page_title: Russians in Latvia
section_title: Latvian National Awakening
hierarchical_section_title: Russians in Latvia / Livonia / Latvian National Awakening
caption_attribution_description: English: Rizhskij Vestnik (Рижский Вестник), masthead and top half of page 1, Issue #22, March 15, 1869. Founded in 1869 and published by Evgraf Vasilyevich Cheshikhin (Евграф Васильевич Чешихин) until his death in 1888.
context_page_description: Russians in Latvia have been the largest ethnic minority in the country for the last two centuries. The number of Russians in Latvia more than quadrupled during the Soviet occupation of Latvia when the size of the community grew from 8.8% of the total population in 1935 to 34.0% in 1989. It started to decrease in size again after Latvia regained independence in 1991 falling to 25.2% at the beginning of 2018.
context_section_description: While the Russian community in Latvia was largely an extension of Russia's ethnic Russians, it nevertheless also began to develop a sense of community separate from Russia itself, Latvian Russians were beginning to consider themselves one of the nationalities of Latvia. Russian social organizations began to spring up in the 1860s, around the same time as that of the Latvian National Awakening. The reforms of Alexander II, including the abolition of serfdom in 1861 throughout the rest of the empire, further stimulated the rise of national consciousness.
  Latvia had, in fact, taken a lead in this regard, as serfdom had already been abolished in 1819 except for Latgale, which had been incorporated into the Vitebsk Guberniya in 1802. The first Russian newspaper in Riga –Rossiyskoe ezhenedelnoe izdanie v Rige (Российское еженедельное издание в Риге, Russian Weekly in Riga) – was founded in 1816. The Russian daily newspaper Rizhskij Vestnik (Рижский Вестник, "Riga Herald"), founded in 1869 by Evgraf Vasilyevich Cheshikhin (Евграф Васильевич Чешихин) and published until his death in 1888, established the notion of "the needs and wants of the local Russian population". Cheshikhin also formed the Russian literary circle (Русский литературный кружок) in Riga in 1876. Local Russians participated in elections to town councils and later to the State Duma.
caption: Рижский Вестник (Riga Herald) issue no. 22 of March 15, 1869
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