A national movement coalescing in the Popular Front of Latvia took advantage of glasnost under Mikhail Gorbachev and on May 4th, 1990 the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR adopted the Declaration of the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia, subject to a transition period that came to an end on August 21, 1991, after the failure of the August coup. The Saeima, Latvia's parliament, was again elected in 1993, and Russia completed its military withdrawal in 1994.

In the 1990s and early 21st century, Latvia focused on “rejoining Europe”; its two major goals, NATO and EU membership, were achieved in 2004. A language law was passed establishing Latvian as the sole official language of the country. Citizenship laws restored citizenship on the basis of legal ties to the Republic of Latvia prior to the Soviet occupation, although naturalization procedures were liberalized and a comprehensive social integration program was adopted. The government denationalized private property that had been confiscated by the Soviets, returning it or compensating the owners when that was not possible, and privatized most state-owned industries, reintroducing the prewar currency.

Though Latvia had not been devastated by war as it was when it first achieved independence, the transition from a centralized economy directed from the Kremlin to a free market economy was complex and difficult. Industry in the Latvian SSR had been geared towards the needs of the vast Soviet state and its planned economy. Manufacturing decreased substantially once independence was restored. Hyperinflation was soon brought under control, however, and trade with the West increased while trade with Russia and other CIS countries declined. Prior to the global economic crisis that struck in 2008, Latvia had one of the highest economic growth rates in the European Union.

National identities in the Baltic states – especially in Latvia, which was heavily industrialized and where the titular nationality was the most severely threatened – had been damaged to a far greater degree than they had been in the Soviet satellites; despite the non-recognition policy of the United States and other Western countries, Latvia had in many ways been wiped off the map for half a century. Reestablishing Latvian as what linguists call “the language of prestige,” for example, was especially important in the renewed state. Latvians strove to reverse asymmetrical bilingualism, the situation in which nearly all Latvians could speak Russian but few Russian speakers could speak the national language. Most younger Russophones can now speak Latvian, though the state continues to support education in minority languages, providing some education in the mother tongue for the Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Jewish, Lithuanian and Roma minorities.

Perhaps one of the most dramatic indicators of how profound the transformation of Latvian society has been is in terms of freedom of speech. After decades of oppression and draconian censorship, Latvia was ranked 10th in the world for press freedom by Reporters Without Borders in its 2006 Press Freedom Index, surpassing many long-established democracies.

© Text: Pēteris Cedriņš, 2009

© The Latvian Institute
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