1.
Latvia
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Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, one of the three Baltic states. It is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Latvia has 1,957,200 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2. The country has a seasonal climate. Latvia is a parliamentary republic established in 1918. The capital city is Riga, the European Capital of Culture 2014, Latvia is a unitary state, divided into 119 administrative divisions, of which 110 are municipalities and 9 are cities. Latvians and Livs are the people of Latvia. Latvian and Lithuanian are the two surviving Baltic languages. Despite foreign rule from the 13th to 20th centuries, the Latvian nation maintained its identity throughout the generations via the language, Latvia and Estonia share a long common history. Until World War II, Latvia also had significant minorities of ethnic Germans, Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant Lutheran, except for the Latgale region in the southeast, which has historically been predominantly Roman Catholic. The Russian population has brought a significant portion of Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Republic of Latvia was founded on 18 November 1918, however, its de facto independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II. The peaceful Singing Revolution, starting in 1987, called for Baltic emancipation of Soviet rule and it ended with the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia on 4 May 1990, and restoring de facto independence on 21 August 1991. Latvia is a democratic and developed country and member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, CBSS, the IMF, NB8, NIB, OECD, OSCE, and WTO. For 2014, Latvia was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and it used the Latvian lats as its currency until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2014. The name Latvija is derived from the name of the ancient Latgalians, one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes, henry of Latvia coined the Latinisations of the countrys name, Lettigallia and Lethia, both derived from the Latgalians. The terms inspired the variations on the name in Romance languages from Letonia. Around 3000 BC, the ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium, trading local amber for precious metals, by 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia, Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians, as well as the Livonians speaking a Finnic language
2.
National library
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A national library is a library specifically established by the government of a country to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books, often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant works. A National Library is that library which has the duty of collecting and preserving the literature of the nation within, thus, National Libraries are those libraries whose community is the nation at large. Examples include The British Library, and The Bibliothèque Nationale In Paris, there are wider definitions of a national library, putting less emphasis to the repository character. National libraries are usually notable for their size, compared to that of other libraries in the same country. Some states which are not independent, but who wish to preserve their culture, have established a national library with all the attributes of such institutions. National libraries of Europe participate in The European Library and this is a service of The Conference of European National Librarians. The first national libraries had their origins in the collections of the sovereign or some other supreme body of the state. In England, Sir Richard Bentleys Proposal for Building a Royal Library published in 1694 stimulated renewed interest in the subject. Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington, an antiquarian, amassed the richest private collection of manuscripts in the world at the time. Sir Roberts genius was in finding, purchasing and preserving these ancient documents, after his death his grandson donated the library to the nation as its first national library. This transfer established the formation of the British Library, the first true national library was founded in 1753 as part of the British Museum. This new institution was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public, sloanes collection included some 40,000 printed books and 7,000 manuscripts, as well as prints and drawings. The British Museum Act 1753 also incorporated the Cotton library and the Harleian library and these were joined in 1757 by the Royal Library, assembled by various British monarchs. Anthony Panizzi became the Principal Librarian at the British Museum in 1856, during his tenure, the Librarys holdings increased from 235,000 to 540,000 volumes, making it the largest library in the world at the time. Its famous circular Reading Room was opened in 1857, Panizzi undertook the creation of a new catalogue, based on the Ninety-One Cataloguing Rules which he devised with his assistants. These rules served as the basis for all subsequent catalogue rules of the 19th and 20th centuries, in France, the first national library was the Bibliothèque Mazarine, which evolved from its origin as a royal library founded at the Louvre Palace by Charles V in 1368. At the death of Charles VI, this first collection was bought by the English regent of France, the Duke of Bedford
3.
Riga
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Riga is the capital and the largest city of Latvia. With 696,593 inhabitants, Riga is the largest city in the Baltic states, the city lies on the Gulf of Riga, at the mouth of the Daugava. Rigas territory covers 307.17 square kilometres and lies one and ten metres above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member, Rigas historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture during 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden, Riga hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, and the 2006 IIHF Mens World Ice Hockey Championships. It is home to the European Unions office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, Riga is served by Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states. Riga is a member of Eurocities, the Union of the Baltic Cities, another theory could be that Riga was named after Riege, the German name for the River Rīdzene, a tributary of the Daugava. The river Daugava has been a trade route since antiquity, part of the Vikings Dvina-Dnieper navigation route to Byzantium. A sheltered natural harbour 15 km upriver from the mouth of the Daugava — the site of todays Riga — has been recorded, as Duna Urbs and it was settled by the Livs, an ancient Finnic tribe. Riga began to develop as a centre of Viking trade during the early Middle Ages, Rigas inhabitants occupied themselves mainly with fishing, animal husbandry, and trading, later developing crafts. German traders began visiting Riga, establishing a nearby outpost in 1158, along with German traders also arrived the monk Meinhard of Segeberg to convert the Livonian pagans to Christianity. Catholic and Orthodox Christianity had already arrived in Latvia more than a century earlier, Meinhard settled among the Livs, building a castle and church at Ikšķile, upstream from Riga, and established his bishopric there. The Livs, however, continued to practice paganism and Meinhard died in Ikšķile in 1196, in 1198, the Bishop Berthold arrived with a contingent of crusaders and commenced a campaign of forced Christianization. Berthold was killed soon afterwards and his forces defeated, pope Innocent III issued a bull declaring a crusade against the Livonians. Bishop Albert was proclaimed Bishop of Livonia by his uncle Hartwig of Uthlede, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, Albert landed in Riga in 1200 with 23 ships and 500 Westphalian crusaders. In 1201, he transferred the seat of the Livonian bishopric from Ikšķile to Riga, the year 1201 also marked the first arrival of German merchants in Novgorod, via the Dvina. To defend territory and trade, Albert established the Order of Livonian Brothers of the Sword in 1202, open to nobles, in 1207, Albert started on fortification of the town. Emperor Philip invested Albert with Livonia as a fief and principality of the Holy Roman Empire, until then, it had been customary for crusaders to serve for a year and then return home
4.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26,1991. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and that evening at 7,32, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag. Previously, from August to December, all the individual republics, the week before the unions formal dissolution,11 republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol formally establishing the CIS and declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR also signalled the end of the Cold War, on the other hand, only the Baltic states have joined NATO and the European Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo on March 11,1985, Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the Soviet economy, the reforms began with personnel changes of senior Brezhnev-era officials who would impede political and economic change. On April 23,1985, Gorbachev brought two protégés, Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, into the Politburo as full members. He kept the power ministries happy by promoting KGB Head Viktor Chebrikov from candidate to full member and this liberalisation, however, fostered nationalist movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union. Under Gorbachevs leadership, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, in May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad advocating reforms and an anti-alcohol campaign to tackle widespread alcoholism. Prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised in order to make these drinks more expensive and a disincentive to consumers, unlike most forms of rationing intended to conserve scarce goods, this was done to restrict sales with the overt goal of curtailing drunkenness. Gorbachevs plan also included billboards promoting sobriety, increased penalties for public drunkenness, however, Gorbachev soon faced the same adverse economic reaction to his prohibition as did the last Tsar. The disincentivization of alcohol consumption was a blow to the state budget according to Alexander Yakovlev. Alcohol production migrated to the market, or through moonshining as some made bathtub vodka with homegrown potatoes. The purpose of these reforms, however, was to prop up the centrally planned economy, unlike later reforms. The latter, disparaged as Mr Nyet in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs, gromyko was relegated to the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, as he was considered an old thinker. In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger, at the next Central Committee meeting on October 15, Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate. Finally, on December 23,1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin, Gorbachev continued to press for greater liberalization. The CTAG Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers, Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss and its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki Accords
5.
