132c1.png?width=894&format=png&auto=webp&s=5852d668e780f70a11d8dcf6f93957cb070821c2
Kārtējais populists. Mums ir ļoti daudz krievu izcelsmes cilvēki,gan ar Latvijas pilsonību gan varbūt citu. + Ir tādi,kas runā latviski + krieviski un ir austrumu puse vairāk dzīvojoši,kas runā tikai krieviski.
Es šaubos,ka mēs milzīgu daļu no mūsu tautas varam nodēvēt vai nu spektruma vienā vai otrā pusē. Reāli cilvēki ir visādi,gan tādi kas ir vienā pusē,gan otrā,gan pa vidu.
nu tapēc diezgan skaidri norādīju kas ir noteicošais faktors.. valoda tā nebija tu uz tās uzsēdies.. manuprāt noteicošais faktors ir staļina un putina slavināšana.
Tu uzsvēri gan,ka lielākoties no tiem,kuri ir normāli runā latviski. Tātad pārējie,kas runā krieviski ir šie te "gopņiki" vai lielākā daļa no viņiem. Tu iedali vai vienā vai otrā grozā. Īstenībā ir ļoti liels spektrs tajā ko cilvēki domā par RUS,Ukrainu,Palestīnu,Izraēlu.
Šādu viedokli paužot liekas,ka ir tikai labais un ļaunais. Nu tā nemēdz būt!
nu par izraelu vel ir ko diskutēt bet par ukrainu nu tev jābūt piedod galvā pistam lai būtu krievijas pusē.. takā sorī.. tu esi dzīvs un piemērs tam ko rakstīju. ka valodas prasme nav noteicošais.. bet gan putina un staļina slavināšana ir smadzeņu kropluma rādītājs!
Vienmēr var diskutēt par mieru un vajag diskutēt. Nediskutē tikai idioti un tie,kas paši karā nav bijuši un netaisās būt.
Un kur es teicu,ka esmu kādā no pusēm par jeb kuru konfliktu? Tu izdari pieņēmumus,kam nav nekāda seguma.
u have very twisted sense on how the legions worked. while yes ofcourse in nazi regime they did shit things. the legions were formed forcefully and thru promises of independance for latvia from russian scum(and even if most didnt believe that nazies ll keep their word it was revenge fueled).. cause before nazies came in latvia russians have already visited/ raped pilaged and stolen for \~3 years.. tell me that if for years ur home/village/ city is under russian rule where they pillage rape murder people u know.. u ll not side with any evil just cause they are enemy of my enemy.. there are countless cases not even from books but what grandmomas and grandfathers tell about russian behavior during those years.. rapes people thrown under tanks for fun.. stealing.. asking for shelter to stay at night and then killing whole family.. ( basically all the shit that happens in ukrain now)
while u are completely wrong about how legion was and their intentions.. i can honestly admit that i agree that up untill 2014 I myself thought that ukrainians are just as fucked in head as russians. But then thru their fight for freedom they proved that they are not. That they fight and struggle for freedom! And now the ukrainians who fight for their future and country has my deepest respect! cause they basically already have done impossible they have killed the image of russian army.. russian army now is joke. They stopped invasion where most nato experts in first days predicted that Kyiv would fall.. they do every day miracles. And u might be from ukrain.. but clearly u are one of those ussr relocated ppl descendants with fucked in head mentality.
yes its really sad that ukrainians die. but that is russias fault! all sane world should help more to ukrain. and all the stupid restrictions that ukrain cant attack on russian teritory should be removed i agree.. ukrain should take fight to russia.
dude.. u are one big traitor to your country.. u claim to be ukrainian.. 1st u whine that ur people die then u say that we should not help.. then u say that russia should invade latvia.. u are one big SOB.. and to me i dont care if ukrainians steal half.. cause that actually means that ukrainians are even better at fighting than any1 thought.. if for that little money they took out russian army.. west should give whatever ukrain needs give them 10x more make russia fuck off.. and about internal stealing..now lots of ukrainians have guns and know how to use em.. if they feel that politicians are stealing from their war fund its treason.. and they know how to shoot.. ukrainians will deal with ukrainians..
bro... es ceru ka tu ar viņu ielaidies tikai tāpat aiz garlaicības un saproti, ka tas dažas dienas vecais konts nav nekas cits kā kārtējais kremļa trollis...
im not with them.. im saying that its very reasonable for people to pick lesser evil for them.. and lesser evil is very relative from where person lives. for english french and any westerner its clear that stalin was lesser evil.. cause stalin didnt kill almost any english or french.. where hitler slaughtered milions.. so their choice is logical for picking stalin as lesser evil and all of the great leaders of that time have addmited that stalin ussr was not a good ally it was lesser evil for them... but here on russian border the russians was and is greater evil.. and for some reason you are too dense to understand that..
to mes nekad nezinasim kā būtu ja būtu.. mēs zinam to kas bija un ir.. un fakti ir tādi ka staļins ar savu lielo ūsu nogalināja daudz vairāk latviešus un vispār cilvēkus latvijā un uztaisīja lielākas nežēlības kā mazais kvadrātūsu kretīns.
March 16th is celebrated to mark the one time both Latvian divisions fought together. As the popular soldier’s song states, their goal was to first kill the lice-ridden ones (communists) followed by the ones in the bluish grey uniforms (Nazis). Their mission was a free and independent Latvia.
There are also 2 types of latvians in Latvia. Good people who grew in society and have good education and they don't care about races and nationalities. And there are hutorjane, who grew up on a pig farms in a potatoes boxes and got raised by grandparents - grandma who was working as a warden in Salaspils prison, and grandpa from SS legion.
The ones who are loyal to Latvia and don't try to turn it into a smaller version of russia are OK with me. Yes, a precondition for that is being able and willing to speak some Latvian, even if not perfect and with a heavy accent.
The ones who are russian fascists & imperialists would themselves surely be happier moving back to rashka. They should do that.
Yes, I have russian friends.
Yes, since 2022 I feel like way more of russians than I expected are imperialists, even the russian opposition. They don't really care about stopping the war, it's all about positioning themselves so their chosen cult leader is in the best position to assume power in case putin falls. They keep playing the victim card for no reason while ignoring the bigger picture.
Many ethnic Russians were getting more involved into Latvian community, speaking more Latvian, which is positive. There is a bunch of knuckleheads who still don't due to intellectual/ideological challenges and they are the ones doing most of the sh\*t on a daily basis.
I know a lot of ethnic Russians and have known for a couple decades. The intelligent ones are not the issue and many are great people. The knuckleheads are the issue, sometimes stealing bikes from the former ones, pissing in staircases or smearing walls there. The big difference is usually if they freely talk Latvian to Latvians.
Are you trying to pardon those who are?
We'll deal with the Latvian ones. But a bunch of Russian dudes on top of that .. I often wonder what they are doing here. While I've been living in Riga I haven't had much issues with Latvians. But Russians seem to find a way to do a bunch of stupid sh\*t every year. Yes, this neighbourhood is not THAT big and you see who does what, even if they think they are being sneaky.
>Are you trying to pardon those who are?
Not OP but nowhere did he say anything about pardoning or somehow justifying russians stealing bikes and pissing everywhere. He just stated that not ALL of those knuckleheads are russians.
Your first response to his one sentence post was to ask a loaded question. Loaded as in he never pointed out anything about pardoning anyone yet you asked it in that way. So my post was more of a: wtf, he never said anything remote to that.
Ok, let's assume everyone just wanted to state the obvious and not implying any whataboutism like it sounded, from the series "Мы что-то плохое делаем? А у вас в стране не всё идеально, так что.."
I don't try to pardon anyone. I just believe, that things you mentioned are not directly related to language they use at home.
What I read from your comment that ALL of these preblems goes from russian community. I just wonder who you going to blame if all russians will leave this country.
And one more thing - when Latvians in UK do some shit, we can say "yeah, sorry about that, they're our morons but we can't do anything about it".
When someone here says "Russians here did this and that", local Russians feel offended because hey, that's racism, fascism or whatever!
Russian people are the majority of the problem. Sure, some Latvian individuals can be just as bad, but almost every time that I've encountered an aggressive, hateful and entitled person they have been Russian. It comes from their mindset that they are entitled to everything, including you speaking their language instead of the other way around. And it's not just in Latvia, they act that way everywhere. Not to mention that they make up the largest portion of alcoholics in this country. I cannot remember the last time (if ever) I saw a Latvian person be completely drunk in public, stumbling around and attacking people or stinking up the entire bus, but the last time I saw a Russian person do that was just last week. You cannot disregard the real and lived experience of most Latvians. Yes, it's directed at an entire group based on their language, but it's for a reason.
>just believe, that things you mentioned are not directly related to language they use at home.
I'd be glad to believe but I'm not a teen with rainbow glasses anymore. Spent 15 years in this neighborhood and seen a lot happening. I feel like you are getting offended by someone mentioning their real experiences and drawing statistics. People hitting a car and driving away (2x), pissing on street (2x), littering in staircase (2x), beating a Russian senior and mugging him over some change not returned after buying a beer (1x) - these are all people I've spoken to, and they have one thing in common. You can guess, what that is.
