Latvia Rising: a Personal Portrait
A limited-edition brought out with the aid of my wonderful publisher, TipOn. Please mail us at gorsander@aol.com if you would like to purchase one. Copies are also available at our outlets in Riga: Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, Dome Hotel and Grand Palace Hotel.
Ever since I moved to Latvia in 2017, I have wanted to write a book about my adopted home.
Five years, numerous meetings with interested Latvian officials—including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which wound up sponsoring it—later, the book, entitled Latvia Rising: A Personal Memoir—is finally being published, and I could not be prouder of it or of my stellar team of Anastasia Maisuradze, Eleonora Balode and Matīss Jānis Rubulis for seeing it through…
Like Off The Map: A Personal History of Finland, my latest and eighth book is a one-off, a cross between a literary memoir of my relationship with Latvia and my contemporary history of it, illustrated with a generous helping of my photographs.
Just as Off The Map had a theme, Finland’s journey from a country that was off the map to a front rank European society — so does Latvia Rising. The theme, as the name suggests is Latvia’s emergence from its enslaved former self as Latvian SSR to one of the most dynamic and interesting members of the European community, a process which I have seen and to some extent written about since I moved to Latvia in 2015.
The book comprises 10 chapters, each representing a different slice or facet of Latvia and/or Latvian history or culture which I feel is crucial to understanding “my” Latvia, including several which I have written about or reported for my assorted outlets, as per below:
Chapter 1 Riga Rising How my “affair” with Latvia and “the pearl of the Baltic” began. My first visit to Riga in 2002 for Financial Times and how I would have never considered living here then. My return in 2015 and how I found Latvia had changed and saw how it was rising and why I decided to “take a chance” and move here.
Chapter 2 Latvia Remembers The tragic, all but forgotten story of the US Navy PB Privateer reconnaissance aircraft shot down with a loss of ten airmen by the Soviet Air Force in April 1950, how I stumbled across it via a plaque on the towering Soviet-era Monument to Sailors Lost at Sea, the Cold War spy flights, and how re-independent Latvia—and the US—honours the men.
Chapter 3 The Holocaust in Latvia The tragic story of the Holocaust in Latvia, which saw Latvia’s thriving prewar Jewish population virtually exterminated... how the genocide was carried out by the German Einsatzgruppen with the aid of their Latvian auxiliaries...my “search” for Mia Epstein, a girl I saw in a photo of the 1941 massacre of Jews outside Liepaja at the Museum Jews in Latvia..and how Latvia has come to terms with its part in the Holocaust, and the various ways Latvia has honoured the courageous Latvians who sheltered Jews.
Chapter 4 Born in Latvia, Made in America The inspiring story of the long line of Latvian artists, architects and designers who emigrated to the U.S. and “made it” there, beginning with Jacob Davis, the Rigan tailor who invented jeans, through artist Mark Rothko, photographer Philippe Halsman, and architect Gunars Birkerts…Rothko son of Daugavpils, his emigration to the US in 1912, his evolution as an artist…the story of Halsman, son of Riga, who fled to America in 1941 and became the greatest portrait photographer of the 20th century.
Chapter 5 A Streetcar Named Daugavpils The untold story of Daugavpils…“Every country has a second city, hovering in the shadows of the better-known more populous, more glamorous capital. For Latvia that city is Daugavpils.” The city’s image problem, which is compounded by its role as capital of Latvia’s Russian-speaking minority…my first eye-opening, myth-busting visit to the city in 2017…”it’s nice to be able to speak Russian...but that doesn’t mean we want the Russians to come here..” How this unsung city, its people and its magic have grown on me.
Chapter 6 The Other Latvia The challenging story of the “other” Latvia, the nearly 400,000 Latvian diaspora. Latvia’s greatest problem: its rapidly declining population. How depopulation poses a threat to the future and security of Latvia. How I reported the parlous situation in 2015 for Christian Science Monitor when I returned to Latvia for the first time since 2003. How the demographic situation is improving, thanks to the government’s successful remigration program and dedicated remigration counsellors. The stories of some of the diaspora who have come back.
Chapter 7 The Shadow of the Corner House 30 years after the end of the USSR and the welcome withdrawal of the Kremlin and its tentacles, the legacy of “the Soviet time” is still palpable and present. Some of that legacy is in physical form, like the 17 story Academy of Science, and more controversially, the 79 meters tall Victory Memorial, also the site of the annual WWII commemoration by the Russian community. Most vexing and controversial is the Corner House, the former HQ of the KGB, and the incomplete records of its informers it left behind.
Chapter 8 The Golden Palace One of the greatest surprises of moving to Latvia is discovering Latvian cinema, a wonderful story unto itself, with a happy ending. My take on that inspiring story, featuring interviews with Dita Rietuma, the director of the National Film Center, and driving force behind the Latvian film renaissance, Ivars Seleckis, fabled graduate of Rigas Kino Studija (Riga Film Studio), Soviet Latvia’s answer to MGM, and founder of the Riga School of Poetic Documentary and Dzintars Dreibergs, director of the recent mega-hit “Blizzard of Souls.”
Chapter 9 Restoring Riga A one-time architecture student I am particularly drawn to Riga’s architectonic-cum-historical layer cake with its overlapping layers from the Imperial Russian era, including its fabled cluster of Art Deco buildings, imposing interwar monumental edifices, ponderous Stalin era structures, and recent cutting edge ones like its new signifier, the National Library. We take a bite with the aid of editor Janis Liepnieks, along with a profile of the famed architect and preservationist Zaiga Galle, author of her own layer.
Chapter 10 Made in Latvia The fascinating—and fun--the story of four of Latvia’s most exciting and profitable businesses, including Latvijas Balsam, maker of Riga Black Balsam, the herbal liqueur endorsed by Catherine the Great, featuring an interview with Janis Mazis, LB’s veteran liqueur master; Gro-Glass, the successful manufacturer of “invisible glass” which emerged from the Soviet defence industry; Madara, the smashingly popular eco-based skincare lotion maker; and Printful, Latvia’s fabled first “unicorn” or billion-dollar business.
And there you are! As you can see, LATVIA RISING is quite a smorgasbord. It’s also been a lot of fun to research and write. Perhaps the best part of this, my latest literary adventure, has been the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with Latvia and its rich people and history. Above all, it’s my gift and testament to Latvia.
Thank you! Paldies!