Baltic Germans
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The Baltic Germans are ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettling from Estonia and Latvia during the upheavals and aftermath of the Second World War, the largest groups of present-day descendants of the Baltic Germans are found in Germany and Canada. It is estimated that several thousand still reside in Latvia and Estonia, for centuries Baltic Germans and the Baltic nobility were a ruling class over native “Undeutsche” serfs. The emerging Baltic-German middle class was mostly urban and professional, in the 12th and 13th centuries Germans, both traders and crusaders, began settling in the eastern Baltics. After the Livonian Crusade they assumed control of government, politics, economics, education, with the decline of Latin, German became the language of all official documents, commerce, education and government. After 1710 many of these increasingly took high positions in the military, political and civilian life of the Russian Empire, Baltic Germans held citizenship of the Russian Empire until 1918 and Estonian or Latvian citizenship until 1939–40. The Baltic German population never surpassed more than 10% of the total population, in 1881 there were 180,000 Baltic Germans in Russias Baltic provinces, but by 1914 this number had declined to 162,000. In 1881 there were approximately 46,700 Germans in Estonia, according to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, there were 120,191 Germans in Latvia, or 6. 2% of the population. Baltic German history and presence in the Baltics came to an end in late 1939, following the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, almost all the Baltic Germans were resettled by Nazi Germany under the Heim ins Reich program into the newly formed Reichsgaue Wartheland and Danzig-West Prussia. In 1945, most were expelled from these lands by the Soviet army, ethnic Germans from East Prussia and Lithuania are sometimes incorrectly considered Baltic Germans for reasons of cultural, linguistic, and historical affinities. However, the Germans of East Prussia held Prussian, and after 1871, Baltic Germans were not a purely German ethnic group. The early crusaders, tradesmen and craftsmen often married local females, some noble families, like Lievens, even claimed descent from native chieftains. Many of the German Livonian Order soldiers died during the Livonian war, during this time the Low German of the original settlers was replaced by the High German. In those cases where intermarriage occurred, the ethnic group frequently assimilated into German culture, adopting language, customs. They were then considered Germans, leading to the ethnogenesis of the Baltic Germans, barclay de Tolly and George Armitstead, who arrived from the British Isles, became part of the Baltic-German community. Livland, roughly the half of present-day Estonia and the northern and eastern part of todays Latvia, major towns, Riga, Wenden, Wolmar, Walk, Dorpat, Pernau. Kurland, roughly the half of present-day Latvia, major towns. Ösel belonging to present-day Estonia, major town, Arensburg, after the heavy defeat in the 1236 Battle of Saule the Livonian Brothers of the Sword became a part of the Teutonic Order
6.
German occupation of Latvia during World War II
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The occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany was completed on July 10,1941 by Germanys armed forces. Latvia became a part of Nazi Germanys Reichskommissariat Ostland — the Province General of Latvia, the killings were committed by the Einsatzgruppe A, and the Wehrmacht. Latvian collaborators, including the 500–1,500 members of the Arājs Commando,30,000 Jews were shot in the autumn of 1941 with most of the remaining Jewish people being rounded up and put into ghettos. Germany, Austria and the present-day Czech Republic Jews, now located in the Riga ghetto were put to work, the Kaiserwald concentration camp was built in 1943 at Mežaparks on the edge of Riga which took most of the inmates from the ghetto. In the camp the inmates were put to work by large German companies, before the Soviet forces returned, all Jews under 18 or over 30 were shot, with the remainder moved to Stutthof concentration camp. During the years of Nazi occupation, special campaigns killed 90,000 people in Latvia and those who were not Jews or Gypsies were mostly civilians whose political opinions and activity were unacceptable to the German occupiers. Jewish and Gypsy civilians were eliminated as a result of the Nazi theory of races as set out in the Nazi Generalplan Ost plan. And lastly there were people who felt persecuted, mainly the Jews, many resistance people ended up joining either the German and some, the Soviet armies, as a means of fighting. Very few were able to live as independent bands in the forests, when the Germans first arrived in Latvia they found anti Soviet guerrilla bands operating in may areas, of varying quality, some swollen by deserters from Soviet units. The largest and most effective was led by Kārlis Aperāts who moved on to become a Standartenführer, some Latvians resisted the German occupation undertaking solo acts of bravery, like Žanis Lipke who risked his life to save more than 50 Jews. The Latvian resistance movement was divided between the units under the Latvian Central Council and the pro-Soviet forces under the Central Staff of the Partisan Movement in Moscow. Their Latvian commander was Arturs Sproģis, the Latvian Central Council published the outlawed publication Brīvā Latvija. The periodical promoted the idea of renewing democracy in Latvia after the war, public displays of resistance such as the 15 May 1942 in Riga resulted in the young nationalists being arrested, others were prevented when their plans were discovered. However much partisan activity was centred of forcing civilians to provide food and these reports were used as propaganda by the Soviets. Resistance continued at a level after the return of the Red army in July 1944, with perhaps 40,000 Latvians involved. Many Latvian soldiers deserted when Germany attacked Latvia, a few, especially Jews, continued to serve happily with the Soviet forces. 130th Latvian Rifle Corps of the Order of Suvorov and this Red Army national formation was formed, for the third time, on June 5,1944, shortly before the Red Army attacked Latvia. Their strength was about 15,000 men, which consisted three divisions – 43rd Guards, 308th Latvian Rifle Division and a Soviet division, the Corps units fought against Latvian Legion 19th Division units
7.
Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Latvia or Latvia, was a republic of the Soviet Union. Its territory was conquered by Nazi Germany in June–July 1941. Soviet rule came to the end during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and restoring its former state symbols - flag and anthem. The full independence of the Republic of Latvia was restored on 21 August 1991, during the 1991 Soviet coup détat attempt, on September 24,1939, the USSR entered the airspace of Estonia, flying numerous intelligence gathering operations. On September 25, Moscow demanded that Estonia sign a Soviet–Estonian Mutual Assistance Treaty that would allow the USSR to establish military bases, Latvia was next in line, as the USSR demanded the signing of a similar treaty. The authoritarian government of Kārlis Ulmanis accepted the ultimatum, signing the Soviet–Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty on October 5,1939. On June 16,1940, after the USSR had already invaded Lithuania, hundreds of thousands Soviet troops entered Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. These additional Soviet military forces far outnumbered the armies of each country, the Latvian army did not fire a shot and was quickly decimated by purges and included in the Red Army. Ulmanis government resigned and was replaced by a government created under instructions from the USSR embassy. Up until the elections of the Peoples Parliament on July 14–15,1940 there were no public statements about governmental plans to introduce a Soviet political order or to join the Soviet Union. Soon after the occupation, the Communist Party of Latvia was legalized as the legal party. It was the only permitted participant in the election, after an attempt by other politicians to include the Democratic Bloc on the ballot was prevented by the government and its office was closed, election leaflets confiscated and its leaders arrested. The election results themselves were fabricated, the Soviet press service released them so early that they appeared in a London newspaper a full 24 hours before the polls had closed, all Soviet army personnel present in the country were allowed to vote. The newly elected Peoples Parliament convened on 21 July to declare the creation of the Latvian SSR, on August 5, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union completed the process of annexation by accepting the Latvian petition, and formally incorporated Latvia into the Soviet Union. Some of the Latvian diplomats stayed in the West and the Latvian Diplomatic Service continued to advocate the cause of Latvias freedom for the next 50 years. Therefore, the history of Soviet Latvia can broadly be divided in the periods of rule by the First Secretaries, Jānis Kalnbērziņš, Arvīds Pelše, Augusts Voss, in the following months of 1940 the Soviet Constitution and criminal code were introduced. The sham elections of July 1940 were followed by elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in January 1941, the remaining Baltic Germans and anyone who could claim to be one emigrated to the German Reich. On August 7,1940 all print media and printing houses were nationalized, most of the existing magazines and newspapers were discontinued or appeared under new, Soviet names
8.