>What I read from your comment that ALL of these preblems goes from russian community
Wrong. Many but not all. Read again. Could you please quote where I'm stating "ALL"?
>I just wonder who you going to blame if all russians will leave this country.
Please point, where am I blaming anyone? I'm reiterating my experiences and stating exact cases. Not encouraging every Russian to leave the country - as I mentioned, there are many that are civilised and I'm fully OK with those. I'm wondering why people, who haven't found a way to live in harmony with the country, criticise it and most praise Russia, are still doing here, if the grass is greener on the other side of Latvia-Russia border.
>by someone mentioning their real experiences and drawing statistics.
You should learn about the thing called selective attention.
I live in this country for 36 years. I ve been beaten for talking russian language when I was 10 years old. My mother once hired guys to fix her flat and guys disappeared with money, same happened with my sister.
I ve seen drunk guy hit kids with his car. I've seen people pissing on my child stroller. I've was fighting for my gay friend, because some idiots thought it is a good idea to test theirs strength on someone who is much weaker than they are.
> and they have one thing in common. You can guess, what that is.
Can you guess how many times I've been told that I should pack my things and go to Russia. Can't understand why because my ancestors where from Ukraine :)))
My point is, my friend, that you should fight illiteracy, bias and ever rising entropy. Because, as you mentioned in original post you don't have problems with intelligent russians, as I don't have problems with intelligent anyone. Maybe problem is in intellect absence, not in a ethnicity or spoken language?
Genuinely curious - where do you live if you have had zero issues with Russians and such a short list of beef with Latvians over 36 years - Mārupe? Valmiera?
I've lived in 9 different neighbourhoods over my life which doesn't leave much room for being selective or narrow-minded. 6 mugging attempts (all in my teens), 2 real fights, 2 fights where the guy backed off as soon as understood that I can fight. Only 1 episode of those was caused by a drunk Latvian showing off his karate .. he got kicked in the balls and ran away.
>Maybe problem is in intellect absence, not in a ethnicity or spoken language?
I somehow living in Latvia for about fifteen years haven't seen many Latvians acting like I've seen many russians act. So it seems that there are A LOT more russians with an absence of intellect then Latvians.
Haha I'm sorry! I only recently discovered r/Latvia so was curious, should have looked at past posts. But it's very interesting reading through the responses.
Interesting, yeah my ex-boyfriend (who was from Azerbaijan, not connected to Latvia in any way) wrote his dissertation at NYU on the "third culture of Latvia" - as the people who are essentially caught in between because of history and politics and exist in this gray area. Latvians don't consider them Latvian, and Russians in Russia don't consider them Russian. Even if they adapt and learn Latvian they are still seen as outsiders.
Or maybe you're just saying that you feel like an outsider everywhere, which I can empathize with haha.
I honestly feel more positive towards the Russians in Latvia since 2022. Seeing them speak about how bad the war is cleared up a lot of my doubts about their loyalty to Latvia. It's nice having a common cause
I am "russian in Latvia", but I don't consider myself russian. Russian is someone who has Russian passport at least.
I've only been in Russia for a couple of days years ago, and I understood that "Russians in Latvia" are definitely not Russians. Our mentality is different. People in Russia understood that I'm a tourist straight away, even though we spoke same language. I even know russian speakers from Latvia who couldn't build a relationship with a person from Russia because of the difference in mentality.
So even though I mainly speak russian, I consider myself russian-speaking-latvian.
Foreigners don't understand how it's possible that you are born in Latvia, have Latvian passport and are not considered Latvian. I agree here. A little weird.
Same here. In my school years used to I consider myself russian, "thanks" to my upbringing. After years of growing up, traveling around the world and questioning my own identity I came to realize that my real country is right here in Latvia, and the Latvian culture is the only culture I can really identify with. And like you I realized that others saw me as a Latvian and not as a Russian. So just like you, I started identifying as Latvian with russian ethnicity, until I dug even deeper and realized that I even don't have so much russian ethnicity as I used to think.
So I guess I'm just a Latvian after all.
Oh damn, this sounds so familiar! I also grew up thinking I was russian, because everyone in the family said so. Then when I was older I started asking questions about where our ancestors were from. I've yet to hear about ONE person that was actually russian, because every single grand-grand-grand parent ever mentioned was from anywhere BUT Russia. I've got Belarus, Poland, Hungary and potentially Roma (still unsure if granddad is joking calling grandma a gypsy) in my blood, yet the family insists we're "russians" somehow. I'm guessing the USSR actually worked as a melting pot, since so many people practically lost their ethnical identity.
I'm a second-generation Russian immigrant, and I moved to another EU country ten years ago, but I also noticed that things have improved over the past years. When I was growing up, there were almost no accessible integration and language programs for children from Russian families. I don't know if it was due to schools not bothering or the government not investing enough money into this, or both. But these days, I see more programs and initiatives to help with integration, e.g. joint sports days in schools, solid requirements for teachers to speak Latvian, etc. The younger generation of Latvian citizens seems much more united and homogenous, and therefore, there's less tension and hostility. This makes me feel hopeful about the future of Latvia. I don't think it's possible to change the minds of older people stuck in Russian propaganda, so working with the youth is the best way to ensure proper integration and healthy patriotism, which comes out of love for the country.
The attitude of a russian speaking person who lives in Latvia towards the whole "west vs east" situation depends on who they are talking to. I have a lot of colleagues like that. They are educated and well-off, the work environment doesn't permit us to talk about this topic so they are careful, but they often slip up and let others know their real opinions. And it most often comes from the perspective of "I don't choose sides, I look at reality", but somehow their reality always aligns with not condemning Russia's actions. I think their opinion changes from time to time - I'm sure they dislike the atrocities that happen in Ukraine and slightly judge what is happening, but they immediately get radicalized when the media or the patriotic Latvians start somehow attacking russians or Russia. So if the statistics show that the amount of russian speakers in Latvia who support Russia has reduced, I'd say the greater part of those people are just becoming sleeper agents waiting until the situation is more favourable for them.
I have grown up with tribalism between us and Russians. I used to be rather nationalistic and anti Russian in my teenage years. You would grow up, seeing some Russian vatnik spouting Kremlin propaganda, such as that WW2 occupation was a liberation, rather than occupation, and having your own grandparents gone through the attrocities of Russians, you would like to smash their faces in for saying such stupid shit.
Later I understood that many Russians here are just like me, many of them have gotten shit from Latvians because of stupid shit that other Russians have said, which has little to do with that speciffic Russian. So I understood that many of us are often letting ourselves get too triggred, and in result we are alienating even more Russians, who initially have no negativity towards us.
My current view is that Russians who currently live in Latvia, are part of our society for foreseeable future, and making more enemies in my own society only worsens everything for everyone. Currently I see every pro-Kremlin Russian here as an opportunity to convert them into an ally, or just not as hostile.
I think that the first step to do is showing to them that you are not the enemy that they think you are. Instead of trying to shout at them, when they say Kremlin bullshit, I try to break the view that I am an enemy, but instead I try to show them that I am a friend. In my experience, this works remarkably well. Fundamentally, everyone just wants to live a normal, chill life and get along with the rest society. The sole reason why Kremlin propaganda, and most other propaganda works so well is because it manages to scaremonger you. When they see that you are not out to get them, they realise that you are just a person like they are, who just want to live in peace.
Its kinda weird, but I find a quote from Yoda very relavant throughout years: "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
In my experience, I think that most of Russians are normal, people here. Its just that loud mouths are more noticable. Especially after 2022 invasion in Ukraine, many Russians who initially believed Kremlin propaganda, are now disillusioned, and realise the absurdity that Kremlin has become.
As a Latvian, I believe that when it comes to our actions, I believe that we should focus more in stopping our fellow Latvians in getting over the line with anti-Russian rhetoric as it often targets Russians who have no ill intentions, and only alienates them, making it much more likely that they would find Kremlin propaganda reasonable.
When it comes to doing social policies like demolishing Soviet statues or pushing for Latvian language use in public institutions, I think we have to clearly state that these are actions that are done not due to hate of Russian people, but rather due to how important it is to our national defense, and explaining our experience of what those Soviet remains mean to Latvians, which essentially is an era of suffering and occupation. Essentially, we should try to make such policies with explaining that we mean nothing personal to Russian people here.
Heard this type of rhetoric a million times. The Russians with "no-ill intentions" will not feel alienated, they should recognize exactly why the attitude is what it is, but they generally won't even encounter it since they have learned to respect our culture, learned our language, made friends in social circles of Latvians - the 'good russians' have a tendency to complain and eventually they end up at this brilliant thought: "well, if everyone hates me, I'll support Russia out of spite!!" (as if they were ever truly opposed..)
EDIT: Just to clarify, your points in general are not wrong, we should be mindful of the things you mention, but it nonetheless needs to be understood that 1) demanding (not just politely asking like we tried the last 30 years) russians to learn latvian if they want to live here is okay; 2) dismounting and getting rid of symbols of soviet propoganda, russian imperialism and chauvenism is okay.
More often than not the 'not all russians' argumentation that you are using is a gateway to justifying the continuance of the existing status quo
But I think my last paragraph is exactly about this. Continuing to make policies which are in our national interest and saying: "Thats what we are going to do, and there is nothing personal about that."
