Latvia – Latgalia (Daugavpils, Rēzekne, Jēkabpils) June 4-5, 2019
It was a seamless entry into Latvia from Lithuania as both are Schengen Visa zone countries. This was the first border since Italy/Slovenia in March that I did not have to stop at immigration and show my vehicle registration and insurance.
DAUGAVPILS (pop 95,000)
Daugavpils is a city in south-eastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. It is the second largest city in the country after the capital Riga, which is located some 230 kilometres to its north-west.
Daugavpils is located relatively close to Belarus and Lithuania (distances of 33 km (21 mi) and 25 km (16 mi) respectively), and some 120 km (75 mi) from the Latvian border with Russia. Daugavpils is a major railway junction and industrial centre and lies approximately midway between Riga and Minsk, and between Warsaw and Saint Petersburg.
Daugavpils, then Dyneburg, was the capital of Polish Livonia while in Poland. Following the first partition of Poland in 1772, the city became part of the Russian Empire. To this day it maintains an overwhelmingly Russian-speaking population, with Latvians and Poles being significant minorities. Historically, several names in various languages have identified Daugavpils. Some are still in use today. Lithuanian: Daugpilis, Polish: Dyneburg, Russian: Dvinsk, Yiddish: Dvinsk
Chronology of name changes: Dünaburg (1275–1656), Borisoglebsk (1656–1667), Dünaburg (1667–1893), Dvinsk (1893–1920), Daugavpils (since 1920)
As of 1 January 2011, the city had a population of 94,196. In Daugavpils 85% of the voters supported the proposal to make Russian the second state language in the 2012 referendum.
Ethnic Groups: Russian 53.4%, Latvian 19.8%, Poles 14.2%, Belarusians 7.2%, Ukrainians 1.9%, Lithuanians 1.0%, others 2.3%. Before the Second World War there were more than 40 synagogues in the city.
History. The town’s history began in 1275 when the Livonian Order built Dünaburg Castle 20 km (12 mi) up the Daugava river from where Daugavpils is now situated. In 1561 it became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, subsequently, of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. In 1621 Daugavpils became the capital of the newly formed Inflanty Voivodeship, which existed until the First Partition of Poland (1772). In 1577 the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible captured and destroyed Dünaburg castle. That same year, a new castle was built 20 km (12 mi) downriver. In 1582 Daugavpils was granted Magdeburg town rights. In the 17th century, during the Russo–Swedish War initiated by Tsar Alexis of Russia, the Russians captured Daugavpils, renamed the town Borisoglebsk and controlled the region for 11 years, between 1656 and 1667. Russia returned the area to Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth following the Treaty of Andrusovo (1667). It became part of the Russian Empire after First Partition of Poland in 1772. It was an uyezd center firstly in Pskov Governorate between 1772 and 1776, Polotsk one between 1776 and 1796, Belarus one between 1796 and 1802 and finally Vitebsk between 1802 and 1917 as Dinaburg firstly, as Dvinsk later during Russian rule.
From 1784 onwards the city had a large and active Jewish population among them a number of prominent figures. According to the Russian census of 1897, out of a total population of 69,700, Jews numbered 32,400 (ca. 44% percent).
As part of the Russian Empire the city was called Dvinsk from 1893 to 1920. The newly independent Latvian state renamed it Daugavpils in 1920. Latvians, Poles and Soviet troops fought the Battle of Daugavpils in the area from 1919 to 1920. Daugavpils and the whole of Latvia was under the Soviet Union rule between 1940–41 and 1944–1991, while Germany occupied it between 1941 and 1944. The Nazis established the Daugavpils Ghetto where the town’s Jews were forced to live. Most were murdered. During the Cold War the Lociki air-base operated 12 km (7 mi) northeast of Daugavpils itself. In the late Soviet era there was a proposal to build a hydroelectric power station on the Daugava river that was successfully opposed by the nascent environmental movement in Latvia.
On 16 April 2010 an assassin shot vice-mayor Grigorijs Ņemcovs in the center of the city. He died almost immediately and the crime remains unsolved.
Jewish History. Prior to the Holocaust, Daugavpils, (called by its Jewish inhabitants Dvinsk), was home to the most prominent Jewish community in eastern Latvia. The city was already a Jewish center as early as the 1780s and by the time of the 1897 census they numbered 32,400- 44% of the overall population of the city. By 1911 they had increased to 50,000. The Jews of the town were very prosperous and ran 32 factories and there were 4000 artisans among them.