Baltic states
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The Baltic states cooperate on a regional level in several intergovernmental organizations. While the native populations of Latvia and Lithuania are known as Baltic people, another Baltic identity, Baltic German, began to develop during the Middle Ages after the Livonian Crusade. After the collapse of Livonia, parts of Latvia and Estonia came under influence of the Commonwealth and this lasted until the 18th century, when the lands of all three modern countries were gradually absorbed into the Russian Empire. The Baltic states gained independence after World War I, but were occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II, all three countries are members of the European Union, NATO and the Eurozone. They are classified as high-income economies by the World Bank and maintain high Human Development Index, Estonia and Latvia are also members of the OECD, while Lithuania is a prospective candidate. The term Baltic stems from the name of the Baltic Sea – a hydronym dating back to the 11th century, although there are several theories about its origin, most ultimately trace it to Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This meaning is retained in modern Baltic languages, where baltas, however the modern names of the region and the sea, that originate from this root, were not used in either of the two languages prior to the 19th century. In English Ost is East, and in fact, the Baltic Sea mostly lies to the east of Germany, Denmark, Norway, in the 13th century pagan Baltic and Finnic peoples in the region became a target of the Northern Crusades. In the aftermath of the Livonian crusade, a crusader state officially named Terra Mariana and it was divided into four autonomous bishoprics and lands of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. After the Brothers of the Sword suffered defeat at the Battle of Saule, Northern Estonia initially became a Danish dominion, but it was purchased by the Teutonic Order in the mid-14th century. The Lithuanians were also targeted by the crusaders, however they were able to resist and it allied with the Kingdom of Poland. After the Union of Krewo in 1385 created a union between the two countries, they became ever more closely integrated and finally merged into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. After victory in the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War, the Polish–Lithuanian union became a political power in the region. In 1558 Livonia was attacked by the Tsardom of Russia and the Livonian war broke out, the rulers of different regions within Livonia sought to ally with foreign powers, which resulted in Polish–Lithuanian, Swedish and Danish involvement. In the aftermath of conflicts of the 17th century, much of the Duchy of Livonia. These newly acquired Swedish territories, as well as Ingria and Kexholm, at the beginning of the 18th century the Swedish Empire was attacked by a coalition of several European powers in the Great Northern War. Among these powers was Russia, seeking to restore its access to the Baltic Sea, during the course of the war it conquered all of the Swedish provinces on the Eastern Baltic coast. This acquisition was legalized by the Treaty of Nystad in which the Baltic Dominions were ceded to Russia, under Russian rule these territories came to be known as Ostsee Governorates
9.
European Library
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The European Library is an Internet service that allows access to the resources of 49 European national libraries and an increasing number of research libraries. Searching is free and delivers metadata records as well as digital objects, the objects come from institutions located in countries which are members of the Council of Europe and range from catalogue records to full-text books, magazines, journals and audio recordings. Over 200 million records are searchable, including 24 million pages of full-text content, thirty five different languages are represented among the searchable objects. The European Library ceases operation on 2016-12-31, the European Library of today has evolved from a number of earlier projects. Its starting point was in 1997 when the GABRIEL project set out to establish a joint web portal of European national libraries, at a basic level, the portal provided information about each librarys collections and access to their online public access catalogues. GABRIEL was followed by the TEL project, which ran from 2001–2004 and created a framework for access to key national, the project was part-funded under the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Commission. The national libraries involved in the TEL project were those of Finland, Germany, Italy, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland and this led to the launch of TheEuropeanLibrary. org portal on 17 March 2005. Between 2005–2007, the TEL-ME-MOR project helped to incorporate 10 more national libraries from new European Union member states as full partners of The European Library. By the beginning of 2008, a further nine national libraries within the European Union, the European Library took a further step towards its enlargement with the EDLproject, during which national libraries continued to join The European Library. The project also focused on multilingualism, undertook the first steps towards a European Metadata Registry, work began on a prototype in 2007 and Europeana was launched in November 2008. Europeana now operates independently but The European Library continues to work closely with Europeana, the European Library is the aggregator of digital content from national libraries for Europeana and delivers digital content from national libraries on a monthly basis to Europeana. As of July 2012, The European Library was the second biggest content provider to Europeana, some human and technical resources are also shared between Europeana and The European Library. In addition to its engine, The European Library pulls together themes from the collections of Europes national libraries. These exhibitions unite geographically disparate objects in an online space. Travelling Through History, Centuries worth of memorabilia from 13 European libraries, including photographs, sounds, maps. Reading Europe, Almost 1,000 books selected by national libraries, with curatorial information, a Roma Journey, Texts, photographs, paintings and recordings of traditional songs showing the heritage of the Romani people in Europe. Napoleonic Wars, A selection of portraits, military maps, city plans, letters, books, treasures of Europes National Libraries, A collection of objects selected by Europes national libraries as some of the most outstanding items in their collections. National Library Buildings, Images of the National Libraries that are partners of The European Library, the European Library is financed by its owners, the Conference of European National Librarians
10.
Saeima
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The Saeima is the parliament of the Republic of Latvia. It is a parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation. Elections are scheduled to be held every four years, normally on the first Saturday of October. The most recent elections were held in October 2014, the President of Latvia can dismiss the Saeima and request early elections. The procedure for dismissing it involves substantial political risk to the president, on May 28,2011, president Valdis Zatlers decided to initiate the dissolution of the Saeima, which was approved in a referendum, and the Saeima was dissolved on 23 July 2011. The current Speaker of the Saeima is Ināra Mūrniece, deputies are elected to represent one of five constituencies, Kurzeme, Latgale, Riga, Vidzeme, and Zemgale. The word Saeima, meaning a gathering, a meeting, a council, was constructed by the Young Latvian Juris Alunāns and it stems from the archaic Latvian word eima meaning to go. Summary of the 4 October 2014 Latvian Saeima election results In the pre-war Latvia, 1st Saeima met from November 7,1922 until November 2,1925. 2nd Saeima from November 3,1925 until November 5,1928, 3rd Saeima from November 6,1928 until November 2,1931. 4th Saeima met from November 3,1931 until the May 15,1934 Latvian coup détat, deputies of the Saeima Latvijas Republikas Saeima Central Election Commission of Latvia
11.