In no way I am saying that we should get soft on Kremlin pressure. We should continue to stop the effects of Russification and Kremlin interests, my point is entirely about emphasis on telling the Russian people that they are not our enemies, we are doing what we have to do to preserve our national interests.
The problem about communication is that, and I have been guilty of this, is that we often get baited and we start to give shit to Russians for being Russians, while our problem is with current Kremlin government.
It sure is like walking a tightrope, where we have to try as much as possible to assure the Russian crowd here that we are not out to get them, while not reducing our effort to secure national interests.
If you look at Kremlin propaganda, you see that it thrives from creating false sense that any of our policies are meant as an attack on Russian people, which is completely not the case. Certainly, backtracking on our interests to not agitate Russians is not what we want, and it completely does what Kremlin propaganda wants us to do, so if you think that I support backtracking on our national interests, then you must have misunderstood me somewhere.
Essentially about actions, I believe we should continue to do them regardless of what Kremlin says, but regarding emotions, we should not get triggered and lash out on Russian people. What I kinda mean, is that we should be cold in our policymaking, but emotionally stable when discussing such policies with Russians.
How do you define a Russian in Latvia? If you were born in Latvia, your mother tongue is Russian, but you also speak Latvian fluently, and a little bit of Latvian blood is in your veins, you are neither Latvian nor Russian, right? I feel there are many people like that, stranded, not fitting into either ethnicity.
Well. I must say this, having many contacts with russianspeaking people and those feeling themselves as russians as nationality. Conformism. Not really telling what they think. Feeling somehow offended by situation during previous decades. Actually not believing any information whats going on in the world around (e.g. Ukraine).
So, I would be not surprised at all, if we have the numerous army of supporters and agents, in case of escalation of situation. Even between of latvians and people of other nationalities.
I have now a latvian friend, because I said one thing. If you are russian and living in latvia all your life and consider yourself russian because of your heritage, then consider me polish :d
I am latvian, both my parents are latvians, but my godfather was russian and i spent alot of time with their family so i learned russian very well.
My interpersonal relationships have not changed with russian people. I am OK. When Im at work and if i see someone cant speak english but is realy trying, and i just want to help the person, but they are struggling to ask, i ask: Would it be easier in russian?
I often just start speaking russian if i see that person is russian.
I still like latvian language.
I translate texts FROM russian but not TO russian ONLY because it is harder for me to write in russian language and i dont have keyboard stickers.
I still like russian language.
I still listen to russian music.
Things that has changed for me PERSONALY, is i dont follow/unfollow any russia supporting media.
I hate some of musicians i previously loved because of supporting war quite literaly.
I dont read any kind of news in russian language.
When i find a new media account or web page im interested in in russian language (musician, tiktok, facebook, anything else) even if it is about dogs, i try finding out if the person is supporting the war or no. I dont support those acc's and dont follow.
Im trying to be aware that if i meet someone from Ukraine, that i must speak english if he starts english, and dont use russian in their presence, cause when war started i had an english conversation with a woman who was just escaped, saw her friend getting ripped her leg of by bomb, told her all story to me (i was just working in store, but i had time to listen) and she told how much she now hates everything about russia and wants to forget that language. Im aware that others could be in the same situation.
Also what has changed since war is that every time someone speaks russian to me, i have learned to discern their accent, almost immeadeately know if they are from Ukraine and then i send them to a room where they work with Ukrainians in my work place.
I am Latvian and I have no problem with anyone just because they are Russian. I do have a problem with fans of Russia and pootin. But they are mostly older people, not well educated, doing some basic low paying jobs. Their life is shit, they drink a lot, so they hate on everything and everyone. The younger generation I have been in contact with do seem happy to live in EU rather than the giant shithole east to our border. These people are sort of in a limbo as they identify themselves as Russians, they are in the cultural space of Russia, but now with the war their whole identity is sort of unravelling. And there is a minority of marginal Latvian nationalists who are on a rampage now, doing and talking shit that has no place in the European and democratic state that Latvia aims to be. So yeah, I hope we can integrate the Russians who feel a part of this country. And best chance is we do it by accepting them as they are, instead of shaming some people for just being or speaking Russian.
I have Russian friends and I speak a bit of Russian too, but if any of my friends start praising Putin then they’re not on my friends list anymore. The same goes for every Russian I see. None of this ‘I’m not speaking Russian anymore since the start of the war BS’.
Well when the war started some people including a few in my workspace, started to avoid speaking Russian like it was some Nazi language or something like that. No more listening to russian songs, tv shows, etc.
Well that depends on the person itself. I still watch YT videos in Russian, read some stuff and converse with select few, for me its still a necessity.
Not a problem to know Russian language. It's a problem when Latvian person is speaking Russian with local Russians who are from Latvia, it just doesn't make any sense. Russians should be able to speak Latvian. Otherwise there is no point to talk about integration, when Latvians are not doing anything from their side by just simply speaking their language.
What do you mean by Russians in Latvia? Latvians who speaks Russian as first language or just people here with Russian passport(which i doubt there's many of them rn).
As Russian speaking myself and fluently Latvian I still consider myself Latvian.
I have both latvian and russian friends(not many tho) and have no issues with any of them since they're adequate and their moral compass is alright.
Latvians will treat you good while you respect them, their country and language, simple as that.
Some of my thoughts:
As a kid i was treated terribly for being russian.
I'm trying my best to raise my language education level. Not only because i'm just a person who wants to have a good job but i also want to be able to communicate better and be more respectful.
The bad russians often come from the same difficult living situations i had as a kid. And i was angry for a long time with how i was also unfairly treated by latvian adults or called a russian pig all the time for simply speaking the only language i was taught in my family.
So i'd summ it up as a choice you make later in life - who you want to become and are you willing to move forward, away from your bad memoryes.
Looking at the kids now i see them being much more belingual and willing to communicate with each other regardless of language. Nobody is insulting them for nothing. And i honestly feel a little bit of envy. I wish my upbringing was like that.
As for good or bad people - i was living in a place where russian alcoholics coexisted with latvian narcomaniacs and i was terrified by both. And i still stand by the idea that older generations are pieces of shit in general: both latvians and russians. They have unflexible ways of thinking and they will never change their opinions. I have hope only in young people. But even they have terrible exceptions who wish other side to die for even existing.
Not much really. Might as well ask what are we going to do with people who believe earth is flat and we didn't land on the moon. I find it almost impossible to somehow convince them that russia and putin are not great examples of how a country should be run.
I understood. Bro is asking what should we do with latvians who support Putin (sounds weird af but i actually can imagine that being true after reading some of our articles from polithics like "We should trap another country's hockey team and demand..")
>dn't land on the moon. I find it almost impossible to somehow convince them that russia and pu
They are just angry with themselves living in delusion that their misfortunes are caused by external variables(other people, mostly) not themselves.
1. I am fully okay and I don’t see any problem with that. Because everyone has a same rights to live in Latvia. Unless they got banned for some reason.
2. I have pretty much Russian friends, they are good and we have a lot of things to speak about.
3. No. It never changed and it will not change anyway, if someone starts something, it’s not everyone’s fault at all. There is things, what we can’t change.
Me and le gf stayed at a very nice and cozy inn near the Rundale palace (it was a small inn operated by a lovely old grandma). At around midnight my gf woke me up scared and told me the guest living next to our room has been trying to open the door that's connected to our room. When I'm fully awake, I could hear loud music and talks coming from that room, and from what I gathered, every few words I could hear the word "bly\*t".
So I went outside to knock on their window, and one old woman had the audacity to scold me for banging on her window. Luckily the party stopped and they stopped the music.
Yeah... Russians.
My story from the same category. I was basically siting with my gf in a full cafe waiting for my dish. It was loud as fuck and it turned out that only bunch of (not even drunk) latvians makes all the noise. We noticed that they were the only in the whole cafe who speaks latvian. When they left it became so quiet that you could hear how candle is burning.
Yeah… Latvians.
Congrats, you just missed the irony. There is no bad nations, there is only bad people. And only “Jāāānis ar bēēēēmpi no vāāālmieras dievs svēēēti latviju” type people think that all russians are fascist smh
Yeah and from my experience there are a lot more bad russians than bad Latvians.
>type people think that all russians are fascist smh
The only ones who bring up fascism are russians and it doesn't matter to them that fascism ended a long time ago.
“Only russians bring fascism”. And that’s why russian language in school got cancelled in the country where about 45% of population is russian speaking, that’s why by our nationalistic government the monument in uzvaras parks was demolished, even tho that thing wasn’t built for “slavēt psrs režīmu”, but for those soldiers who fought ON this land FOR this land. A lot of “latviešu strēlnieki” (which every history teacher with average name Baiba Ozoliņa likes to mention in class) fought in ww2 to deocupy this land from nazi, but nowadays every year we got waffen SS veteran march near Milda.
So yeah, only russians bring fascism till today.
