Last night I was in an uber and my driver had an eastern European accent. He said he was Russian, but when I pressed he said he was Latvian but only spoke Russian.... So many thoughts came to my mind.
Why would a Latvian only speak Russian?
SO anyway we started talking and I mentioned I'm Latvian too, but that I'm Jewish and my family left there before the war. He was so intrigued and excited and started talking about hating Germans and how many people died etc. It was a great talk, but I couldn't help but think of this testimony I was watching once where the woman detailed how willing and brutal the Latvians were to assist Germans in the murdering of Jews. Here are some images of Latvia during World War 2 which I've collected this morning.
Why Latvian would only speak Russian. Easy. Latvia was part of USSR. Latvia is one of 15 republics that made USSR. Now they are all separate countries, and if anyone talks in Russian in 14 of them, you risk a lot. Even though, many people know Russian, many consider talking in Russian offensive. Old people still remember Russian, young are taught only their language and sometimes English.