Raoul Dufy
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Raoul Dufy was a French Fauvist painter, brother of Jean Dufy. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles and he is noted for scenes of open-air social events. He was also a draftsman, printmaker, book illustrator, scenic designer, a designer of furniture, Raoul Dufy was born into a large family at Le Havre, in Normandy. He left school at the age of fourteen to work in a coffee-importing company, in 1895, when he was 18, he started taking evening classes in art at Le Havres École des Beaux-Arts. The classes were taught by Charles Lhuillier, who had been, forty years earlier, there, Dufy met Raimond Lecourt and Othon Friesz with whom he later shared a studio in Montmartre and to whom he remained a lifelong friend. During this period, Dufy painted mostly Norman landscapes in watercolors, in 1900, after a year of military service, Dufy won a scholarship to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where again he crossed paths with Othon Friesz. He concentrated on improving his drawing skills, the impressionist landscape painters, such as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, influenced Dufy profoundly. His first exhibition took place in 1901, introduced to Berthe Weill in 1902, Dufy showed his work in her gallery. Then he exhibited again in 1903 at the Salon des Indépendants, a boost to his confidence, the painter, Maurice Denis, bought one of his paintings. Dufy continued to paint, often in the vicinity of Le Havre, in 1904, with his friend, Albert Marquet, he worked in Fecamp on the English Channel. Henri Matisses Luxe, Calme et Volupté, which Dufy saw at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, was a revelation to the young artist, les Fauves emphasized bright color and bold contours in their work. Dufys painting reflected this aesthetic until about 1909, when contact with the work of Paul Cézanne led him to adopt a somewhat subtler technique. It was not until 1920, however, after he had flirted briefly with yet another style, cubism and it involved skeletal structures, arranged with foreshortened perspective, and the use of thin washes of color applied quickly, in a manner that came to be known as stenographic. Dufys cheerful oils and watercolors depict events of the period, including yachting scenes, sparkling views of the French Riviera, chic parties. Dufy completed one of the largest paintings ever contemplated, a huge and immensely popular ode to electricity, Dufy also acquired a reputation as an illustrator and as a commercial artist. He painted murals for buildings, he also produced a huge number of tapestries. His plates appear in books by Guillaume Apollinaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, in 1909, Raoul Dufy was commissioned by Paul Poiret to design stationery for the house, and after 1912 designed textile patterns for Bianchini-Ferier used in Poirets and Charvets garments. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Dufy exhibited at the annual Salon des Tuileries in Paris, by 1950, his hands were struck with rheumatoid arthritis and his ability to paint diminished, as he has to fasten the brush to his hand
12.
Bernhard Borchert
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Bernhard Borchert was a Baltic-German painter who spent the greatest part of his life in Latvia. He entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in 1883 and he produced book and magazine illustrations. He was the author of the Baltic artists’ painting exhibition
13.
St. Peter's Church, Riga
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St. Peters Church is a Lutheran church in Riga, the capital of Latvia, dedicated to Saint Peter. It is a church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia. First mention of the St. Peters Church is in records dating to 1209, the church was a masonry construction and therefore undamaged by a city fire in Riga that year. The history of the church can be divided into three periods, two associated with Gothic and Romanesque building styles, the third with the early Baroque period. The middle section of the church was built during the 13th century, the only remnants of this period are located in the outer nave walls and on the inside of a few pillars in the nave, around which larger pillars were later built. The second period dates to 1408–09, when master builders Johannes Rumeschottel from Rostock supervised the construction of the sanctuary, the sanctuary was almost finished by 1409, but due to the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War it was completed and dedicated only in 1419. Other construction work was interrupted by the plague in 1420 and resumed in the 1430s, the 13th-century church was reconstructed in 1456–66 to conform to the newly built sanctuary. Both constructions were joined in the 1470s, thereby creating a mighty basilica with three aisles and ornate vaulted ceilings, the old bell tower was replaced in 1456, and a bell was hung in the new tower in 1477. A136 metres octagonal steeple was added to the tower in 1491, the tower collapsed 11 March 1666, destroying a neighboring building and burying eight people in the rubble. The cornerstone for a new tower was laid 29 June 1667, the third period of construction dates to 1671–90, with the construction of the western facade and the new tower. The roof, vaulted ceilings and furnishings were also renovated during this time, jacob Josten, the Dutch-born master builder of Riga, designed the tower and supervised its construction, which was begun April 1671 by the master mason Heinrich Henicke. Josten was replaced in 1675 by Rupert Bindenschu, the master builder of Riga. The tower was completed in 1677, but it, along with the interior, were destroyed already 21 May 1677. First service in the church took place 14 September 1679. Renovation of the tower began 1686 and was designed by the city engineer Friedrich S. von Dahlen, the city council did not approve of the half-finished steeple, and so it was torn down in 1688. A new 64.5 metres copper-roofed steeple, designed by Bindenshu, was then built, a sphere and rooster were set atop the steeple 10 May 1690. This tower was the tallest wooden construction in Europe at the time, the western facade of the church was also altered in the later 17th century. The brick construction was covered with limestone from Salaspils and Koknese
14.
Daugava
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The River Daugava or Western Dvina is a river rising in the Valdai Hills, Russia, flowing through Russia, Belarus, and Latvia and into the Gulf of Riga. The total length of the river is 1,020 km,325 km in Russia,338 km in Belarus, within Latvia it flows through Latgale, Zemgale, Vidzeme and Riga, before flowing into the Gulf of Riga. The total catchment area of the river is 87,900 km2,33,150 km2 of which are within Belarus. According to the Max Vasmers Etymological Dictionary, the toponym Dvina clearly cannot stem from a Uralic language, the river began experiencing environmental deterioration in the era of Soviet collective agriculture and a wave of hydroelectric power projects. Ruba, Vitebsk, Beshankovichy, Polotsk with Boris stones strewn in the vicinity, Navapolatsk, Dzisna, Verkhnedvinsk, krāslava, Daugavpils, Līvāni, Jēkabpils, Pļaviņas, Aizkraukle, Jaunjelgava, Lielvārde, Kegums, Ogre, Ikšķile, Salaspils and Riga. Beginning around the sixth century AD, Viking explorers crossed the Baltic Sea and entered the Daugava River, in medieval times the Daugava was an important navigation trading route for transport of furs from the north and Byzantine silver. In Belarus, water pollution of the Daugava is considered severe, with the chief sources being treated wastewater, fish-farming. Daugava River photos at flickr Richard C, francis W. Carter and David Turnock. Environmental problems of East Central Europe
15.
Latvian Americans
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Latvian Americans are Americans who are of Latvian ancestry. According to the 2008 American Community Survey, there are 93,498 Americans of full or partial Latvian descent, around 1640, Latvians settled in Delaware and Pennsylvania, together with Scandinavian settlers. Later, in 1849, a number of Latvians were part of the thousands of people who immigrated to California looking for fortune during the Gold Rush, however, the first significant wave of Latvian settlers that immigrated to the United States came in 1888 to Boston. Some immigrants also established themselves in areas, although they were few. Although most Latvians settle in cities, in most of these the Latvians were also few, a new wave of Latvian immigration began around 1906, after the failure of their 1905 Revolution in Latvia. In 1917, many Latvian Revolutionaries went back to Latvia to work in the creation of a Bolshevik government, and in 1918, after World War II many Latvian refugees fleeing the Soviet Union, were established in other European countries. However, about half were eventually repatriated to Latvia, being the rest repatriated in Germany, England, Australia, Canada, United States and in other countries. From 1949 to 1951,40,000 Latvians immigrated to the United States with the help of the U. S. government and various social service and religious organizations. Although many of these refugees had been professionals in their country, in United States they often had jobs as farmhands, custodians, most Latvians settled in cities, such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago. As with the Old Latvians, the most of the new Latvians, could not create neighborhoods and had to rely on social events, from 1980 to 1990,1,006 Latvians arrived in the United States. Latvia became reestablished as an independent country in 1991, however, according to the 2000 census, a total of 87,564 people of Latvian descent live in the United States. There are larger populations in the states of California, New York, Illinois, Florida, many Latvian Americans have dual citizenship, which became available to Latvians who emigrated after the reestablishment of independence. Also, many travel to Latvia and provide financial support. Some Latvian Americans have been elected to the Saeima, or Parliament, thus, in 1911 only two individuals had obtained American university degrees. The majority of Latvians emigrants to the United States after World War II were university graduates, many were academics or belonged to intelligentsia. Most Latvian Americans speak English, while Latvian is basically the language spoken by American Latvians of the first generation due to intermarriage, as for religion, although most Latvians Americans are Lutherans, there are also small Catholic communities, Represented by the American Latvian Catholic Association. There is also a sizable American-Latvian Jewish community, former Senior Attorney AT&T, and influential CAB attorney. Famous for his score in the movies such as Tootsie
16.