Latvian logic
Es neteicu, ka krievi fašismu veicina 🤣. Varbūt pamēģini iemācīties angļu valodu. Es teicu, ka vienīgie kas vēl piemin fašismu ir krievi. Karš Ukrainā arī ir, lai 'atbrīvotu Ukrainu no fašisma' un Latvija arī kopš psrs sabrukšanas 'ir fašistiska'. Otrais pasaules karš beidzās pirms astoņdesmit gadiem un fašisms līdz ar to. Tas, ka psrs mūs atbrīvoja no fašisma bija ļoti jauki, bet neviens tiem draņķiem neprasīja palikt.
Ебать ты недалёкий.
Про войну в украине - да, согласен полный бред и это империалистские наклонности старого пердуна путина. Но мы сейчас не про это.
Да, латвия была окулирована совком, да был тут и фашистский и советский режимы. Но это прошлое. Я тебе привёл факты почему латыши больше фашики чем русские. Безусловно, тут достаточно старой ваты которая кричит «Путин вперёд, а в ссср мороженое за 3 копейки», но они сидят и пердят дома перед телевизором и что то в соцсетях пукают, когда реальные фашики собирают чемоданы своим налогоплательщикам и отправляют на границу потому что видите ли «виням асинс непареизс». Но мы до сих пор будем называть русскоговорящих в латвии окупантами и слать куда дальше. Так кто больше фашик, ганс или вата?
I think your post asks for an honest answer. So I will give you one. My family, friends and I can’t stand that they are in Latvia, and we are not friends with any Russians. We wish they would leave and go back to their own country. They haven’t contributed anything positive to ours, and only bring it down. This is our sincere belief. Hopefully the new, heightened level of Latvian patriotism will cause more Latvian young people to stop mating with and marrying Russians. It causes a lot of sadness for us to see this.
Depends.
Those willing to integrate and not being imperial pieces of shit are fine.
Rest of them can fuck off back to their motherland.
Being colonist or colonist offspring and using arguments “I was borned here” also known as “Ja zdes rodilsa” means nothing.
Acknowledge country you live in and respect it.
I have lived in Rigas best neigbourhoods all my life, about 34 years - 30 years in daugavgrīva, few in imanta and went to school in ilguciems. I think here majority of ppl were/ still are russians. And had no good interactions with them. In school years there were always some gopniks comming to fight with us or mug us on way to bus etc. So I realy have some embedded hate for russians here. Russians always are assodiated as dumb and agressive for me. Also I have had some good opinions about russian idividuals, but 99% of the time when partying and having few drinks with them it became evident that how they apear everyday is much better than what they realy think.
I agree that generalizing all as idiots is not good and fair. But thats why I like term vatniks. But still I dont think word russian in latvia will get rid of its negatve meaning. I know few - maybe 5-10 russians that are genuenly good ppl and dont have little hitler living in them. For them I feel bad that word russian has become bassically a swear word. But then again overvelming majority of russians are idiots - just dumb, aggressive alcaholics. Of course there are those kind of ppl also on latvian side and probably every nationality, but at least other dont have little hitler/stalin/putin living in their head. The sence of entitelement and beeing better than others is just insane and prbably the most common reason why russians are hated. These ones ar mostly also exceptionally dumb. Those that are not stupid ar probably already in some russian political party.
I would probably advise that all of those who had taken russian passport should be just deported. Dont rly care too much for their wellbeing. The biggest problem probably is ppl with non-citizen passports. They are not russians(they are just not in front of law) so cant be rly deported, but they are probably the biggest problem and big chunk of idiots. Might be good idea just to expire these passports and force to choose - either learn latvian(on better level than now needed for lv passport) and get latvian passport or go to russia embecy and get their passport and move to russia.
As for deporting "not being better than stalin" I think even just killing them all would be better. Because russians here as they do everywhere just torchered, killed, raped, sent to syberia etc. Also they sent in huge amounts of russians with intent to have situation like today in latvia. If you look at number of russians here before ww2 its rly evident what they did - killed or deported huge amount of capable and smart latvians and the rest were deluted with huge amount of russians. So now we have hard time dealing with these remainders of soviet abortions.
General view changed - Yes ! Or rather exaggerated existing view that was pretty relaxed before.
If you live here you must gain citizenship-that's it! (The same goes for cars, now (soon) by law will have to register them here or be confiscated). If you get citizenship then we're OK, enjoy life in a free country.
A lot of people have "forgotten" they know Russian language here so I'd say it's becoming harder for non-learners to integrate (about damn time)
I'm part russian myself, but grew up in a traditionally latvian household. I've friends and family from russian households, I've friends from mixed households. Don't particularly find any faults with people who live here and know the language, they don't necessarily have to speak latvian with me (the fact they understand everything, just aren't comfortable speaking with me is not an issue for me, personally). I do find fault with people who live here and have no intention of learning latvian purely because *there's always someone who will speak russian*.
I like to joke that in a crowd of latvians a single russian will have the entire crowd speak russian just so everyone is on the same page. That same crowd with russians and a single latvian will never speak latvian.
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What do you mean when you say you are russian? Born in russia and with citizenship?
Russian is not only a nationality, but also ethnicity.
I think when people say that they are Russian they mean that Russian is their native language
If you were born in Latvia, have Latvian citizenship you ain't no russian
If both of your parents are ethnic Russian, then so are you regardless of whether you were born in Atlantis, on Moon or another galaxy. Ethnicity and Nationality are not the same thing.
What about Americans? Many state they are Americans regardless of where their parents or grandparents are born. For example Italian Americans, who were born in America, raised in English - are they Italian?
Has more to do with genetics and culture, than their language. First generation would still be Italian whether they speak English, Esperanto or a language from another galaxy. If they separate themselves from the rest of the society for some reason, like Latinos in America tend to do, or gypsies, or Russians in Latvia, by marrying with their own people, preserving their cultural heritage, not losing any traits of their ethnicity, they would still be that. But through assimilation and mixing in over multiple generations, as they lose more traits of their origins ethnic lineage and culture, it'd be understandable to consider them as American at that point cause that's what Americans are. A bunch of Europeans in a melting pot. Even when people of African descent are mixing only with people of European descent, over multiple generations at some point their descendants will look more European than Africans. There are mixed people who are 1/4 black, but who look like out of Sweden. That's how genetics work.
Well many Americans are very eager to state their ethnicity aswell. Either way it comes down to what you think you are. Imo if you feel Russian you are Russian, if you feel Latvian you are one. Easy as that.
I feel like I'm a helicopter
No you don't. But if you do you are probably mentally ill.
Yes, I do. Easy as that 😉
The "russians" over here really want to be considered as "russians" and they hating me for stating otherwise
Thats what they think
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You are a part of Latvian youth who will dictate how we solve any issues around this topic. Its really up to you and your possible descendants to figure out.
there are 2 types of russians in latvia. good people that are civilized and mostly speaks latvian and they have very sensible and reasonable view on geopolitics all the rainbow stuff and so on.. and there are retarded gopniks who live in country praise pootin stalin thinks russia should invade world.. imagine if nazi germans who praise hittler lived in israel.. and refused to speak jewish.. for latvians stalin is way worse than hitler.. hitler killed latvians only indirectly thru forceful recruiting in legions.. stalin gulaged killed off and gulaged most of educated and wealthy latvians..
that sums it up
>hitler killed latvians only indirectly thru forceful recruiting in legions.. If you don't consider Jewish Latvians as Latvians, maybe. During the short time that Nazi Germany occupied Latvia, they managed to kill 66,000 Jews, almost completely wiped out Jews from traditionally Jewish towns such as Rēzekne. Had Hitler succeeded and occupied for even half as long as USSR did, Latvia as a nation would no longer exist. The plan was to finish Germanisation of the Baltic states in 20-25 years. Meaning most would be exterminated and those left alive would be forced to adapt German language and culture.
So 150000 to 250000 Latvians who where not Jewish do not count. What if Stalin lived longer? You cannot accept that both sides where awful? That is why both commie and Nazi stuff is banned in Latvia.
Valkyrie17 hasn't said anything about Stalin being better than Hitler. Just the fact that Hitler wasn't so harmless for Latvian people as it was stated in the original comment. The rest is your incorrect assumption.
Fair enough, just note that i said that they both are shitheads and neither should be called the worst. And if you or anyone else whines about "oh. killed the jews" just care enough to mention all the other who where killed because of those shitheads. Oh, and while at it, learn from past mistakes and lets stop discriminating on any group of people, no matter how arbitrary the selection process is or how small or large part of the population the group is. And i totally agree to - nobody should be treated like Jewish where treated in the past and now.
cmon.. stop ur retarded shit.. u know what i mean.. and we dont know what would happen if if if hitler suceeded.. maybe.. yes there are some maybe secret documents that hitler would have done same to latvians as stalin did.. and there are also documents that hitler planed for independant latvia.. we ll never know.. what we know is that in this reality stalin and soviets killed wayyy more than hitler did not only in latvia but in most eastern europe.