The city not only boasted a large Jewish population but a rich religious culture including 40 synagogues. The city was home to two of the most prominent rabbis of their time: Joseph Rosen (1858-1936), known as the Rogatchover Gaon (genius from Rahachow), was famed for his commentaries on the works of Maimonides and on the Talmud. Famed for his acidic wit and penetrating genius, he led the towns Hasidic Jews. His ‘competitor’, the leader of the local Misnagdim (non-Hasidic Jews) was the Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (1843-1926). Rabbi Meir Simcha was also renowned for his work on Maimonides (Or Somayach) as well as Bible commentary Meshech Chochma. In one famous comment he predicted that since some Jews had assimilated and viewed Berlin as their ‘Jerusalem’ they would suffer persecution originating in Berlin.
Another famous Jewish resident was the abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko. Born in Daugavpils in 1903 he immigrated at the age of 10 to the United Stateswhere he painted over 800 paintings in his unique style.
Jewish Daugavpils came to an end following the Nazi German invasion on June 26, 1941. Falsely claiming that the Jews had conspired to set fire to the town and that they were assisting the Soviet army, the Germans and their Latvian collaborators carried out large executions on June 28–29. During July the Jews were enslaved and forced to cut down timber. On July 7–11 Einsatzkommando 1b under Erich Ehrlinger executed many of the remaining Jews. Later in July the 14,000 remaining Jews were forced into a Ghetto along with those from nearby towns. By the end of August an additional 7000 Jews had died at the hands of the Nazis and the Latvian populace. The largest execution took place in November 1941 and was followed by plagues that decimated the few survivors. Only about 1500 Jews remained in the city. These were murdered (again with the aid of the Latvians) on May 1, 1942. When the town was liberated in 1944 only 100 survivors remained of a community of 16,000.
Culture. Daugavpils is an important cultural centre in eastern Latvia. There are 22 primary and secondary schools, four vocational schools, and the Saules College of Art. More than 1,000 teachers and engineers graduate from the University of Daugavpils(formerly Daugavpils Pedagogical University) and the local branch of Riga Technical University annually. There is also one Polish school, the only in the city, on Varšavas iela (Warsaw Street).
Daugavpils Theatre was restored a couple of years ago. There is also one cinema as well as other cultural institutions. The city exhibition center offers many cultural activities.
There are also several architectural, historical, and cultural monuments in Daugavpils. The most prominent is the Daugavpils fortress dating mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. In April 2013 the Mark Rothko Art centre was opened in fortress.
Historical Centre. The historical centre of Daugavpils city is an architectural heritage of national importance (the construction work was carried out in the 19th century according to the project endorsed in St Petersburg in 1826). The historical centre is the greatest attraction of the city and one of the most successful examples of balancing the aspects of ancient and modern times. Daugavpils is one of the few cities in Latvia which can pride itself on a unified ensemble of both classic and eclectic styles. The cultural heritage of architectural, artistic, industrial, and historical monuments combined with the picturesque surroundings create the essence of Daugavpils’ image and endow it with a special charm.
Red brick buildings. Daugavpils is exceptionally rich in red brick buildings. This style was developed by many outstanding architects. Bright examples of brick architecture are the buildings at 1/3 Saules Street and at 8 Muzeja Street. The shape-forming techniques typical of eclecticism that were applied in the façades of these buildings even many decades later make one appreciate and admire the striking accuracy of detail.
Economy. During the Soviet time, the city was well industrialised with a number of prominent large manufacturing units. However, nowadays only a few of those have remained still working. The city council is trying to attract new investments and thus created a number of free industrial zones around the whole city that might be interesting due to the strategically efficient geographical position of the city close to the Russian, Belarusian and Lithuanian borders. The 2nd largest city in Latvia built on both sides of the River. The prominent places are Church Hill with 4 denominations and Daugavpils Fortress.
Daugavpils Vestiges of the Soviet Era. Although the Swedes controlled the eastern Baltic coastline in the 17th and 18th centuries, they never made it as far inland as Latgale. This means that this part of Latvia consequently had an almost unbroken history of Polish and Russian domination.