Gunnar Birkerts
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Gunnar Birkerts is a Latvian-American architect who, for most of his career, was based in the metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan. S. Gunnar Birkerts was raised in Latvia but fled ahead of the advancing Russian army toward the end of the Second World War and he graduated from the Technische Hochschule, Stuttgart, Germany, in 1949. Birkerts came to the United States and worked initially for Perkins and Will, then for Eero Saarinen, Birkerts initially practiced in the partnership Birkerts and Straub, after that partnership broke up the firm became Gunnar Birkerts and Associates. Birkerts joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1959, the ACSA honored Birkerts with the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award in 1989-90. Gunnar Birkerts was selected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1970, Birkerts now maintains an architectural office in Wellesley, Massachusetts. His son is noted literary critic Sven Birkerts, Gunnar Birkerts is noted for designing the new building of National Library of Latvia in Riga. Birkerts is a professor at The University of Illinois and was the Architect-In-Residence at the American Academy in Rome. He is a member of the Latvian Union of Architects, honorary member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, edita, Tokyo 1982 Gunnar Birkerts & Associates, IBM Information Systems Center, Sterling Forest, N. Y. 1972, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minnesota,1973, EDITA, Tokyo 1974 Gunnar Birkerts Architects, Inc. Gunnar Birkerts papers 1930-2002, at the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan Biography
17.
European Capital of Culture
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The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension. An international panel of experts is in charge of assessing the proposals of cities for the title according to criteria specified by the European Union. Consequently, the beneficial socio-economic development and impact for the city are now also considered in determining the chosen cities. The European Capital of Culture programme was called the European City of Culture and was conceived in 1983, by Melina Mercouri. Mercouri believed that at the time, culture was not given the attention as politics and economics. The European City of Culture programme was launched in the summer of 1985 with Athens being the first title-holder, during the German presidency of 1999, the European City of Culture programme was renamed the European Capital of Culture. 1 A new framework makes it possible for a city in a country or potential candidate for EU membership to hold the title every third year as of 2021. This will be selected through a competition, meaning that cities from various countries may compete with each other. Association for Tourism and Leisure Education
18.
Eastern Partnership
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The project was initiated by Poland and a subsequent proposal was prepared in co-operation with Sweden. It was presented by the ministers of Poland and Sweden at the EUs General Affairs. The Eastern Partnership was inaugurated by the European Union in Prague, the first meeting of foreign ministers in the framework of the Eastern Partnership was held on 8 December 2009 in Brussels. Its geographical scope consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, unlike the Union for the Mediterranean, the Eastern Partnership does not have its own secretariat, but is controlled directly by the European Commission. It was discussed at the European Council on 19 and 20 June 2008, the Eastern Partnership was officially launched when the Czech Republic invited the leaders of the six members of the initiative. Meanwhile, Germany attended the summit to signal their alarm at the situation in the East. The participation of Belarus in the Eastern Partnership and their President Lukashenko, on 30 September 2011 Belarus seemingly withdrew from the initiative because of, unprecedented discrimination and a substitution of the principles on which it was built two years ago. However three days later Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Martynov refuted this, promotion of human rights and rule of law in former Soviet states has been reported to form the core of the policy of the Eastern Partnership. The Partnership is to provide the foundation for new Association Agreements between the EU and those partners who have made sufficient progress towards the principles and values mentioned. Apart from values, the declaration says the region is of strategic importance, the inclusion of Belarus prompts the question whether values or geopolitics are paramount in the initiative. EU diplomats agree that the authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has done little to merit involvement in the policy at this stage. But the EU fears Russia will strengthen its grip on Minsk if it is left out and it is, however, assumed that in the long-term, Lukashenko will become less important with time. A future membership perspective is not ruled out, either, in December 2010 the European Investment Bank has established the ″Eastern Partnership Technical Assistance Trust Fund″. It includes the ″Eastern Partnership Internship Programme″ which is open to students who are nationals of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine is one of six post-Soviet nations to be invited to co-operate with the EU within the new multilateral framework that the Eastern partnership is expected to establish. However, Kiev pointed out that it remains pessimistic about the value of this initiative. Indeed, Ukraine and the EU have already started the negotiations on new, enhanced political, also, there has been some progress in liberalising the visa regime despite persistent problems in the EU Member States visa approach towards Ukrainians. That is why Ukraine has a view of the Eastern Partnership Project. According to the Ukrainian presidency, it should correspond, in case of his country, to the foreign policy objective
19.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
20.
Jonathan Dimbleby
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Jonathan Dimbleby is a British presenter of current affairs and political radio and television programmes, an author and historian. He is the son of Richard Dimbleby and younger brother of British TV presenter David Dimbleby, Dimbleby was educated at Charterhouse School, a boys independent school in Surrey. Later, he studied Farm Management at the Royal Agricultural College and he studied philosophy at University College London and graduated in 1970. He was later elected an Honorary Fellow but resigned in 2015 in protest as the dismissal of Professor Emeritus Tim Hunt, in July 2007 received an honorary degree from the University of Exeter. Dimbleby began his career at the BBC in Bristol in 1969, in 1970 he joined The World at One as a reporter where he also presented The World This Weekend. In 1972 he joined ITVs flagship current affairs programme This Week and his coverage of the 1973 Ethiopian famine, The Unknown Famine, was followed by TV and radio appeals which raised a record sum nationally and internationally. His report, for which he won the SFTA Richard Dimbleby Award, in 1978 he wrote and presented the ITV series Jonathan Dimbleby in South America. In 1979 he joined Yorkshire Television where he wrote and presented three ITV network series – The Bomb, The Eagle and The Bear and The Cold War Game and he also presented the ITV documentary series First Tuesday. In 1985 he joined TV-am as presenter of Jonathan Dimbleby on Sunday, in 1986 he returned to ITV as presenter of This Week. In 1988 he joined the BBC to present the new political programme On the Record. From 1995 to 2006 he presented ITVs political programme, Jonathan Dimbleby and he anchored ITVs general election coverage in 1997,2001 and 2005. He wrote and presented Russia with Jonathan Dimbleby, An African Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby, in 2013 he wrote and presented Churchills Desert War based on his book, Destiny in The Desert. In 2015 he wrote and presented the 2-part series The BBC At War, since 1987 he has presented Any Questions. In 2016 he became the presenter of the BBC World Service monthly series. Dimbleby wanted to be a farmer when he left school and worked on the Royal Farm, Windsor, from 1993 until 2004 he ran an organic farm near Bath, Somerset. He is a past-president of Voluntary Service Overseas, past President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, past President of the Soil Association and he chairs Dimbleby Cancer Care, the charity established in 1966 in memory of his father. He was Chairman of Index on Censorships Board of Trustees from 2008 until 2013 when he was succeeded by David Aaronovitch, Dimbleby is the son of the Second World War war correspondent Richard Dimbleby, who was later to become presenter of the BBC TV current affairs programme Panorama. He has a brother, David Dimbleby, who is also a current affairs commentator
21.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
22.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
23.