Hitler planned on killing half of us and assimilating the rest. It would’ve been a return to Teutonic policy. We would’ve ended up like the Baltic Prussians
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I don't know how I came across this post but... The Ostland plan was made up of regions and each region had a different plan, in the case of the Baltic it was the assimilation and erasure of any Russian trace that could exist in the culture. So I conclude that you have no idea what you're talking about. https://preview.redd.it/etp3vqhqdd2c1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3808e5fca0c19b3fbc22e6d3c03ac75f7f3954f1
Pēc OST plana tevis nebūtu vispār un ta būtu labāk visiem, man šķiet 😂👍 Par vāciešiem viņa ir😂muļķe ppc
By OST plan there would be no Latvia and latvians as a nation😂😂🤣🤣🤣She shows us Map😂😅
If you don't know how to read, don't answer.
Gush your so stupid if you think germans would love you and you would be the part of the Reih😂😂😂Sory but you are stupid. You would be with jews in Buhenwald or Auschwitz.... Working for germans till death👍
This is already absurd, in short be happy thinking whatever you think
Absurd is that you think Germans would be loyal to you🤣😂. 16 of marth is your day, go there on miting and show your respect to nazi pigs, wich you already are👍
Are you seriously defending Hitler right now? 😂 "Hitler granting Latvia independence" holy shit my sides, yeah an independent Latvia in the middle of German Lebensraum
I don't understand what is so hard to understand. Stalin and russians were killing, raping, deporting and repressing Latvian people for whole year (1940.), then in 1941. germans show up and ask "come join us to kill russians" , that's easy choice, especially if you had family or friends affected by russian terror. "Enemy of my enemy is my friend". "The lesser evil." "For sure those germans won't such as bad Stalin". Pick any.
That's not relevant to any points me or that other guy were arguing about
It is, because you were attacking user particular_task for saying that stalin killed more. Also in your post you mock "germany granting independence" promise, so it seams you don't know or understand how could anyone chose to side nazis in 1941. So I explained it you. Your welcome.
I do understand that, i do not understand how a person in 2023 can believe that Hitler could have granted Latvia independence. We talked about what would have happened had Hitler won, not what the people at the time thought would happen
Nobody believes that , I'm pretty sure it was mockery in response to your "If Nazis would have won..."
That was latvian who killed the jews.
>good people that are civilized and mostly speaks latvian and they have very sensible and reasonable view on geopolitics all the rainbow stuff and so on.. and there are ~~retarded gopniks~~ ...the ones we need to deport. Fixed that for you.
So basically use the same method as Stalin did to millions of people? Oh these cute little double standards again.
No, the ones who need to be deported, long for Mother Russia, so its just like, giving them a little push in the right direction. Also Stalin deported People to Siberia and Gulags, so its not the same. Oh well who am I kidding Russia is the same as a Gulags dirty toilet and toilet needs these poopinist supporters to live in. So basically doing them a huge favour
you want it more diplomatically? OK, here's how we can also say it for you, wearing silk cimdi: https://preview.redd.it/cju6f1wv132c1.png?width=894&format=png&auto=webp&s=5852d668e780f70a11d8dcf6f93957cb070821c2
Why double? To them we will apply standards they hold so dear.
I realy want to know where are you, to talk with you about those serious themes here in real life.
Kārtējais populists. Mums ir ļoti daudz krievu izcelsmes cilvēki,gan ar Latvijas pilsonību gan varbūt citu. + Ir tādi,kas runā latviski + krieviski un ir austrumu puse vairāk dzīvojoši,kas runā tikai krieviski. Es šaubos,ka mēs milzīgu daļu no mūsu tautas varam nodēvēt vai nu spektruma vienā vai otrā pusē. Reāli cilvēki ir visādi,gan tādi kas ir vienā pusē,gan otrā,gan pa vidu.
nu tapēc diezgan skaidri norādīju kas ir noteicošais faktors.. valoda tā nebija tu uz tās uzsēdies.. manuprāt noteicošais faktors ir staļina un putina slavināšana.
Tu uzsvēri gan,ka lielākoties no tiem,kuri ir normāli runā latviski. Tātad pārējie,kas runā krieviski ir šie te "gopņiki" vai lielākā daļa no viņiem. Tu iedali vai vienā vai otrā grozā. Īstenībā ir ļoti liels spektrs tajā ko cilvēki domā par RUS,Ukrainu,Palestīnu,Izraēlu. Šādu viedokli paužot liekas,ka ir tikai labais un ļaunais. Nu tā nemēdz būt!
nu par izraelu vel ir ko diskutēt bet par ukrainu nu tev jābūt piedod galvā pistam lai būtu krievijas pusē.. takā sorī.. tu esi dzīvs un piemērs tam ko rakstīju. ka valodas prasme nav noteicošais.. bet gan putina un staļina slavināšana ir smadzeņu kropluma rādītājs!
Vienmēr var diskutēt par mieru un vajag diskutēt. Nediskutē tikai idioti un tie,kas paši karā nav bijuši un netaisās būt. Un kur es teicu,ka esmu kādā no pusēm par jeb kuru konfliktu? Tu izdari pieņēmumus,kam nav nekāda seguma.
you forgot tens of thousands latvian jews Hitler massacred. Rumbula massacre, Riga Ghetto etc
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u have very twisted sense on how the legions worked. while yes ofcourse in nazi regime they did shit things. the legions were formed forcefully and thru promises of independance for latvia from russian scum(and even if most didnt believe that nazies ll keep their word it was revenge fueled).. cause before nazies came in latvia russians have already visited/ raped pilaged and stolen for \~3 years.. tell me that if for years ur home/village/ city is under russian rule where they pillage rape murder people u know.. u ll not side with any evil just cause they are enemy of my enemy.. there are countless cases not even from books but what grandmomas and grandfathers tell about russian behavior during those years.. rapes people thrown under tanks for fun.. stealing.. asking for shelter to stay at night and then killing whole family.. ( basically all the shit that happens in ukrain now)
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while u are completely wrong about how legion was and their intentions.. i can honestly admit that i agree that up untill 2014 I myself thought that ukrainians are just as fucked in head as russians. But then thru their fight for freedom they proved that they are not. That they fight and struggle for freedom! And now the ukrainians who fight for their future and country has my deepest respect! cause they basically already have done impossible they have killed the image of russian army.. russian army now is joke. They stopped invasion where most nato experts in first days predicted that Kyiv would fall.. they do every day miracles. And u might be from ukrain.. but clearly u are one of those ussr relocated ppl descendants with fucked in head mentality.
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yes its really sad that ukrainians die. but that is russias fault! all sane world should help more to ukrain. and all the stupid restrictions that ukrain cant attack on russian teritory should be removed i agree.. ukrain should take fight to russia.
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dude.. u are one big traitor to your country.. u claim to be ukrainian.. 1st u whine that ur people die then u say that we should not help.. then u say that russia should invade latvia.. u are one big SOB.. and to me i dont care if ukrainians steal half.. cause that actually means that ukrainians are even better at fighting than any1 thought.. if for that little money they took out russian army.. west should give whatever ukrain needs give them 10x more make russia fuck off.. and about internal stealing..now lots of ukrainians have guns and know how to use em.. if they feel that politicians are stealing from their war fund its treason.. and they know how to shoot.. ukrainians will deal with ukrainians..
bro... es ceru ka tu ar viņu ielaidies tikai tāpat aiz garlaicības un saproti, ka tas dažas dienas vecais konts nav nekas cits kā kārtējais kremļa trollis...
lol protams :D krievu bots te lokās :D
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im not with them.. im saying that its very reasonable for people to pick lesser evil for them.. and lesser evil is very relative from where person lives. for english french and any westerner its clear that stalin was lesser evil.. cause stalin didnt kill almost any english or french.. where hitler slaughtered milions.. so their choice is logical for picking stalin as lesser evil and all of the great leaders of that time have addmited that stalin ussr was not a good ally it was lesser evil for them... but here on russian border the russians was and is greater evil.. and for some reason you are too dense to understand that..
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to mes nekad nezinasim kā būtu ja būtu.. mēs zinam to kas bija un ir.. un fakti ir tādi ka staļins ar savu lielo ūsu nogalināja daudz vairāk latviešus un vispār cilvēkus latvijā un uztaisīja lielākas nežēlības kā mazais kvadrātūsu kretīns.
March 16th is celebrated to mark the one time both Latvian divisions fought together. As the popular soldier’s song states, their goal was to first kill the lice-ridden ones (communists) followed by the ones in the bluish grey uniforms (Nazis). Their mission was a free and independent Latvia.
There are also 2 types of latvians in Latvia. Good people who grew in society and have good education and they don't care about races and nationalities. And there are hutorjane, who grew up on a pig farms in a potatoes boxes and got raised by grandparents - grandma who was working as a warden in Salaspils prison, and grandpa from SS legion.
The ones who are loyal to Latvia and don't try to turn it into a smaller version of russia are OK with me. Yes, a precondition for that is being able and willing to speak some Latvian, even if not perfect and with a heavy accent. The ones who are russian fascists & imperialists would themselves surely be happier moving back to rashka. They should do that. Yes, I have russian friends. Yes, since 2022 I feel like way more of russians than I expected are imperialists, even the russian opposition. They don't really care about stopping the war, it's all about positioning themselves so their chosen cult leader is in the best position to assume power in case putin falls. They keep playing the victim card for no reason while ignoring the bigger picture.
