Latviešu Nacionālā fonda publikācijas un padomju dezinformācija
The Publications of Latvian National Fund and the Soviet Misinformation

Summary/Abstract: Collecting and disseminating of information was the most important field of work for Latvian National Fund (further in text – LNF), founded in Stockholm in 1947. For almost 50 years LNF has published books and brochures in different languages telling about the occupied Latvia and the Baltic states overall. This article sheds light on how the publications by LNF were prepared and what resonance they had in Western democracies. It should be noted that the article uses protocols of the LNF board which are kept in the Academic Library of the University of Latvia. The article provides information not found in other sources concerning the editors (translators) of some of the LNF’s publications as well as about the circulation numbers of the publications and distribution channels. The article examines the first publication in 1951 providing the list of persons deported by the Soviets – These Names Accuse – and the making of the reference book Latvia: Country and People (1967). LNF prepared several publications objecting the biased depiction of soldiers from the Baltics interned in Sweden in the novel The Legionnaires (Legionärerna, 1968) by the Swedish writer Per Olov Enquist (1934–2020). Starting in the 1950s and up to the 1980s LNF published – using cover names – several texts of authors living in the occupied Latvia which revealed the truth about the repressions carried out by the Soviet occupation regime and the degraded environment in Latvia. Among these texts the collection of descriptions and photo evidence, The Diary of Occupied Latvia(1976, 1980), by Žanis Skudra (1924–1994) gained a significant resonance.

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