Riga Castle
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Riga Castle is a castle on the banks of River Daugava in Riga, the capital of Latvia. The castle was founded in 1330 and its structure was thoroughly rebuilt between 1497 and 1515. Upon the castles seizure by the Swedes, they constructed spacious annexes in 1641, the fortress was continually augmented and reconstructed between the 17th and 19th centuries. Sometime in the 1930s, some work was done by architect Eižens Laube. The Latvian government declared the castle its residence in 1938, today it is the official residence of the President of Latvia as well as home to several museums. Due to constant conflict with Rigans the Order chose to build a new castle beyond the borders of the rather than to rebuild the original castle. The site occupied by Convent of the Saint Spirit – a hospital and shelter for the poor – was chosen, the Rigans eventually lost the fight and were forced to rebuild the castle – the restoration was finished in 1515. After the Union of Wilno order ceased to exist in 1561 the Castle became Lithuanian, Riga came under Swedish rule and the Castle was used to house Swedish administration. After the city came under the Russian Empire in the early 18th century, since 1922 the castle became residence of the President of Latvia. After Soviet occupation the castle housed Council of People Commissars of Latvian SSR in 1940–1941, in 1941 the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union moved into northern part of the castle, which therefore became known as the Pioneer Castle. Several museums are housed in the part of the castle. After the independence of Latvia was restored the northern part of the Castle again became the residence of the President of Latvia, the original Castle was a three-floor building which enclosed a rectangular courtyard and had four rectangular towers in its corners. After the Castle was demolished in 1484 it was rebuilt with two towers replaced by round towers following the latest developments of military technologies, the Castle experienced vast development during 17th century when it was almost constantly under construction. In 1682 Arsenal was attached to the castle, it was torn down one hundred years later. The builders who worked on the reconstruction of the Riga Castle, around 22,21 on the night of 20 June 2013, fire broke out in the castle and the firefighters were called in. The castle was guarded by the military police, after midnight authorities declared the fire reached the highest level, being seen across the Daugava river. Shortly before 2 a. m, the roof of the castle was no longer visible, at 3,53 in the morning the source of the fire was spotted, and at 4,45 a. m. the traffic was restored on the embankment 11. Novembra, between Akmens and Vanšu bridges, the Riga agency of State Fire and Rescue Service gathered all resources available, including aid from the Jūrmala fire department
24.
Cat House, Riga
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The Cat House is a building situated at 10 Meistaru iela in the old town of Riga, the capital of Latvia. It was built in 1909 according to the blueprint of architect Friedrich Scheffel, the building is styled as medieval architecture with some elements of Art Nouveau. It is known for the two cat sculptures, with arched backs and raised tails, on its roof. It is said that the owner of the house wanted the cats to be placed with their tails turned towards the house of the Great Guild and it was later ordered that the cats should be turned so as to face the guildhouse. The legend known by most Rigans, which is told to tourists. One version of the legend has it that the wealthy tradesman who commissioned the building was refused membership of the Riga Tradesmens Guild, mostly just called the Great Guild. The Riga Town Hall at the time was in the direction as the Great Guild
25.
House of the Blackheads (Riga)
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House of the Blackheads is a building situated in the old town of Riga, Latvia. The original building was erected during the first third of the 14th century for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, major works were done in the years 1580 and 1886, adding most of the ornamentations. The structure was bombed to a ruin by the Germans June 28,1941, the current reconstruction was erected from 1995 to 1999. Media related to House of Blackheads at Wikimedia Commons
26.
House of the Livonian Noble Corporation
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The House of the Livonian Noble Corporation is a historical building in Riga, Latvia, constructed to house the Landtag of the Livonian Noble Corporation in the Governorate of Livonia. It was opened in 1867 and housed the Landtag until Latvian independence in 1919, today it is home to the Saeima, the parliament of Latvia. It is located in UNESCO listed Old Riga, directly opposite St. Jamess Cathedral, the Livonian Noble Corporation was a semi-autonomous fiefdom that administered the area on behalf of the Emperor. The Landtag was not a body, but was rather an aristocratic assembly of Nobles. Construction began in 1863 and was designed by Robert Pflug, a Baltic-German, and Jānis Baumanis, the exterior and interior were finished in Eclectic style. The façade featured a niche containing a statue by Danish sculptor David Jensen of the Teutonic Landmeister Wolter von Plettenberg, after the socialist republic was defeated, the building became the seat of the Constitutional Assembly elected in 1920. On 17 October 1921, the building was destroyed by fire and it was restored according to the design of the architect Eižens Laube. At the time of the restoration the main assembly hall was modified to meet the needs of the Saeima of the new Republic of Latvia. The Saeima chamber today still approximates this design, the last meeting of the Constitutional Assembly, which wrote the Constitution of Latvia took place in the restored building on 3 November 1922. The building served as the home of the Saeima until a self-coup by serving Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis in 1934, Ulmanis assumed the title of President in 1936 and the building served as the centre of his authoritarian régime. Latvia remained under Soviet occupation after the war and the served as the location of the Supreme Council for almost half a century. In the early 1980s one of the courtyards was walled in to expand building space. Since 1993 it is once again home to Latvias parliament, government of Latvia Estonian Knighthood House Parliament of Latvia
27.
Three Brothers, Riga
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The Three Brothers is a building complex consisting of three houses, situated in Riga, Latvia. The houses together form the oldest complex of dwelling houses in Riga, the houses are situated at the addresses 17,19 and 21 Maza Pils Street, and each represents various periods of development of dwelling house construction. The building in 17 Maza Pils Street is the oldest, dating from the late 15th century, the exterior of the building is characterised by crow-stepped gables, Gothic decorations and a few early Renaissance details. Originally the building consisted internally of one room and an attic in use as a storage. The house was restored in 1955–57 by architect P. Saulitis, the neighbouring house,19 Maza Pils Street, has an exterior dating from 1646, with a stone portal added in 1746. The style of the building shows influences from Dutch Mannerism, the last house of the three, located in 21 Maza Pils Street, is a narrow Baroque building which gained its present look probably during the late 17th century. The Three Brothers complex today houses the State Inspection for Heritage Protection, media related to Three Brothers at Wikimedia Commons
28.
Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel
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Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel is a 4+ star hotel in Riga, Latvia, and was the first hotel in the Baltic states to be managed by an international hotel brand after Latvia regained independence in 1991. 1 July 1995 - Soft Opening of the hotel,1 October 1995 - Official Opening of the hotel with 361 guest-room,10 conference rooms and Food & Beverage facilities available. The first General Manager of the hotel was Kurt Ritter,9 March 1996 – Grand Opening party. July 1996 – opening of Regency Palace Casino,2 September 1996 – introduction of airline check-in service for SAS and AirBaltic flights. March 1997 – Radisson President’s Award winner,1 January 1997 – Business Class concept introduced. September – becomes the pilot hotel of “Reserved for You” program,1 October 1998 – introduction of 100% Guest Satisfaction Guarantee across the chain. 1998 – Radisson President’s Award winner,19 January 2000 – launch of a new Rezidor logo and company name, “Hotels Worldwide” being replaced with “Hotels & Resorts”. February 2000 – the name “Radisson SAS Daugava Hotel Riga” is shortened and changed to “Radisson SAS Daugava Hotel”,9 March 2001 – opening of Baltic Meeting & Training Center –3 additional conference rooms. 9 March 2001 – official opening of restaurant “Talavera”, which replaces “Grill Room”,1 November 2001 – opening of “Vienna Café”. September 2002 – leasing contract signed with ‘’Olympic Casinos”, april 2003 – opening of the Las Vegas style casino. 2006 – launch of a new Rezidor logo and company name,2007 - Latvia’s Leading Business Hotel award. October 2009 – change of logo, Radisson SAS has changed to Radisson Blu, february 2010 – “Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel” has been awarded the international environmental eco-certification Green Key. 2014 – Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel receives hotel. info top rated hotel award, february 2016 – the hotel has been awarded the internationally recognized Safehotels security certificate. Radisson Blu Daugava with its vast Conference Center, which consists of 10 conference rooms of various size, the primary goal of the symposium was to find some new ways to strike a better balance between respect for the workforce in the healthcare sector and consideration for patient needs. The international training workshop on capacity building in environment and health by World Health Organization, a total of 70 representatives of the environment and the health sector from the eight Member States participated in the training. Balttour Forum is an event of the Baltics’s major travel trade fair Balttour. Balttour Forum is an event in the Baltics tourism industry. Federation Internationale Feline – a leading international cat fancier society – general assembly, European Sulphuric Acid Association general assembly - comprising all the members, is the supreme body of ESA
29.