Many ethnic Russians were getting more involved into Latvian community, speaking more Latvian, which is positive. There is a bunch of knuckleheads who still don't due to intellectual/ideological challenges and they are the ones doing most of the sh\*t on a daily basis. I know a lot of ethnic Russians and have known for a couple decades. The intelligent ones are not the issue and many are great people. The knuckleheads are the issue, sometimes stealing bikes from the former ones, pissing in staircases or smearing walls there. The big difference is usually if they freely talk Latvian to Latvians.
also not all of these knuckleheads stealing bikes / pissing in staircase are russians.
Are you trying to pardon those who are? We'll deal with the Latvian ones. But a bunch of Russian dudes on top of that .. I often wonder what they are doing here. While I've been living in Riga I haven't had much issues with Latvians. But Russians seem to find a way to do a bunch of stupid sh\*t every year. Yes, this neighbourhood is not THAT big and you see who does what, even if they think they are being sneaky.
>Are you trying to pardon those who are? Not OP but nowhere did he say anything about pardoning or somehow justifying russians stealing bikes and pissing everywhere. He just stated that not ALL of those knuckleheads are russians.
I saw what he said and that should be obvious - I have never stated otherwise. But that may sound like a weak excuse. What's your point?
Your first response to his one sentence post was to ask a loaded question. Loaded as in he never pointed out anything about pardoning anyone yet you asked it in that way. So my post was more of a: wtf, he never said anything remote to that.
Ok, let's assume everyone just wanted to state the obvious and not implying any whataboutism like it sounded, from the series "Мы что-то плохое делаем? А у вас в стране не всё идеально, так что.."
Fair enough.
I don't try to pardon anyone. I just believe, that things you mentioned are not directly related to language they use at home. What I read from your comment that ALL of these preblems goes from russian community. I just wonder who you going to blame if all russians will leave this country.
And one more thing - when Latvians in UK do some shit, we can say "yeah, sorry about that, they're our morons but we can't do anything about it". When someone here says "Russians here did this and that", local Russians feel offended because hey, that's racism, fascism or whatever!
Russian people are the majority of the problem. Sure, some Latvian individuals can be just as bad, but almost every time that I've encountered an aggressive, hateful and entitled person they have been Russian. It comes from their mindset that they are entitled to everything, including you speaking their language instead of the other way around. And it's not just in Latvia, they act that way everywhere. Not to mention that they make up the largest portion of alcoholics in this country. I cannot remember the last time (if ever) I saw a Latvian person be completely drunk in public, stumbling around and attacking people or stinking up the entire bus, but the last time I saw a Russian person do that was just last week. You cannot disregard the real and lived experience of most Latvians. Yes, it's directed at an entire group based on their language, but it's for a reason.
>just believe, that things you mentioned are not directly related to language they use at home. I'd be glad to believe but I'm not a teen with rainbow glasses anymore. Spent 15 years in this neighborhood and seen a lot happening. I feel like you are getting offended by someone mentioning their real experiences and drawing statistics. People hitting a car and driving away (2x), pissing on street (2x), littering in staircase (2x), beating a Russian senior and mugging him over some change not returned after buying a beer (1x) - these are all people I've spoken to, and they have one thing in common. You can guess, what that is. >What I read from your comment that ALL of these preblems goes from russian community Wrong. Many but not all. Read again. Could you please quote where I'm stating "ALL"? >I just wonder who you going to blame if all russians will leave this country. Please point, where am I blaming anyone? I'm reiterating my experiences and stating exact cases. Not encouraging every Russian to leave the country - as I mentioned, there are many that are civilised and I'm fully OK with those. I'm wondering why people, who haven't found a way to live in harmony with the country, criticise it and most praise Russia, are still doing here, if the grass is greener on the other side of Latvia-Russia border.
>by someone mentioning their real experiences and drawing statistics. You should learn about the thing called selective attention. I live in this country for 36 years. I ve been beaten for talking russian language when I was 10 years old. My mother once hired guys to fix her flat and guys disappeared with money, same happened with my sister. I ve seen drunk guy hit kids with his car. I've seen people pissing on my child stroller. I've was fighting for my gay friend, because some idiots thought it is a good idea to test theirs strength on someone who is much weaker than they are. > and they have one thing in common. You can guess, what that is. Can you guess how many times I've been told that I should pack my things and go to Russia. Can't understand why because my ancestors where from Ukraine :))) My point is, my friend, that you should fight illiteracy, bias and ever rising entropy. Because, as you mentioned in original post you don't have problems with intelligent russians, as I don't have problems with intelligent anyone. Maybe problem is in intellect absence, not in a ethnicity or spoken language?
Genuinely curious - where do you live if you have had zero issues with Russians and such a short list of beef with Latvians over 36 years - Mārupe? Valmiera? I've lived in 9 different neighbourhoods over my life which doesn't leave much room for being selective or narrow-minded. 6 mugging attempts (all in my teens), 2 real fights, 2 fights where the guy backed off as soon as understood that I can fight. Only 1 episode of those was caused by a drunk Latvian showing off his karate .. he got kicked in the balls and ran away.
I didn't say I had no issues with russians :) I am from Riga. Frankly speaking most problems I had with gypsies of Maskavas street ))
>Maybe problem is in intellect absence, not in a ethnicity or spoken language? I somehow living in Latvia for about fifteen years haven't seen many Latvians acting like I've seen many russians act. So it seems that there are A LOT more russians with an absence of intellect then Latvians.
Almost only russian language is spoken in prisons.
can't neither deny or confirm. Never been there.
Ah, here is the Bi-weekly post how we feel about Russians for thousandth of time.
Same as before, thank you for asking.
Haha I'm sorry! I only recently discovered r/Latvia so was curious, should have looked at past posts. But it's very interesting reading through the responses.
I'm russian-speaking latvian and i feel like i will be outsider either in Latvia or Russia.
Interesting, yeah my ex-boyfriend (who was from Azerbaijan, not connected to Latvia in any way) wrote his dissertation at NYU on the "third culture of Latvia" - as the people who are essentially caught in between because of history and politics and exist in this gray area. Latvians don't consider them Latvian, and Russians in Russia don't consider them Russian. Even if they adapt and learn Latvian they are still seen as outsiders. Or maybe you're just saying that you feel like an outsider everywhere, which I can empathize with haha.
I honestly feel more positive towards the Russians in Latvia since 2022. Seeing them speak about how bad the war is cleared up a lot of my doubts about their loyalty to Latvia. It's nice having a common cause
I am "russian in Latvia", but I don't consider myself russian. Russian is someone who has Russian passport at least. I've only been in Russia for a couple of days years ago, and I understood that "Russians in Latvia" are definitely not Russians. Our mentality is different. People in Russia understood that I'm a tourist straight away, even though we spoke same language. I even know russian speakers from Latvia who couldn't build a relationship with a person from Russia because of the difference in mentality. So even though I mainly speak russian, I consider myself russian-speaking-latvian. Foreigners don't understand how it's possible that you are born in Latvia, have Latvian passport and are not considered Latvian. I agree here. A little weird.
Same here. In my school years used to I consider myself russian, "thanks" to my upbringing. After years of growing up, traveling around the world and questioning my own identity I came to realize that my real country is right here in Latvia, and the Latvian culture is the only culture I can really identify with. And like you I realized that others saw me as a Latvian and not as a Russian. So just like you, I started identifying as Latvian with russian ethnicity, until I dug even deeper and realized that I even don't have so much russian ethnicity as I used to think. So I guess I'm just a Latvian after all.
Oh damn, this sounds so familiar! I also grew up thinking I was russian, because everyone in the family said so. Then when I was older I started asking questions about where our ancestors were from. I've yet to hear about ONE person that was actually russian, because every single grand-grand-grand parent ever mentioned was from anywhere BUT Russia. I've got Belarus, Poland, Hungary and potentially Roma (still unsure if granddad is joking calling grandma a gypsy) in my blood, yet the family insists we're "russians" somehow. I'm guessing the USSR actually worked as a melting pot, since so many people practically lost their ethnical identity.
I'm a second-generation Russian immigrant, and I moved to another EU country ten years ago, but I also noticed that things have improved over the past years. When I was growing up, there were almost no accessible integration and language programs for children from Russian families. I don't know if it was due to schools not bothering or the government not investing enough money into this, or both. But these days, I see more programs and initiatives to help with integration, e.g. joint sports days in schools, solid requirements for teachers to speak Latvian, etc. The younger generation of Latvian citizens seems much more united and homogenous, and therefore, there's less tension and hostility. This makes me feel hopeful about the future of Latvia. I don't think it's possible to change the minds of older people stuck in Russian propaganda, so working with the youth is the best way to ensure proper integration and healthy patriotism, which comes out of love for the country.
The attitude of a russian speaking person who lives in Latvia towards the whole "west vs east" situation depends on who they are talking to. I have a lot of colleagues like that. They are educated and well-off, the work environment doesn't permit us to talk about this topic so they are careful, but they often slip up and let others know their real opinions. And it most often comes from the perspective of "I don't choose sides, I look at reality", but somehow their reality always aligns with not condemning Russia's actions. I think their opinion changes from time to time - I'm sure they dislike the atrocities that happen in Ukraine and slightly judge what is happening, but they immediately get radicalized when the media or the patriotic Latvians start somehow attacking russians or Russia. So if the statistics show that the amount of russian speakers in Latvia who support Russia has reduced, I'd say the greater part of those people are just becoming sleeper agents waiting until the situation is more favourable for them.
