>What do we know about Latvia and the Latvians? A Baltic (not Balkan) nation that emerged from fifty years under the Soviet Union - interrupted by a brief but brutal Nazi-German occupation and a devastating war - now a member of the European Union and NATO. Yes, but what else? Relentless accusations keep appearing, especially in Russian media, often repeated in the West: "Latvian soldiers single-handedly saved Lenin's revolution in 1917", "Latvians killed Tsar Nikolai II and the Royal family", "Latvia was a thoroughly anti-Semitic country and Latvians started killing Jews even before the Germans arrived in 1941".
>Those who believe in misinformation are said to be misinformed but not
lying. Disinformation, on the other hand, was used especially as a cold-war
tactic and in the context of espionage, military intelligence and propaganda;
the aim was to mislead an enemy.
>Since “only bad news is good news” to the international press, one might
think it good that little is written about Latvia. The writer Pauls Bankovskis
testifies resignedly and clearly realistically:
I don't think that many people in Latvia have heard anything positive about the decent folks in Rwanda, whereas the systematic mass
slaughter is probably common knowledge. Latvia and Rīga are likewise
normally mentioned in the international media only when something
has gone awry once again. The Prime Minister Einārs Repše has owned
up to being an extraterrestrial alien. The British heir to the throne has
been given a thrashing with a carnation. Jews have been murdered,
Russians humiliated. Women sold into white slavery.