Gallery Park Hotel, Riga
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The building where Gallery Park Hotel & SPA is located dates to 1875. At that time, merchant Johan Joachim Fenger ordered the architect M. Holst to design a mansion in the style for his family. A year later the merchant hired R. Pflug, who designed the sun-lounge, banister, in 1892 another then-recognised architect - K. Felsko - added a portal with caryatides to the completed house. Later the building belonged to the family of Wilhelm Leopold Hartmann, Wilhelm Hartmann was the founder and owner of the W. Hartmann factory which produced butter. Together with the building, Johanna Maria inherited from her father a big carriage, the interior of the carriage was completed in dark green silk. In this four-horse carriage, Johanna Maria travelled to and from Paris, the carriage is currently an exhibit at the Latvian Open-air Museum. Until 1940 this building was the headquarters of the Fricis Grauds shipping company, after the war the building, which was located opposite a park area, became the property of the Soviet Army and housed the Political Department of the Baltic Military Region. Today the hotel rather resembles a museum, the walls of the lounge are decorated with gold embossed leather, which was handmade in Paris by the company Tassin using bronze stencils and 1901 equipment. The original woodwork on the walls and ceiling of the lounge and reception has been retained, there are also two metre high floor-mounted lanterns, cast in France more than a hundred years ago, and painted the colour of the Alexander III bridge in Paris. The wine room on the floor has a set of doors acquired at an auction in France. The wine room’s unique decorated floor is the only retained example of the floors so characteristic of 19th century Riga and it is worth drawing attention to the cheval-glass and piano of the first half of the 19th century. In most of the rooms, the style of Napoleon III, even the Persian carpets in the reception, lounge and guest rooms are more than a century old. To decorate the spa centre of the hotel, created according to the design of Italian architect Gianluigi Landoni, mosaic tiles, the hall is decorated with a mosaic panel picture by Bisazza. The façade of the building is neo-classical style, with balconies facing three sides, Kr, valdemara Street, Kalpaka Boulevard and the hotel’s yard with a garden. In 1892 the building had a portal with caryatides attached on the side of Kr, bas-reliefs of horse heads have been retained on the former stable building. Underneath it today is underground parking with a car lift, previously a cartouche on the side of Kalpaka Boulevard which is held by two Cupids had the letter “F”, which represented the initial letter of the building owners – Fenger. Today the cartouche is decorated with the letter “E”, which must have some relation to the current owners of the hotel
30.
Brothers' Cemetery
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The cemetery is a memorial to and burial ground for thousands of Latvian soldiers who were killed between 1915 and 1920 in World War I and the Latvian War of Independence. The landscape was designed by gardener Andrejs Zeidaks, who started to work on it already during the war, in 1913 the Forest Cemetery was opened. The first soldiers buried there, on 15 October 1915, were Andrejs Stūris, Jonas Gavenas, as the war continued it became clear that land for more burials will be needed. The organization committee of Latvian Riflemen battalions turned to the churches for more land, the conflict was ultimately solved in 1916 by the churches agreeing to return part of the land to the city for formation of separate cemetery, which in turn allotted it to the committee. The initial outlay of the cemetery was designed by Andrejs Zeidaks, in 1920 a committee for overseeing cemeteries and battle fields from World War I was formed, which became responsible for the development of the Brothers Cemetery. The development of the memorial can thus be divided into two periods. First was the period of development, which lasted until 1923. Meanwhile, the architectonic and artistic development of the cemetery was being discussed, in 1921 and in 1922 two closed design contests took place. The sculptor Kārlis Zāle, who was visiting Riga to participate in the design contest for the Freedom Monument, was invited to take part in the second contest for the cemetery as well and he won, and the second phase of development began, which lasted until 1936. In this period the landscaping was supplemented by architectonic and sculptural elements to form an ensemble in accordance with Zāles design. The architectural works were directed by P. Feders, the architect A. Birznieks, the foundation stone of the memorial was laid on 18 November 1924. The first sculptural group, of dying horsemen, was unveiled on 20 November 1927, the sculpture of Mother Latvia and her dead sons was unveiled on 13 October 1929. Construction of the gates began in 1930. Statues of soldiers with shields symbolizing the four regions of Latvia were carved later, in 1936 the coats of arms of the 19 districts and the 59 cities of Latvia were carved in the wall of the cemetery. The cemetery was dedicated as a memorial on 11 November 1936 in the presence of the then President of Latvia. The cemetery consists of an area of 9 hectares in northeastern Riga,5 kilometers from the city center and it borders the First Forest Cemetery and Rainis Cemetery. The memorial expresses national gratitude to the heroes through cultural references to the Latvian nation. The main gate of the cemetery is 10 meters high and 32 meters wide, to either side of the entrance, on 2 meter high platforms are 3.3 meters high sculptures each representing a pair of ancient Latvian horsemen
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Bikernieki Memorial
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Bikernieki Memorial is a war memorial to The Holocaust victims of World War II in Bikernieki forest, near Riga, Latvia. The memorial was planned and construction started in 1986, but was delayed after Latvia declared independence in 1991. The construction was revived in 2000 by German War Graves Commission with the help of local Latvian organisations and it was financed mostly by German government and organisations, Austrian State Fund, and involved city donations. It was designed by Sergey Rizh and opened on November 30,2001, the architect of the memorial is Sergey Rizh, who worked for 15 years on the design of the memorial, saying it was his human obligation to devote his career to this. The memorial is located in the Bikernieki forest, next to the Bikernieku Street passing through the forest, there are two memorial territories –6,550 and 79,630 square metres wide on both sides from the road. The centre of assembly houses a black granite cube – a symbolic altar with engraving from Book of Job 16,18 Earth, let my cry have no place to rest. In Latvian, Russian, German, and Hebrew languages, the immediate area is surrounded by 4,000 granite stones arranged in a grid of forty-five 4-by-4-metre squares, and resembles a traditional Jewish cemetery. The unique rough-hewn 0. 2-to-1. 5-metre high granite stones of black, gray, the stones are carved with European city names representing the home towns of the victims. Despite the nature of memorial, the hills are a popular summer hiking. Although Germany supplies annual funding for maintenance, it is insufficient to fund regular police patrols. The memorial and gravestones have been vandalised several times, each time attracting media attention, Bikernieki forest is Latvias biggest mass murder site during The Holocaust of World War II during years 1941–44. There are 55 marked mass burial sites in the forest, about 46,500 people were reported to have been killed there, including Latvian and Western European Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, and Nazis political adversaries. The exact number of victims is unknown, although Soviet Nazi War Crime Research Committee declared over 46,000 murders, later excavations did not confirm this number. The number of victims is speculated to be closer to 30,000, the first victims were a few thousand men arrested in July 1941 and brought from Riga Central Prison. In 1942 another 12,000 Jews were brought from Germany, Austria, in 1943 Riga Ghetto prisoners were brought here who were unable to work at Kaiserwald concentration camp, followed by those from the camp itself unable to work in 1944. In 1943 and onwards Nazis dug up graves and burned the bodies to hide the evidence and it is estimated that there are now around 20,000 victims buried in the forest. In the 1960s, only a simple commemorative plaque was placed in the forest, the plaque stated that 46,500 Soviet citizens had died and omitted mentioning nationalities. The location had been neglected and slowly degrading since, the first plans for the Bikernieki forest grave site cleanup were formed in 1986 by a team from the Komunālprojekts Institute
