Przemiany narodowościowe na ziemi łotewskiej w XX i na początku XXI wieku
Ethnic transformations on the Latvian territory in the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents demographic and ethnic transformations in the territory of Latvia. First, information is provided on the origins of the population of Latvian nationality. Then, ethnic composition of the population inhabiting the present-day Latvian territory at the end of the 19th century is characterised. The basis for the respective statistical analysis is constituted by the results of the Russian census of 1897. This census showed, side by side with the Latvian population, also important German, Russian, Jewish, and Polish minorities. The subsequent part of the paper is devoted to the ethnic situation in the interwar period. Here, the census carried out in 1935 is the main source of information. Essential demographic transformations took place during World War II. The paper accounts for the war losses, which in ethnic terms had a selective character. Latvian Jews were exterminated, while the remaining groups also suffered great losses. Then, the paper takes up the subject of the demographic-ethnic situation during the post-war Soviet occupation and the existence of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. In this period, numerous migrants from the farther-off territories of the Soviet Union moved to Latvia, these Russian-speaking migrants being primarily of Russian nationality. This resulted in the essential shift in the ethnic composition of the population in Latvia. The effects are reflected in the data from the Soviet censuses of 1959 and 1989. The results of these censuses are subject to interpretation in the paper. The last part of the article is devoted to ethnic changes in the sovereign Latvian state. Statistical and substantive analysis was carried out using the census data of the year 2000, and the estimated data from the year 2014. The contemporary ethnic structure of the entire country and in individual provinces was established.

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