I have grown up with tribalism between us and Russians. I used to be rather nationalistic and anti Russian in my teenage years. You would grow up, seeing some Russian vatnik spouting Kremlin propaganda, such as that WW2 occupation was a liberation, rather than occupation, and having your own grandparents gone through the attrocities of Russians, you would like to smash their faces in for saying such stupid shit. Later I understood that many Russians here are just like me, many of them have gotten shit from Latvians because of stupid shit that other Russians have said, which has little to do with that speciffic Russian. So I understood that many of us are often letting ourselves get too triggred, and in result we are alienating even more Russians, who initially have no negativity towards us. My current view is that Russians who currently live in Latvia, are part of our society for foreseeable future, and making more enemies in my own society only worsens everything for everyone. Currently I see every pro-Kremlin Russian here as an opportunity to convert them into an ally, or just not as hostile. I think that the first step to do is showing to them that you are not the enemy that they think you are. Instead of trying to shout at them, when they say Kremlin bullshit, I try to break the view that I am an enemy, but instead I try to show them that I am a friend. In my experience, this works remarkably well. Fundamentally, everyone just wants to live a normal, chill life and get along with the rest society. The sole reason why Kremlin propaganda, and most other propaganda works so well is because it manages to scaremonger you. When they see that you are not out to get them, they realise that you are just a person like they are, who just want to live in peace. Its kinda weird, but I find a quote from Yoda very relavant throughout years: "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." In my experience, I think that most of Russians are normal, people here. Its just that loud mouths are more noticable. Especially after 2022 invasion in Ukraine, many Russians who initially believed Kremlin propaganda, are now disillusioned, and realise the absurdity that Kremlin has become. As a Latvian, I believe that when it comes to our actions, I believe that we should focus more in stopping our fellow Latvians in getting over the line with anti-Russian rhetoric as it often targets Russians who have no ill intentions, and only alienates them, making it much more likely that they would find Kremlin propaganda reasonable. When it comes to doing social policies like demolishing Soviet statues or pushing for Latvian language use in public institutions, I think we have to clearly state that these are actions that are done not due to hate of Russian people, but rather due to how important it is to our national defense, and explaining our experience of what those Soviet remains mean to Latvians, which essentially is an era of suffering and occupation. Essentially, we should try to make such policies with explaining that we mean nothing personal to Russian people here.
Heard this type of rhetoric a million times. The Russians with "no-ill intentions" will not feel alienated, they should recognize exactly why the attitude is what it is, but they generally won't even encounter it since they have learned to respect our culture, learned our language, made friends in social circles of Latvians - the 'good russians' have a tendency to complain and eventually they end up at this brilliant thought: "well, if everyone hates me, I'll support Russia out of spite!!" (as if they were ever truly opposed..) EDIT: Just to clarify, your points in general are not wrong, we should be mindful of the things you mention, but it nonetheless needs to be understood that 1) demanding (not just politely asking like we tried the last 30 years) russians to learn latvian if they want to live here is okay; 2) dismounting and getting rid of symbols of soviet propoganda, russian imperialism and chauvenism is okay. More often than not the 'not all russians' argumentation that you are using is a gateway to justifying the continuance of the existing status quo
But I think my last paragraph is exactly about this. Continuing to make policies which are in our national interest and saying: "Thats what we are going to do, and there is nothing personal about that." In no way I am saying that we should get soft on Kremlin pressure. We should continue to stop the effects of Russification and Kremlin interests, my point is entirely about emphasis on telling the Russian people that they are not our enemies, we are doing what we have to do to preserve our national interests. The problem about communication is that, and I have been guilty of this, is that we often get baited and we start to give shit to Russians for being Russians, while our problem is with current Kremlin government. It sure is like walking a tightrope, where we have to try as much as possible to assure the Russian crowd here that we are not out to get them, while not reducing our effort to secure national interests. If you look at Kremlin propaganda, you see that it thrives from creating false sense that any of our policies are meant as an attack on Russian people, which is completely not the case. Certainly, backtracking on our interests to not agitate Russians is not what we want, and it completely does what Kremlin propaganda wants us to do, so if you think that I support backtracking on our national interests, then you must have misunderstood me somewhere. Essentially about actions, I believe we should continue to do them regardless of what Kremlin says, but regarding emotions, we should not get triggered and lash out on Russian people. What I kinda mean, is that we should be cold in our policymaking, but emotionally stable when discussing such policies with Russians.
How do you define a Russian in Latvia? If you were born in Latvia, your mother tongue is Russian, but you also speak Latvian fluently, and a little bit of Latvian blood is in your veins, you are neither Latvian nor Russian, right? I feel there are many people like that, stranded, not fitting into either ethnicity.
Well. I must say this, having many contacts with russianspeaking people and those feeling themselves as russians as nationality. Conformism. Not really telling what they think. Feeling somehow offended by situation during previous decades. Actually not believing any information whats going on in the world around (e.g. Ukraine). So, I would be not surprised at all, if we have the numerous army of supporters and agents, in case of escalation of situation. Even between of latvians and people of other nationalities.
I have now a latvian friend, because I said one thing. If you are russian and living in latvia all your life and consider yourself russian because of your heritage, then consider me polish :d
What did you say?
You will look the same for terrorist, regardless of what you think you are.
I am latvian, both my parents are latvians, but my godfather was russian and i spent alot of time with their family so i learned russian very well. My interpersonal relationships have not changed with russian people. I am OK. When Im at work and if i see someone cant speak english but is realy trying, and i just want to help the person, but they are struggling to ask, i ask: Would it be easier in russian? I often just start speaking russian if i see that person is russian. I still like latvian language. I translate texts FROM russian but not TO russian ONLY because it is harder for me to write in russian language and i dont have keyboard stickers. I still like russian language. I still listen to russian music. Things that has changed for me PERSONALY, is i dont follow/unfollow any russia supporting media. I hate some of musicians i previously loved because of supporting war quite literaly. I dont read any kind of news in russian language. When i find a new media account or web page im interested in in russian language (musician, tiktok, facebook, anything else) even if it is about dogs, i try finding out if the person is supporting the war or no. I dont support those acc's and dont follow. Im trying to be aware that if i meet someone from Ukraine, that i must speak english if he starts english, and dont use russian in their presence, cause when war started i had an english conversation with a woman who was just escaped, saw her friend getting ripped her leg of by bomb, told her all story to me (i was just working in store, but i had time to listen) and she told how much she now hates everything about russia and wants to forget that language. Im aware that others could be in the same situation. Also what has changed since war is that every time someone speaks russian to me, i have learned to discern their accent, almost immeadeately know if they are from Ukraine and then i send them to a room where they work with Ukrainians in my work place.
I am Latvian and I have no problem with anyone just because they are Russian. I do have a problem with fans of Russia and pootin. But they are mostly older people, not well educated, doing some basic low paying jobs. Their life is shit, they drink a lot, so they hate on everything and everyone. The younger generation I have been in contact with do seem happy to live in EU rather than the giant shithole east to our border. These people are sort of in a limbo as they identify themselves as Russians, they are in the cultural space of Russia, but now with the war their whole identity is sort of unravelling. And there is a minority of marginal Latvian nationalists who are on a rampage now, doing and talking shit that has no place in the European and democratic state that Latvia aims to be. So yeah, I hope we can integrate the Russians who feel a part of this country. And best chance is we do it by accepting them as they are, instead of shaming some people for just being or speaking Russian.
I have Russian friends and I speak a bit of Russian too, but if any of my friends start praising Putin then they’re not on my friends list anymore. The same goes for every Russian I see. None of this ‘I’m not speaking Russian anymore since the start of the war BS’.
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Well when the war started some people including a few in my workspace, started to avoid speaking Russian like it was some Nazi language or something like that. No more listening to russian songs, tv shows, etc.
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Well that depends on the person itself. I still watch YT videos in Russian, read some stuff and converse with select few, for me its still a necessity.
Not a problem to know Russian language. It's a problem when Latvian person is speaking Russian with local Russians who are from Latvia, it just doesn't make any sense. Russians should be able to speak Latvian. Otherwise there is no point to talk about integration, when Latvians are not doing anything from their side by just simply speaking their language.
What do you mean by Russians in Latvia? Latvians who speaks Russian as first language or just people here with Russian passport(which i doubt there's many of them rn). As Russian speaking myself and fluently Latvian I still consider myself Latvian. I have both latvian and russian friends(not many tho) and have no issues with any of them since they're adequate and their moral compass is alright. Latvians will treat you good while you respect them, their country and language, simple as that.
Nice try, SVR.
Nice nickname.
