Latvians

Subject / Ethnic culture/Ethnic communities
Latviens (their own native name is Latvieshs) is an ethnic community forming a part of the population of the Leningrad Oblast. The Latvian language is related to the Baltic group of the Indo-European language family. The religious are Lutherans and Catholics (mainly the inhabitants of Latgalia). Resettlement of Latvian peasants on the territory of Russia began after the abolition of serfdom in the Kurlandskaya (Courland) (1817) and Liflyandskaya (Livonia) (1819) gubernias and became stronger in the second half of the 19th. Latvians lived in the isolated farmstead, their compact settlements were on the territory of Tosno and Luga districts, in the environs of Mga Urban Settlement. In the beginning of the 20th Latvian prayer house were opened in Ravino (Ravan') Village (now it's an uninhabited area near Apraksin Bor Village), in Tigoda-Kurlyandskaya Village, a Latvian church was in Kudepo-Zamoshye Village (near the present Zavizhye settlement in Luga District). In 1897 in S.Petersburg about 4 thousand Latvians lived. Some Latvians repatriated themselves after Latvia had attained self-sufficiency in 1920. The number of Latvians reduced because of assimilation, the repression of the 1930-40s, migration. In 2002 in the Leningrad Oblast 586 Latvians lived (6 more people registrated themselves as Latgalians). Chistyakov, Anton Yuryevich
Leningrad Oblast, the/Tosno District/Apraksin Bor Village
Historical Toponyms/Kudepo-Zamoshye, Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Luga District
Leningrad Oblast, the/Kirovsk District/Mga Urban Settlement
Historical Toponyms/Ravino (Ravan), Village
Historical Toponyms/Tigoda-Kurlyandskaya, Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Tosno District
Leningrad Oblast, the/Luga District/Zavizhye, settlement
Шкаровский М., Черепенина Н. История Евангелическо-лютеранской церкви на Северо-Западе России. 1917-1945. СПб., 2004, 103-121