Russia and Latvia pip Italy

Balanced match between Moldova and Latvia. Anything can happen really in this match. Moldova has the home advantage, Latvia has slightly better players. Live Stream - see the match between Moldova and Latvia Live

Latvia snatched the win against Moldova in Tiraspol. Girts Karlsons and Vitalijs Astafjevs scored the Latvia’s goals. Moldova’s goal of honor was scored by substitute Serghei Alexeev in the end of the game. It took just 8 minutes for the vi...

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sociālie pētījumi Latvijā

A freely elected Constituent Assembly was convened on May 1, 1920 and adopted a liberal constitution, the Satversme, in February 1922. This was partly suspended by Ulmanis after his coup in 1934, but reaffirmed in 1990. Since then it has been amended and is the constitution still in use in Latvia today. With most of Latvia's industrial base evacuated to the interior of Russia in 1915, radical land reform was the central political question for the young state. In 1897, 61.2% of the rural population had been landless; by 1930 that percentage had been reduced to 23.2%. The extent of cultivated land surpassed the pre-war level already in 1923. Innovation and rising productivity led to rapid growth of economy, but it soon suffered the effects of the Great Depression. The major goals of Latvia in the 1990s, to join NATO and European Union, were achieved in 2004. Language and citizenship laws have been opposed by many Russophones (Latvian is the official language and citizenship was not automatically extended to some former Soviet citizens - mostly ethnically Russian - who settled during the occupation, or to their descendants). The government denationalized private property confiscated by the Soviet rule, returning it or compensating the owners for it, and privatized most state-owned industries, reintroducing the prewar currency. After a difficult transition to a liberal economy and its re-orientation toward Western Europe, Latvia still has one of the lowest standards of living in the EU, though its economy has one of the highest growth rates. Latvia has had strained relations with Russian Federation due to Russian discontent with Latvian language and citizenship policies, as well as Latvia's requests for Russia to recognize it as continuous with the first Latvian Republic and acknowledge consequences of Soviet occupation. As of 2007, however Latvia's relationship with Russia seems to be improving. Since the year 2000 Latvia has had one of the highest (GDP) growth rates in Europe [2]. In 2006, annual GDP growth was 11.9% and inflation was 6.2%. Unemployment was 8.5% - almost unchanged compared to the previous two years. However, it has recently dropped to 7%, partly due to active economic migration, mostly to the Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom. Privatization has been mostly completed, except for some of the large state-owned utilities. Latvia is a member of the World Trade Organization (1999) and the European Union (2004). Between the thirteenth and nineteenth century, Baltic Germans, many of whom were originally of non-German ancestry but had been assimilated into German culture, formed the upper class. As a result, most inhabitants didn't participate in cultural life. However, the situation helped to preserve local pagan heritage which partly merged with Christian traditions, for example in one of the most popular celebrations today which is the midsummer festival, or Jāņi. Jāņi is a paganic celebration of the summer solstice, celebrated on the feast day of St. John the Baptist. In the nineteenth century Latvian nationalist movements emerged promoting Latvian culture and encouraging Latvians to take part in cultural activities. The nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century is often regarded as a classical era of Latvian culture.

Early 90s: There is a common perception that about 80 percent of private economic activity is in the hands of other ethnic groups. In private interviews, many reasons are given for this economic breakdown: other groups are more active and willing to take risks; they have better contacts in the old party nomenklatura (see Glossary); they have more links with organized crime; they live mostly in cities where the economic action is; and business has not traditionally been highly regarded in Latvian culture. The predominantly Latvian state bureaucracy, which can affect the rate of privatization, is afraid of losing its power and the concomitant benefits involved in the control of industries. In November 1992, a law providing vouchers for privatization was passed. The law came into effect on May 1, 1993, and the distribution of vouchers began in September. The law provides for the distribution of vouchers according to one's length of residence in Latvia, with one year worth one voucher, or about US$42. Other factors are also taken into account. For example, those who can lay claim to Latvian citizenship prior to the Soviet occupation in June 1940 and their progeny are entitled to an additional fifteen vouchers as compensation for so-called "ancestral investments." Refugees who left Latvia because of World War II may also obtain one voucher for each year lived in Latvia before December 31, 1944. Those forcibly deported from Latvia in the past receive a differentiated number for each year of confinement in prison camps or in exile. Finally, people are allotted vouchers on those occasions where private claims on property cannot be realized because of conflicts with squatters or because compensation is chosen in lieu of property. An estimated 87 percent of vouchers are to be granted to Latvian citizens. Of the total of 113 million vouchers in circulation, an estimated 2 million are expected to be used for purchasing farmland, 40 million for city land, 43 million for apartments, and 28 million for state enterprises.

in 1995 Latvia had a daily newspaper circulation rate of 1,377 per 1,000 population, compared with 524 per 1,000 population in Finland, 402 per 1,000 population in Germany, and 250 per 1,000 population in the United States. More than 200 newspapers and 180 magazines were in circulation.