Excluded from the abiding Westernising influence of Sweden, Latgale remained predominantly Catholic or Russian Orthodox, and is much more ethnically mixed than the rest of Latvia, with very prominent Russian, Polish, Belarusian, Lithuanian and (historically) Jewish communities. Latgale was the only region of the country to vote against EU accession, and it also stood alone in 2012 when a slight majority supported making Russian an official language in the referendum on this subject – in the other three provinces over 80% rejected the idea. If the rest of the nation is straining towards the luckier countries on the sunnier side of the Baltic Sea, Latgale casts at least a few nostalgic glances back towards Moscow.
As Latvia’s only majority-Russian city Daugavpils has an odd place in the national consciousness. Latvia, as a whole, almost became majority-Russian, or at least minority-Latvian, due to massive Soviet-era migration from the other constituent republics. From a nationalist point of view, independence came literally in the nick of time – by 1989, Latvian speakers made up only 52% of the population of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (compared to 80% at the end of World War II), and were in a minority in every one of the seven largest cities, including Riga, the capital. Latvian dominated in the countryside, but the language of the street, the factory, the soviet was Russian, and only Russian. Twenty years on, after decades of Russian emigration and low birth rates, and Daugavpils is the only one of those eight still minority-majority. The language of the street in Daugavpils remains Russian. English and Latvian are definitely not sufficient to get by in Daugavpils.
A minority of hypernationalist Russians continue to deny Latvia’s independence. Latvian Russians set off their fireworks on New Year’s Eve at 11 p.m. (i.e. at Moscow midnight). This simple act of denial of both Latvia’s independence and its geographical relationship to Greenwich seems to infuriate a certain kind of Latvian like nothing else.
Numerous websites offer the chance to “learn Russian in the most Russian city in the EU”. This is, largely irrelevantly, not a factually accurate claim: Narva, the third-largest city in Estonia takes that title, as almost 90% of its inhabitants are ethnic Russians.
Daugavpils Fortress. Built between 1801-78, it has a large moat, gorgeous fitted stone walls supporting dirt bastions and formed into ravelins. The fort contains 20+ buildings and is a complete town. The free information building used to be the water lifting building using steam turbines to fill a tank in the roof with 3000 buckets of water. There are very informative storyboards. The interesting parts of the fortress are the two lookout towers on the north and southwest and the central park. It is beautifully restored.
The fortress today is a grab-bag of the last two centuries: long, low 19th century barracks alternate with countless scuffed-up blocks of flats, disused warehouses and administrative buildings. The ones in Daugavpils Fortress are unusually run-down: cracks run crazily down many of the buildings, balconies seem precarious, their wooden frontage rotting; glimpses through the lower floors reveal that many flats are also abandoned and piled with detritus.
As you walk away from the Rothko centre, deeper into the fortress, encounter stray dogs, raggedy and wiry, they patrol the streets. There’s a nice, perfectly square park, with a soggy, but multi-coloured rotunda alongside a war memorial made up of the barrels of four cannons, pointing upwards, fronted by the old name by which not even Russians now refer to the town: Dvinsk. Graffiti scrawled on a wall declares “CCCP”. Beyond the park, the buildings are all abandoned, windows smashed and jagged.
Mark Rothko Art Centre. Daugavpils’ most famous export to the world is the abstract artist Mark Rothko. However, the link is a little tenuous: he was born in the city in 1903, true, but his family left the city for the U.S. in 1913, after which he never returned. Neither would he have considered himself Latvian. Neither were his memories of the city entirely positive: one of his earliest memories was apparently of the local Cossacks amusing themselves by Jew-baiting.
