‘Latvians Abroad’: A Planned Latvian Emigration Museum and Research Center Maija Hinkle !e twentieth century can be character- amounts to approximately 13% of the ized in world history not only by the two population. total, devastating world wars that took Yet in spite of the significance of mi- place during the first half of the century, grations in recent Latvian history, there but also by the hitherto unprecedented has been very little study of the mass mass migrations of peoples that accom- migrations and no attempt to preserve panied these wars, migrations where the histories and experiences of the millions of people swept across Europe emigrants. Fortunately, this is slowly in a few years – not only soldiers, but changing with respect to the current millions and millions of civilians – to es- populations of former Latvian inhabit- cape the war and save ones life, to escape ants living abroad. In 2006 the Latvian occupying armies, because they were Ministry of Integration launched a sys- forced by governing authorities or be- tematic investigation of and interaction cause their homes had been destroyed. with the Latvian communities residing Latvians formed a small part of this abroad, but so far only preliminary data mass movement of peoples throughout have been published (see www.integrac- the century, having been both a sending ija.gov.lv). and a receiving country. While it lost a significant percentage of its population Latvian demographics and history during the two world wars, it became in 20th century – a short outline an immigrant destination during the !e population of Latvia during the last Soviet period after World War II, only century has varied between 1,6 million to undergo new waves of emigration in and 2,67 million (Table 1), the changes the present century, to the extent that most often being due to population an Integration Ministry study in 2006 migration and loss during a war, rather estimated that almost 300,000 former than to natural causes. Latvian inhabitants were now perma- Great upheavals in Latvian history nent residents outside Latvia. !at have most often been accompanied by- MAIJA HINKLE 67 Year Total popula tion of Latvia Latvians (%) Number of Latvians outside Latvia 1863 1,240,000 1897 1,929,387 68% 149,000 1914 2,552,000 60% 230,000 – 260,000 1920 1,596,000 72.6% 1935 1,950,000 75.2% 215,000 – 225,000 1943 1,803,104 1959 2,093,000 62% 262,000 1990 2,670,000 52% 201,000 - 211,000 1992 2,657,755 52.5% 195,000 – 205,000 2006 300,0002 20073 2,259,810 58.2% 1 Plakans, Andrejs, 1995, !e Latvians. A Short His- tory. Hoover Institution Press, p. 88. 2 Bērziņš, Aldis, 2006, „Emigrācija skaitļos” Kultūras Forums, 16. – 22. sept. p. 4 3 www.indexmundi.com/latvia/demographics great changes in the population. One of Soviet Union. A number of Latvians were the most devastating population losses in leadership positions in the Commu- occured before and during World War nist party and were among the thousands I, when in 1914 about 760,000 peo- killed in Stalin’s purges in the 1930’s. ple from Western Latvia were forced !e next great upheaval in popula- out of their homes to flee East, many tion came with World War II with the to Russia, which soon was gripped by mass exodus of civilians to both the East civil war. According to Krasnais, there and the West, as the armies swept across were about 300,000 Latvian inhabit- Latvia several times (see Table 2). ants in Russia at the eve of World War Toward the end of WWII as the Soviet I, which group then more than doubled army was again recapturing Latvia hun- with the influx of refugees. Plakans es- dreds of thousands of Latvian inhabitants timates that by March 1917 some one fled or were forced to move West, where million Latvians had taken residence about 214,000 ended up on German outside the Baltic area. Many made it territory. Of those more than 100,000 back to Latvia after the war and Latvia’s stayed in Germany in DP refugee camps. independence in 1918, but many more After 2-5 years in camps most had emi- remained in Russia when it became the grated to host countries including 40,000 68 AEMI JOURNAL 2008-2009 Date Historical event Civilian population movement 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Non- Hitler urges all ethnic Germans to return Agression pact – Baltic coun- to their homeland. Most Baltic Germans tries assigned to the USSR emigrate to Germany. 1940, June 17 USSR occupies Latvia. Approximately 35,000 Latvian inhabi tants – 1941, July 5 deported to USSR. First mass deportations June 13-14, 1941.4 1941, June 23 Germany attacks USSR; Some Jews, communist sympathizers, func- World War II starts. tionaries and others flee to the USSR with retreating Soviet army. 1941, July – Nazi occupation of Latvia. 