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Elina Amann, last edited 12.10.2022
Located in the northeast of Europe on the shores of the Baltic Sea, Latvia, with its capital in Riga, was once a part of the Soviet Union as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). With Estonian SSR and Lithuanian SSR, it formed the so-called Soviet Baltic. This region, the “Soviet West,” was more developed economically and culturally than most of the other republics. Due to its European identity, the population of the Baltic republics was generally antagonistic towards the Soviet Union and its ideology. To mitigate popular discontent, the central government had to agree to a series of special arrangments in the Baltic republics. Among them was a greater role of the private sector, particularly in agriculture, and deviations from architectural and construction norms.
In the medieval and early-modern period, the territory of contemporary Latvia, populated by Baltic-speaking communities, was ruled by German, Polish, and Lithuanian rulers, becoming a subject of dispute between Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, and Russia in the 17th and the 18th centuries. By the end of the 18th century it was incorporated into the Russian Empire although preserving German as its official language. It proclaimed its independence in 1918.
The Latvian SSR became a part of the Soviet Union in 1940, following the secret division of northern and eastern Europe within the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact a year earlier. In 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and occupied Latvia. Between 1941 and 1945, the remaining Latvian Jews were subjected to the holocaust. In 1945, the Soviet army regain control of the republic, which led to the mass deportations of Latvians, who were accused of collaborating with the Germans. Meanwhile, populations of other regions of the USSR settled in Latvia. As a result of the deportations, many women lost their husbands, forced into single motherhood. Yet, it was precisely at this time when the percentage of women amoung university graduates reached its high.
While before the Soviet period, wood industry was an important source of Latvian export, countless factories were built in Latvia during the Cold War. Importing raw materials from the other Soviet republics, Latvian industry produced a range of materials ranging from textiles and leather, furniture and food to vehicle manufacturing and electrical appliances.
Traditional Latvian architecture was wooden, although modern buildings appeared in Riga in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, a strong tradition of functionalism emerged on the Latvian soil, able to sustain itself during the Soviet period. Among the functionalists was the Latvian architect Marta Stanya. During the Soviet period, like elsewhere in the country, the need of housing the workers arriving at the newly built industrial sites necessitated building large-scale housing complexes. Having moved to Russia, Latvian architect Tamara Katsenelenbogen devoted herself to the design of such housing complexes.
In the aftermath of Latvia’s independence, traditional wooden construction came back, for example, in the work of Zaiga Gaile.
Educational institutions were first established in Latvia in the middle of the 19th century. In addition to the dissimination of agricultural knowledge, the foundation of the Polytechnic Institute in Riga (today RTU) enabled the education of local architects. In the twentieth century, women achieved equality in education, being able to study and teach. Among others, Inguna Ribena studied architecture at RTU, becoming a lecturer at the University of Latvia.
Sources
https://historyrussia.org/sobytiya/sovetskaya-pribaltika-imidzh-i-realnost-2.html
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Латвия
https://www.latvia.eu/de/traditions-culture/architecture
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/das-starke-geschlecht-100.html