The new Mark Rothko art centre outshines its surroundings. EU money plunged in to help create the centre, which opened in 2013, outnumbered funding from the city by about twelve to one. The centre sits in a box-fresh, canary-yellow building in Daugavpils Fortress, a vast structure built in the Napoleonic era,
The temporary exhibit was being changed but there is a large permanent exhibit on Rothko shown on video screens that delve into his family, childhood, all his periods of art and other artists that influenced his style. There are several full size reproductions of his art. His art does not appeal to me. €3, 1.50 reduced
Chess and Checkers Museum. Gives the history of chess in Daugapils and Latgale Region from the 19th century. Tells the rules of the game, the best chess players of Latvia and the world, newpaper articles, cups, prizes and gifts. Visit by appointment only info@chessds.lv €2
Smakovkas Museum. Smakovkas is a distilled alcohol commonly made in the south eastern Latvia (both commercially and at home). It can be made from bread, grains or wine (the best). Latgale, (this area of Latvia) has six nationalities in its ethnic mix – Latvian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Poles, Russians and Jews – and smakovkas is the one thing common to all. Get a taste at the end. €3.03
Daugavpils Museum of Regional History and Art. History from Stone Age to WWI with short write-ups in each room that give a good history of Daugavpils. All labels are Latvian. Stuffed critters, WW I, collection of radios and phonographs, random history. The art section has 3-dimentional pieces by P Hudobchenok, wonderful small scenes of the town. Then a juried show of landscapes form 2019. Finally the art of local Leonids Baulins (1945-2002). €3.50
Cathedral Hill. Crushed together on this hill are churches of four denominations, colour-coded as though for ease of reference. Appropriately for this Russian-speaking city, it is the Russian Orthodox Cathedral that takes pride of place, perching on top of the crest of the hill, visible from most of Daugavpils; long, low and baby-blue, looking inconceivably shiny and pristine. Across the road, there’s a blindingly white, vaguely Italianate Catholic church and a pointy red Lutheran one. Cross the main road from the Catholic edifice, and pass down a street of creaking, atmospherically decomposing wooden houses and you’ll find the most unfamiliar of Cathedral Hill’s occupants: the spiritual home of the Old Believers, a salmon-pink building surmounted by several randomly sprouting bright blue bulbs. These are the descendants of those 17th century Russians who took issue with the Tsar dicking about with the liturgical rites. This small but stubborn percentage of the population was refused to countenance the idea that the Tsar and his priests might have a say in the word of God suffered terrible persecution, which continued on and off until the 20th century. As a result of this, many of them fled to the fringes of the vast empire, to places distant enough that the Tsar would have to stretch uncomfortably to exercise his will; for many, this meant the Far North or East, little villages amongst the endless trees of Siberia; others, perhaps more sensible, fled to the (comparatively) gentle Baltic shores, settling by Lake Peipsi in Estonia or throughout Latvia.
Saints Boris and Gleb Cathedral. This Russian Orthodox church has a fairy tale exterior – white with light blue/pink trim and rosettes and gold onion domes. The 3-nave interior highlights are the new fresco on the ceiling and rich wood iconostasis. I entered in service and I find the disassociation of the priests (unseen behind the iconostasis) and the standing congregation striking. Free
Meanders of the Upper Daugava. A tentative WHS (18/04/2011), these are eight large river bends between Kraslava to Naujene ravine in the outskirts of Dougavpils. Each bend is 4-6kms long with steep banks that are the highest at Daugava Gate. The banks are interrupted by the side tributaries of several small rivers. It is a great place for boat trips and a cycling route is on the north bank from Kraslava to Daugavpils.
The meanders are part of the Daugavas loki Nature Park, a 12,372ha park founded in 1990. In the 1980s, it was planned to flood the Daugava Valley. Forests cover 58% of the area with a small portion meadows, bank lawns and grass meadows. 800 plants and ½ the birds and mammals in Latvia are found in the area.
I purposely drove along the north side of the Daugava River to see these and turned down a rough corrugated road when opposite a meander approaching the highway. I followed Google Maps toward the river and came upon a huge lookout tower (the Priedaine) on the edge of the steep bank above the river. This skookum heavy log tower has 87 steps up to the lookout platform, from which there are great views down to the river. Stairs lead down from the west corner to the river. Other watchtowers are also at Vasargeliski and Lazdukains.
I camped here for the night. The site has picnic tables, a swing and a teeter totter. I was surprised at all the people who came to climb the tower – at least 12.
KRÃSLAVA
Krāslava New Palace. On a commanding hill above this small town, the 3-story manor house is an abandoned empty shell. The windows are cement painted with false window frames and the door is an open locked iron gate. Some buildings surround the exterior – an 1820s stables is now a craft center and an information centre, now the International Culinary Heritage Centre. A nice, wooded park surrounds the house. Free
World War II Museum and Exposition Hall, Aglona. This small museum sits on the edge of Cinśs Lake in this tiny village (with a gigantic church). It is dated and has little of interest plus is only in Latvian. It is for sale. €1.50
Latvia in World War II. Early in the morning of 24 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a 10-year non-aggression pact, called the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The pact contained a secret protocol, revealed only after Germany’s defeat in 1945, according to which the states of Northern and Eastern Europe were divided into German and Soviet “spheres of influence”. In the north, Latvia, Finland and Estonia were assigned to the Soviet sphere. A week later, on 1 September 1939, Germany and on 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded Poland.