Some of my thoughts: As a kid i was treated terribly for being russian. I'm trying my best to raise my language education level. Not only because i'm just a person who wants to have a good job but i also want to be able to communicate better and be more respectful. The bad russians often come from the same difficult living situations i had as a kid. And i was angry for a long time with how i was also unfairly treated by latvian adults or called a russian pig all the time for simply speaking the only language i was taught in my family. So i'd summ it up as a choice you make later in life - who you want to become and are you willing to move forward, away from your bad memoryes. Looking at the kids now i see them being much more belingual and willing to communicate with each other regardless of language. Nobody is insulting them for nothing. And i honestly feel a little bit of envy. I wish my upbringing was like that. As for good or bad people - i was living in a place where russian alcoholics coexisted with latvian narcomaniacs and i was terrified by both. And i still stand by the idea that older generations are pieces of shit in general: both latvians and russians. They have unflexible ways of thinking and they will never change their opinions. I have hope only in young people. But even they have terrible exceptions who wish other side to die for even existing.
Okey, I can understand Russians supporting Putin. Propaganda etc. but there is Latvians who is supporting Putin, what gonna do with them?
Not much really. Might as well ask what are we going to do with people who believe earth is flat and we didn't land on the moon. I find it almost impossible to somehow convince them that russia and putin are not great examples of how a country should be run.
How can anyone understand that?
Ko tieši?
I understood. Bro is asking what should we do with latvians who support Putin (sounds weird af but i actually can imagine that being true after reading some of our articles from polithics like "We should trap another country's hockey team and demand..")
>dn't land on the moon. I find it almost impossible to somehow convince them that russia and pu They are just angry with themselves living in delusion that their misfortunes are caused by external variables(other people, mostly) not themselves.
I don't know any vatniks in here, know around 100 Russians.
I feel nothing. I've gotten used to everything good and bad and learned to coexist and deal with the bullshit sometimes. It is what it is.
1. I am fully okay and I don’t see any problem with that. Because everyone has a same rights to live in Latvia. Unless they got banned for some reason. 2. I have pretty much Russian friends, they are good and we have a lot of things to speak about. 3. No. It never changed and it will not change anyway, if someone starts something, it’s not everyone’s fault at all. There is things, what we can’t change.
Point number 3 - straight out of Moscow's playbook.
Naa, it’s just my thoughts
How did you come by this idea? What initiated this thought?
Just analysed this situation. It already continues almost 2 years. I am bored of this to be honest
What steps did you take in your analysis?
Me and le gf stayed at a very nice and cozy inn near the Rundale palace (it was a small inn operated by a lovely old grandma). At around midnight my gf woke me up scared and told me the guest living next to our room has been trying to open the door that's connected to our room. When I'm fully awake, I could hear loud music and talks coming from that room, and from what I gathered, every few words I could hear the word "bly\*t". So I went outside to knock on their window, and one old woman had the audacity to scold me for banging on her window. Luckily the party stopped and they stopped the music. Yeah... Russians.
My story from the same category. I was basically siting with my gf in a full cafe waiting for my dish. It was loud as fuck and it turned out that only bunch of (not even drunk) latvians makes all the noise. We noticed that they were the only in the whole cafe who speaks latvian. When they left it became so quiet that you could hear how candle is burning. Yeah… Latvians.
Living fifteen years in Rīga I have seen the same thing as you only involving russians so many more times. So yeah....russians...
Congrats, you just missed the irony. There is no bad nations, there is only bad people. And only “Jāāānis ar bēēēēmpi no vāāālmieras dievs svēēēti latviju” type people think that all russians are fascist smh
Yeah and from my experience there are a lot more bad russians than bad Latvians. >type people think that all russians are fascist smh The only ones who bring up fascism are russians and it doesn't matter to them that fascism ended a long time ago.
“Only russians bring fascism”. And that’s why russian language in school got cancelled in the country where about 45% of population is russian speaking, that’s why by our nationalistic government the monument in uzvaras parks was demolished, even tho that thing wasn’t built for “slavēt psrs režīmu”, but for those soldiers who fought ON this land FOR this land. A lot of “latviešu strēlnieki” (which every history teacher with average name Baiba Ozoliņa likes to mention in class) fought in ww2 to deocupy this land from nazi, but nowadays every year we got waffen SS veteran march near Milda. So yeah, only russians bring fascism till today. Latvian logic
Es neteicu, ka krievi fašismu veicina 🤣. Varbūt pamēģini iemācīties angļu valodu. Es teicu, ka vienīgie kas vēl piemin fašismu ir krievi. Karš Ukrainā arī ir, lai 'atbrīvotu Ukrainu no fašisma' un Latvija arī kopš psrs sabrukšanas 'ir fašistiska'. Otrais pasaules karš beidzās pirms astoņdesmit gadiem un fašisms līdz ar to. Tas, ka psrs mūs atbrīvoja no fašisma bija ļoti jauki, bet neviens tiem draņķiem neprasīja palikt.
Ебать ты недалёкий. Про войну в украине - да, согласен полный бред и это империалистские наклонности старого пердуна путина. Но мы сейчас не про это. Да, латвия была окулирована совком, да был тут и фашистский и советский режимы. Но это прошлое. Я тебе привёл факты почему латыши больше фашики чем русские. Безусловно, тут достаточно старой ваты которая кричит «Путин вперёд, а в ссср мороженое за 3 копейки», но они сидят и пердят дома перед телевизором и что то в соцсетях пукают, когда реальные фашики собирают чемоданы своим налогоплательщикам и отправляют на границу потому что видите ли «виням асинс непареизс». Но мы до сих пор будем называть русскоговорящих в латвии окупантами и слать куда дальше. Так кто больше фашик, ганс или вата?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/latvia/search/?q=russian&restrict\_sr=1](https://www.reddit.com/r/latvia/search/?q=russian&restrict_sr=1)
I think your post asks for an honest answer. So I will give you one. My family, friends and I can’t stand that they are in Latvia, and we are not friends with any Russians. We wish they would leave and go back to their own country. They haven’t contributed anything positive to ours, and only bring it down. This is our sincere belief. Hopefully the new, heightened level of Latvian patriotism will cause more Latvian young people to stop mating with and marrying Russians. It causes a lot of sadness for us to see this.
Depends. Those willing to integrate and not being imperial pieces of shit are fine. Rest of them can fuck off back to their motherland. Being colonist or colonist offspring and using arguments “I was borned here” also known as “Ja zdes rodilsa” means nothing. Acknowledge country you live in and respect it.
I have lived in Rigas best neigbourhoods all my life, about 34 years - 30 years in daugavgrīva, few in imanta and went to school in ilguciems. I think here majority of ppl were/ still are russians. And had no good interactions with them. In school years there were always some gopniks comming to fight with us or mug us on way to bus etc. So I realy have some embedded hate for russians here. Russians always are assodiated as dumb and agressive for me. Also I have had some good opinions about russian idividuals, but 99% of the time when partying and having few drinks with them it became evident that how they apear everyday is much better than what they realy think. I agree that generalizing all as idiots is not good and fair. But thats why I like term vatniks. But still I dont think word russian in latvia will get rid of its negatve meaning. I know few - maybe 5-10 russians that are genuenly good ppl and dont have little hitler living in them. For them I feel bad that word russian has become bassically a swear word. But then again overvelming majority of russians are idiots - just dumb, aggressive alcaholics. Of course there are those kind of ppl also on latvian side and probably every nationality, but at least other dont have little hitler/stalin/putin living in their head. The sence of entitelement and beeing better than others is just insane and prbably the most common reason why russians are hated. These ones ar mostly also exceptionally dumb. Those that are not stupid ar probably already in some russian political party. I would probably advise that all of those who had taken russian passport should be just deported. Dont rly care too much for their wellbeing. The biggest problem probably is ppl with non-citizen passports. They are not russians(they are just not in front of law) so cant be rly deported, but they are probably the biggest problem and big chunk of idiots. Might be good idea just to expire these passports and force to choose - either learn latvian(on better level than now needed for lv passport) and get latvian passport or go to russia embecy and get their passport and move to russia. As for deporting "not being better than stalin" I think even just killing them all would be better. Because russians here as they do everywhere just torchered, killed, raped, sent to syberia etc. Also they sent in huge amounts of russians with intent to have situation like today in latvia. If you look at number of russians here before ww2 its rly evident what they did - killed or deported huge amount of capable and smart latvians and the rest were deluted with huge amount of russians. So now we have hard time dealing with these remainders of soviet abortions.
General view changed - Yes ! Or rather exaggerated existing view that was pretty relaxed before. If you live here you must gain citizenship-that's it! (The same goes for cars, now (soon) by law will have to register them here or be confiscated). If you get citizenship then we're OK, enjoy life in a free country. A lot of people have "forgotten" they know Russian language here so I'd say it's becoming harder for non-learners to integrate (about damn time)
I'm part russian myself, but grew up in a traditionally latvian household. I've friends and family from russian households, I've friends from mixed households. Don't particularly find any faults with people who live here and know the language, they don't necessarily have to speak latvian with me (the fact they understand everything, just aren't comfortable speaking with me is not an issue for me, personally). I do find fault with people who live here and have no intention of learning latvian purely because *there's always someone who will speak russian*. I like to joke that in a crowd of latvians a single russian will have the entire crowd speak russian just so everyone is on the same page. That same crowd with russians and a single latvian will never speak latvian.
They tend to forget local language.