Russia and the Formation of National Culture in Latvia in the 1920s - 1930s

Over its more than a thousand-year history, Russia has created a unique culture, the beneficial influence of which has been experienced by all the peoples who are part of it. Including the Baltic ones, which was clearly manifested in Latvia, which became independent in November 1918, whose peoples had been under the rule of German crusaders since the 13th century, and at the beginning of the 18th century became part of the Russian Empire. The Osteen Germans, for centuries of domination - the "German time" - influenced the everyday culture of the Latvian peasants who make up the indigenous population of Livonia and Courland. The emergence of the Latvian intelligentsia and the prerequisites for the birth of national culture occurred in the second half of the 19th century, i.e., in the "Russian time". The article substantiates the conclusion on the basis of extensive factual material and bibliographic sources about the significant impact of Russian culture on the formation of the national culture of the first independent state of Latvians. In the process of creating forms of national culture of Latvia in the 1920-1930s, a significant contribution belongs to cultural figures of the Russian Empire, who not only brought up a galaxy of the first Latvian composers, theater workers, artists, sculptors, ballet soloists, but also created national schools in a number of genres of classical art. The role of the numerous Russian community, whose folk art was widely represented in Latvia of that period, is also shown. Russian emigration's influence on the spiritual life of Latvia, the capital of which, Riga, was one of the main centers of the Russian diaspora, is given a great place in the article. Created in the traditions of the Russian democratic movement of the late 19th - early 20s centuries, the first Republic of Latvia is an example of the successful development of a multicultural state.