Ethnic Politics and the Soviet Legacy in Latvian Post-Communist Education: The Place of Language

This article concerns Latvian school policy during the 1990s. It is argued that Latvian post-communist school policy bears great similarity with political practice during the time of Soviet rule. The defining feature of present-day Latvian school policy is the privileged status granted the Latvian language and the separation of Latvian children from Russian-speaking children. It is emphasized that the separate school system is a legacy of the Soviet era except that nowadays, official measures favor Latvian rather than Russian-speaking children. Current ethnic politics can thus be seen to exert a strong influence on Latvian society just as it did during the Soviet era and earlier.