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Freedom Monument
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The Freedom Monument is a memorial located in Riga, Latvia, honouring soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence. It is considered an important symbol of the freedom, independence, unveiled in 1935, the 42-metre high monument of granite, travertine, and copper often serves as the focal point of public gatherings and official ceremonies in Riga. The sculptures and bas-reliefs of the monument, arranged in thirteen groups, depict Latvian culture and history. The concept for the monument first emerged in the early 1920s when the Latvian Prime Minister, Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics, after several contests the monument was finally built at the beginning of the 1930s according to the scheme Shine like a star. Submitted by Latvian sculptor Kārlis Zāle, construction works were financed by private donations. Following the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union and the Freedom Monument was considered for demolition, Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina is sometimes credited for rescuing the monument, because she considered it to be of high artistic value. Soviet propaganda attempted to alter the meaning of the monument to better fit with Communist ideology. Indeed, on June 14,1987, about 5,000 people gathered at the monument to commemorate the victims of the Soviet regime and to lay flowers. This rally renewed the independence movement, which culminated three years later in the re-establishment of Latvian sovereignty after the fall of the Soviet regime. The sculptures and bas-reliefs of the Freedom Monument, arranged in thirteen groups, depict Latvian culture, the core of the monument is composed of tetragonal shapes on top of each other, decreasing in size towards the top. Two additional steps form a platform, which is 28 meters in diameter. At the front of the monument this platform forms a rectangle and its sides are also paneled with travertine. On the sides the travertine panels bear two reliefs,1905, and The Battle against the Bermontians on the Iron Bridge, on the back of the monument are another two sculptural groups, Family and Scholars (11, Latvian, Gara darbinieki. The topmost block serves also as the foundation for the 19 meters high monolithic travertine column, to the front and rear a line of glass runs along the middle of the column. The whole monument is built around a frame of reinforced concrete and was originally fastened together with lead, bronze cables, however, some of the original materials were replaced with polyurethane filler during restoration. The monument is located in the center of Riga on Brīvības bulvāris, in 1990 a section of the street around the monument, about 200 meters long, between Rainis and Aspazija boulevards, was pedestrianized, forming a plaza. Part of it includes a bridge over the canal, once a part of the citys fortification system. The canal is 3.2 kilometers long and surrounded by parkland for half of its length, the earth from the demolition of the fortifications was gathered in the park and now forms an artificial hill with a cascade of waterfalls to the north of the monument.1
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Great Cemetery
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The Great Cemetery was formerly the principal cemetery of Riga in Latvia, established in 1773. It was the burial ground of the Baltic Germans in Latvia. Despite this, a significant number of old graves have survived to this day, the 22-hectare property is currently owned by the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Against this background the Great Cemetery in Riga was founded in 1773 and it served as a burial ground for over 170 years for almost all Baltic Germans who died in the city between 1773 and 1944. Additionally, numerous Latvians of upper social status were buried there as well, the cemetery was divided into three section, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Christian. One of the first to be buried there was the founder of the city, Albert of Riga, whose remains were exhumed from one of the main churches. Burials at the continued on a much smaller scale until 1944. Hundreds of headstones and graves were removed or destroyed by the Soviet authorities during the occupation of the Baltic states. In 1957 the cemetery was closed completely for any further burials, in 1967 or 1969 the city council decided to bulldoze large sections of the cemetery in order to transform it into a public memorial Park. However, many of these graves are in an abandoned or neglected condition, the city of Riga is currently discussing exchanging St Peters Church for the Great Cemetery so that the city can properly take over maintenance. Jāzeps Grosvalds, Latvian painter Kārlis Mīlenbahs, Latvian linguist and lexicographer Heinrich Scheel, georg August Schweinfurth, botanist, ethnologist Krišjānis Valdemārs, leader of the Young Latvian movement. de
34.
Pokrov Cemetery
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Pokrov Cemetery is a 70,669 square metres wide cemetery in Riga built in 1773. The current owner of the cemetery is Shelter of Our Most Holy Lady Church who are renting the land. Two Red Army burial sites are located in the cemetery — a smaller one from summer 1941, the cemetery also houses Ascension of Christ Church, the only Latvian Orthodox church in Riga where sermons are held in Latvian. The cemetery was built in 1773 following Russian Empires prohibition of burials within city territories, together with Vagaņka and Novodevičja cemeteries, Pokrov Cemetery was among Russian Empires largest five cemeteries. In 1773 a wooden Proclamation Chapel was built, and in 1777 under Pskovs archbishops order Pokrov church was built, on April 29,1845 the first sermon in Latvian was held by priest Jēkabs Mihailovs, former domain factor of Piebalgas count Šeremetjevs. In 1858 Latvian congregation was established in the church, the current church was built in 1879 designed by architect R. Pflūgs, sanctified on September 9,1879. Pokrov Cemetery became Rigas Russian communitys main cemetery, the burials were suspended in 1964, and in 1967 the cemetery was administratively joined with Great Cemetery of Riga to establish a memorial park. In 1991, the ownership over the cemetery was restored to Latvian Orthodox Church, here are also located the burials of Mukhins and Vērmanes Garden patron Wöhrmann family graves. Слава и забвение, Сборник статей / Сост, - Multicentrs, Рига,2004 -312 с. - Latvijas Universitātes Filozofijas un socioloģijas institūts, Rīga, IX/2005
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Victory Memorial to Soviet Army
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The Victory Memorial to Soviet Army in Riga, Latvia was erected in 1985 to commemorate the Soviet Armys victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Initial monument name was Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and it consists of a 79 meter tall obelisk and two groups of sculptures. In 1997 it was bombed by members of the Latvian ultra-nationalist group Pērkonkrusts. Igors Šiškins Прибалтийские русские, история в памятниках культуры
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Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation
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Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation is housed by the Riga Dom Cathedral ensemble in the heart of the Old Riga, Latvia. During the reconstruction of the Riga Dom Cathedral in the 1890s and it is the first building in the history of Riga to have been built for a museum, and the inscription on the museum front bears testimony to this. Within the premises there is the Column Hall, built in 1778 in the Classicism style, the hall is now being used for conferences and a historical 18th—19th centuries exhibition. The Column Hall faces the 13th century groin vaulted gallery and the Riga Dom Cathedral yard, the Riga Dom Cathedral ensemble itself is an aesthetic treat that provides information about different periods in the construction of Riga. The museum permanent and temporary exhibitions as well as its collections provide information about the history of Riga from the earliest times to the present day
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