Talk Latvian in Latvia? Russian speakers balk

By Timothy Jacobs
The Associated Press

	AP About 6,000 Russian teenagers and schoolchildren march in Riga, Latvia, on Feb. 5 to protest the new law requiring Latvian public schools to teach at least 60 percent of classes in Latvian.
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A new law will force all Latvian public schools to teach at least 60 percent of classes in Latvian beginning in September, sparking anger among the large Russian-speaking minority in the former Soviet republic. Many see it as revenge for Russian domination during the communist era.

The issue will remain long after Latvia joins the European Union on May 1. The EU pressured Latvia to soften its language regulations in the 1990s but now considers the country in compliance with European norms.

Lahtionova said she and her classmates don't know Latvian, a non-Slavic language set apart by its "s" endings, well enough to be taught science and math in it. For instance, she didn't know the meaning of "tilpums," a basic Latvian scientific term for volume.

Latvia's language split • Latvia has 2.3 million residents. • One-third of the population speaks Russian. • Latvian, unlike Russian a non-Slavic language, is set apart by its "s" endings. • Russia dominated many areas of life in Latvia during decades of Soviet rule from Moscow, and the newly independent nation made Latvian the sole official language partly as a countermeasure.

"I don't see how I can study chemistry or math in Latvian if I don't always get it in my own native language," said Lahtionova.

The ninth-grader has 31 of 35 classes a week in her mother tongue, Russian. The exceptions are classes in the Latvian language and Latvian literature.

An attempt by her school last year to teach history in Latvian was abandoned because the quality of teaching deteriorated, she said. "The teacher had trouble teaching in Latvian," she said.

The Latvian government insists the change will benefit Russian-speakers, who make up one-third of the country's 2.3 million residents.

Officials argue that proficiency in Latvian is needed to land good jobs.

Few Russian-speakers are convinced. The law has sparked the largest protests in Latvia since the Baltic republic regained independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse, and a protest is planned for May 1 to coincide with Latvia's celebrations of EU membership.

The anger worries some analysts. "I think the language reform is a big problem in that it brings out latent tensions and has also created artificial tensions that weren't there before," said Ilze Brands Kehris, director of the Center for Human Rights, a nongovernmental group in Riga, Latvia's capital.

"It's a security issue because it is a destabilizing force. Clearly, no one in the EU wants to bring in a new member country's security concerns," Kehris said.

Indra Dedze, an education researcher with Providus, a Riga-based public-policy think tank, also worries about the tensions. "I don't think it will lead to ethnic violence, but it creates tension in society, and it is the task of the government to control those tensions," she said.

Girts Kristovskis, until recently Latvia's defense minister, concedes the protests are a sign a dual society may be forming in Latvia, but he blames the problem on meddling from Moscow.

"The problem comes from a push from the outside, from extreme Russian politicians who don't like an independent Latvia or who want to use the issue to prop up their own political capital in Russia," Kristovskis said. "It makes for a dangerous situation here."

Most ethnic Latvians brush aside concerns about tension and violence, saying similar warnings from Russian leaders in the past 10 years have never proved true.

The Russian language dominated many areas of life in Latvia during decades of Soviet rule from Moscow, and the newly independent nation made Latvian the sole official language partly as a countermeasure.

Some Russian-speaking students perceive the new law as retribution for past Russian domination.

"I think some senior Latvians want to take vengeance on Russians because during Soviet times, Latvians were deprived of their rights," said Max Dombrauskis, 17, another student at High School No. 46. "I just don't think children should bear the brunt of it."

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