One of the unique aspects of the Latvian education system was the introduction during the 1960s of schools with two languages of instruction, Latvian and Russian, in which each group held classes in its own language. About a third of all schoolchildren went to these schools, and the others attended the purely Latvian or Russian schools. Extracurricular activities and parent-teacher events were expected to be held together, and almost inevitably they were conducted in Russian because of the imbalance in language knowledge. These schools did not foster interethnic friendship, as originally hoped, and they were being phased out in post-Soviet Latvia. In the 1993-94 school year, sixty-nine out of 574 such primary schools remained. After 1990 various ethnic groups were offered the opportunity of again maintaining schools in their own language of instruction, and by the 1993-94 school year some 210 schools were in operation: more than 200 Russian, four Polish, one Estonian, one Lithuanian, one Ukrainian, and one Jewish. Latvia had the first Jewish secondary school in the entire Soviet Union. It should be noted that most of the non-Latvian groups had largely assimilated with the Russians, and many of their members did not speak their native tongue.

On July 21, 1940, the newly elected delegates proclaimed the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic and voted to petition the Soviet Union to allow Latvia to join as a constituent republic. Not surprisingly, their wishes were granted. The process of Sovietizing Latvia was interrupted, however, when Stalin's ally and co-conspirator attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. One week before the Nazi attack, the Soviet regime had arrested and deported to Siberia, in sealed cattle cars, about 15,000 of the former Latvian elite, as well as suspected anticommunists, including 5,154 women and 3,225 children. In all, during the first year of occupation, Latvia lost 35,000 people to deportations or executions. Most deportees died in Siberia. The equally brutal Nazi occupation lasted until May 8, 1945. Latvia's Jews and Gypsies were particularly subjected to mass annihilation, and only a small number of each group survived this holocaust. The Nazis had no intention of liberating Latvia or providing renewed independence. Even the bulk of nationalized property was not returned. They did, however, draft young men into the armed forces--an illegal move in occupied territories, according to international law. These young people fought against the Red Army in two divisions, suffering high casualties. The reestablishment of Soviet control in the mid-1940s was not welcomed. Many Latvians joined the guerrilla movement, which fought the occupying power for close to a decade. To break this resistance and also to force peasants into collective farms, new deportations to Siberia, involving more than 40,000 people (10,590 of them children under sixteen years of age), were completed on March 25, 1949. This date was to become a focal point of demonstrations in 1988. After the purge of the national communists, Latvia experienced a particularly vindictive and staunchly pro-Moscow leadership. Under the iron fist of hard-liner Arvids Pelse (CPL first secretary, 1959-66), who later became a member of the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Latvia suffered many restrictions and petty harassments in all fields of national culture and social development. Sovietization and Russification programs were of an intensity and dimension not found in either Estonia or Lithuania.

For more than 200 years, Latvians had a unique mixture of elites. The German nobility was dominant in economic, cultural, social, and local political life, and the Russian bureaucracy was in charge of higher politics and administration. Some Latvians aspiring to higher status tried to emulate the Germans, but other Latvians thought that salvation was to be found with the Russians. During the second half of the nineteenth century, Latvians experienced a resurgence of national consciousness. There was an intense development of Latvian culture and a new stress on the need for protecting this culture against the inroads of both Germanization and Russification. A new Latvian-oriented elite appeared and began to press for a larger input by Latvians in the determination of their own local affairs. This period is known as the first Latvian awakening. Riga became the third largest port in the Russian Empire; in 1913 its port had a larger trade turnover than St. Petersburg's. Many huge factories were constructed, attracting great masses of new workers from the Latvian countryside and from the interior of Russia.

The statistics for 1991 point to an interesting pattern (see table 21, Appendix). At that time, far more people were baptized than married in church. Part of the explanation can be found in the requirement by some religions, including Lutheranism, that people must be first baptized and confirmed before having a religious wedding. Another possible explanation for this phenomenon is that the communist state was quite successful in sowing doubts about religion among the young and the middle-aged. Starting with 1987, the Lutheran Church experienced a revival pioneered by a group of young, rebellious, and very well-educated clergy who formed the organization Rebirth and Renewal (Atdzimsana un Atjaunosana). There were confrontations with communist authorities and with the ossified hierarchy of the Lutheran Church itself, which had become somnolent and very accommodating to the demands of secular powers. With the advent of political plurality, the Lutheran Church was able to expand its role and its activities. Under conditions of economic and political uncertainty, their efforts are bearing fruit. Such denominations as the Baptists, Pentecostals, and Seventh-Day Adventists have made significant inroads. Charismatic movements, animists, Hare Krishna, and the Salvation Army have all attempted to fill a void in Latvia's spiritual life. Undoubtedly, there is great interest among Latvians in spiritual matters, but it is difficult to know how much of it is genuine and how much reflects the ebb and flow of fashion and will be replaced by other trends.