After the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, most of the Baltic Germans left Latvia by agreement between Ulmanis’ government and Nazi Germany under the Heim ins Reich programme. In total 50,000 Baltic Germans left by the deadline of December 1939, with 1,600 remaining to conclude business and 13,000 choosing to remain in Latvia. Most of those who remained left for Germany in summer 1940, when a second resettlement scheme was agreed. The racially approved being resettled mainly in Poland, being given land and businesses in exchange for the money they had received from the sale of their previous assets.
On 5 October 1939, Latvia was forced to accept a “mutual assistance” pact with the Soviet Union, granting the Soviets the right to station between 25,000 and 30,000 troops on Latvian territory. State administrators were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres. Elections were held with single pro-Soviet candidates listed for many positions. The resulting people’s assembly immediately requested admission into the USSR, which the Soviet Union granted. Latvia, then a puppet government, was headed by Augusts Kirhenšteins. The Soviet Union incorporated Latvia on 5 August 1940, as The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Soviets dealt harshly with their opponents – prior to Operation Barbarossa, in less than a year, at least 34,250 Latvians were deported or killed. Most were deported to Siberia where deaths were estimated at 40 percent, officers of the Latvian army being shot on the spot.
On 22 June 1941 German troops attacked Soviet forces in Operation Barbarossa. There were some spontaneous uprisings by Latvians against the Red Army which helped the Germans. By 29 June Riga was reached and with Soviet troops killed, captured or retreating, Latvia was left under the control of German forces by early July. The occupation was followed immediately by SS Einsatzgruppen troops who were to act in accordance with the Nazi Generalplan Ost which required the population of Latvia to be cut by 50 percent.
Under German occupation, Latvia was administered as part of Reichskommissariat Ostland. Latvian paramilitary and Auxiliary Police units established by the occupation authority participated in the Holocaust and other atrocities. 30,000 Jews were shot in Latvia in the autumn of 1941. Another 30,000 Jews from the Riga ghetto were killed in the Rumbula Forest in November and December 1941, to reduce overpopulation in the ghetto and make room for more Jews being brought in from Germany and the West. There was a pause in fighting, apart from partisan activity, until after the siege of Leningrad ended in January 1944 and the Soviet troops advanced, entering Latvia in July and eventually capturing Riga on 13 October 1944.
More than 200,000 Latvian citizens died during World War II, including approximately 75,000 Latvian Jews murdered during the Nazi occupation. Latvian soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict, mainly on the German side, with 140,000 men in the Latvian Legion of the Waffen-SS, The 308th Latvian Rifle Division was formed by the Red Army in 1944. On occasions, especially in 1944, opposing Latvian troops faced each other in battle. Activity reached a peak in late 1946.
Razna National Park. Centered on Lake Razna that is reached by 14kms of corrugated gravel road, the NP headquarters are in the town of Lūznava.
GORS, Rēzekne. This new impressive large concert hall seats 1000 and holds musicians and theatre averaging about 6 shows a month. There is a festival here the second last weekend of August. Show cost varies with the artist but ranges from €5-75. There is also a 500-seat cinema in the complex. Go to www.latgalesgors.lv for tickets and information.
GO TO RIGA AREA
NOMAD MANIA Latvia – Latgalia (Daugavpils, Rēzekne, Jēkabpils)
World Heritage Sites: Struve Geodetic Arc
Borders
Belarus-Latvia
Latvia-Lithuania
Latvia-Russia
Museums: Aglona: World War II Museum and Exposition Hall
Castles, Palaces, Forts
Krustpils: Krustpils Castle
Preiļi: Preiļi Palace
World of Nature: Razna (Lake Razna)
Entertainment/Things to do: GORS, Rēzekne
Monuments: Audrini: Monument to the Victims of WWII
European Cities
DAUGAVPILS
Tentative WHS: Meanders of the Upper Daugava (18/04/2011) (east of town)
Sights: Daugavpils Vestiges of the Soviet Era
XL: Daugavpils and Kraslavas counties
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars: Daugavpils Tramway
Museums
Chess and Checkers Museum (Smakovkas Museum)
Daugavpils Museum of Regional History and Art
Mark Rothko Art Centre
Castles, Palaces, Forts: Daugavpils Fortress
Religious Temples: Saints Boris and Gleb Cathedral, Daugavpils
Villages and Small Towns
KRÃSLAVA
Castles, Palaces, Forts: Krāslava New Palace