|
|
|
|
Latgale
|
| |
|
| |
Latgale or Latgalia (Latgalian dialect: Latgola) is one of the four cultural and historical regions of Latvia recognised in the Constitution of the Latvian Republic. It is the easternmost region north of the Daugava river. While most of Latvia is historically Lutheran, Latgale is historically predominantly Roman Catholic.
The region has a large population of ethnic Russians, especially in Daugavpils, the largest city in the region.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Latgale' Start a new discussion about 'Latgale' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Latgale or Latgalia (Latgalian dialect: Latgola) is one of the four cultural and historical regions of Latvia recognised in the Constitution of the Latvian Republic. It is the easternmost region north of the Daugava river. While most of Latvia is historically Lutheran, Latgale is historically predominantly Roman Catholic.
The region has a large population of ethnic Russians, especially in Daugavpils, the largest city in the region. Many of the Russians who lived in Latgale before the Soviet occupation are Old Believers. Rezekne, often called the heart of Latgola, Kraslava, and Ludza are other large towns in the region, which also has a Belarusian minority. There is still a significant Polish minority (Daugavpils has almost as many Poles as Latvians). As part of the Polotsk and Vitebsk guberniyas, the region was part of the Pale of Settlement and had a very large Jewish population -- but most of the Jews perished in the Holocaust and much of the remainder has emigrated.
The region is one of the poorest in the European Union, and unlike in the rest of Latvia, a majority of voters was opposed to EU membership in the referendum on accession.
Due to its history several different names are historically used for Latgale.
- Other names for the region include Lettigallia, Latgallia, and Latgola.
- The people are called latgalieši in Latvian (as distinct from latgali, which refers to the ancient tribe, though some modern Latgalians prefer latgali) — latgališi in Latgalian, sometimes latgali — Latgalians, Latgallians, or Lettigalls in English, and are sometimes referred to as cangali (sometimes derogatory — the reference is to a novel, and Latgalians often call other Latvians "ciuli"). The term latgalieši dates only to the early 20th century, and before that Latgalians were long refrred to as Vitebsk Latvians or Inflantians (Latgalian: vitebskiši, inflantiši).
- The language or dialect is called Latgalian.
- From 2004 on, Latgalian language is interested by the biggest sociolinguistic/ethnolinguistic poll in Europe, held by the Rezekne Augstskola and the Centre d'Étude Linguistiques Pour l'Europe.
History
Originally the territory of what is now Latgale was populated by the Eastern Balts. They spoke East Baltic language, which became a basis for the Latgalian dialect of Latvian language. The dialect is still spoken by many Latgalians and has a standardized written form, for which reason some consider it to be a separate language.
During the 10th–12th centuries two principalities — of Jersika and Atzele existed on the territory of nowadays Latgale and Eastern Vidzeme; in addition, the land of Latgalians included parts of what is today Pskov Oblast in Russia and Vitsebsk Voblast in Belarus. In the first decade of the 13th century the principality of Jersika, known as Lettia was allied with the Principality of Polock and Lithuanian dukes against the Bishopric of Livonia, but was defeated in 1209 and subjugated as a vassal country. After the death of the king Visvaldis of Jersika in 1239 it was incorporated into the territory of the Livonian Order. In 1242 after defeat in the Battle on the Ice the Eastern Latgale (Lotigola) passed to the Republic of Novgorod. Grand duke Traiden of Lithuania unsuccessfully sieged the newly build castle of Daugavpils in 1277. Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow temporary occupied Latgale in 1481-1493, Ivan the Terrible, Tzar of Russia annexed Latgale in 1577 during the Livonian war.
In 1559–62 during the Livonian War, the territory of nowadays Latgale was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1569 it was reorganized into Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1620s most of the Duchy of Livonia was ceded to the Swedish Empire, but a part of the Duchy of Livonia including Latgale remained under Lithuanian–Polish control; this land became known as Inflantia. The creation of Polish Inflanty is the birth of the region we know today by the name Latgale. During this period the Latgalian dialect of the Latvian language developed separately from the Latvian spoken in other parts of what is now Latvia and was influenced by Polish.
In 1772, Latgale was annexed by the Russian Empire, and in 1865 a period of Russification, as part of Russia's anti-Polish policies, was begun, during which the Latgalian language (written in Latin script) was forbidden. This ban was lifted in 1904, and a period of Latgalian reawakening began. Many Latgalian public figures sought a reunification with the rest of Latvia in 1917 at the Congress of Rezekne, while some preferred autonomy (Kemps) or incorporation in Russia (bureaucracy). The decisions of the 1917 Congresses and the declaration of independence on 18 November 1918, with Latgale as part of the Latvian state, moved both Latvian armed forces as well as local partisans to struggle for the liberation of Latgale, a difficult task, given the territorial interests of both Bolshevik Russia and Poland.
In 1920, as a result of nation-building irredentist war, Latgale was incorporated into Latvia. By the peace treaty of 1920 with Soviet Russia, parts of the Government of Vitebsk and Government of Pskov were incorporated into Republic of Latvia. United with other "original" Latvian territories, as claimed by the declaration of independence (ethnographic borders as national borders), they formed the districts of Daugavpils, Ludza, Rezekne and Jaunlatgale, later Abrene district.
In 1944, at the beginning of the second occupation of Latvia by the USSR, the eastern civil parishes of the Abrene district were incorporated into the Russian Federation.
See also
Latgale in foreign languages
External links
- overview in Lithuanian
- overview in Latvian, English, and Russian
-
- a Latgalian site with an online Latgalian–Latvian dictionary.
|
| |
|
|