25,000 Jews brought into Latvia by the 1945, May -1941: Nazi extermination of Nazis, of which 10,000 eventually trans- Jews, mostly in location. ported back to Germany. 4,000 surviving -1943: Latvian Legion formed Latvian Jews transported to Germany in -1943: secret Latvian Central 1943.4 Council formed 1945, May 8 World War II ends. USSR Approximately 200,000 (10%) of Latvia’s reoccupies Latvia inhabitants flee or are forced to leave for the West.5 Soviet functionaries and some former Latvian inhabitants return to Latvia from the USSR with Soviet army. 1945 – 1991 Soviet occupation of Latvia 1941- 1949: approximately 200,000 of Latvian inhabitants deported to Siberia, about 1/3 eventually return.6 1945-1955: Some 535,000 workers from USSR sent into Latvia.7 4 !ese Names Accuse, 1982, !e Latvian National Foundation, Stokholm, p. XXX. 5 Andrew Ezergailis, personal communication. 6 Baltais, Mirdza Kate, 1999, “Piespiedu iesaukšana darbam Vācijā, militāram dienestam un evakuācija uz Vāciju”, !e Latvian Legion: Selected Documents. Ezergailis, Andrew, ed. Toronto: Amber Printers and Publish- ers, pg. 193-199. Of the 200,000 about 30,000 were soldiers, several thousand were mobilized or volunteered to work in Germany, and most of the rest were refugees. Only about 100,000 eventually reached Germany. Mirdza Baltais proposes that during the war about 217,000 Latvians had reached Germany, but only about 140,000 remained as émigrés. 7 Plakans, Andrejs, op cit. p. 155. 8 Plakans, Andrejs, op cit. p. 15 MAIJA HINKLE 69 to the United States. !ere they estab- for emigration issues, a place where we lished still active communities-in-exile, could research the various emigrations, whose two main goals were to remind preserve emigration artifacts and show the world about Latvia’s occupation and the emigrant experience. We needed a preserve pre-war Latvian language and museum and a research center modelled culture until the day that Latvia is inde- on that in Norway and that dealt not pendent again. only with the migration during WWII, My family and I were among them. but with a much broader time frame. Since my father was a Lutheran minis- Fortunately, !e Museum’s director, ter and actively engaged in the Latvian Knut Djupedal has been extremely community, I grew up fully a part of helpful and supportive of the idea and two cultures, the American one and the has helped us develop plans for imple- Latvian world, which was the center mentation that might just be the ones of my social and cultural life. When that result in a successful result. Latvia regained its independence in 1991, some emigres returned from their Current emigration from Latvia homes in the West, but many were too Around the same time the Latvian gov- assimilated and integrated into their ernment was becoming seriously con- host countries. However, often the con- cerned about the increasing numbers nection, especially for the older genera- of young, professional people emigrat- tion, was still there, and many people, ing in search of better paying jobs and even though they didn’t intend to move a easier lifestyle abroad. In order to start back to Latvia to live, wanted to share addressing the problem, they first had their experiences with their compatri- to get some statistics about the former ots in Latvia. !ey wanted to tell them Latvian inhabitants now living abroad. what they had done on behalf of Latvia Under the sponsorship of the Integra- during the occupation, about who they tion Ministry of Latvia and the PBLA were. Partly to help implement this the Center for Economic and Opinion desire, I agreed to collect life stories of Research (SKDS) canvassed the embas- Latvian-American emigres and eventu- sies and various local ethnic organiza- ally to ‘return them to Latvia’ as part of tions in 75 countries in 2006 to arrive at a bigger story of emigration over the last some preliminary data about emigrants few centuries. Yet interest in the stories from Latvia in those countries. By 2006 and experiences of emigres by Latvian a total of almost 300,000 former Latvian inhabitants has remained tepid at best. inhabitants (about 13%) had emigrated Furthermore, what information there to other countries. Table 3 shows the was was scattered and not easily avail- number of host country inhabitants able. from Latvia or of Latvian descent in the When in the spring of 2006 I partici- countries with the greatest numbers: pated in a conference on migration and 69% of the Latvian inhabitants living oral history at the Norwegian Emigrant abroad were ethnic Latvians, whereas Museum, I realized that what we needed 32% of all emigrants were Latvian citi- in Latvia was a central research center zens.