Russian Press in Latvia: 1917-1944

The historiography of the „Russian question” in Latvia would not be developed so fast without Yury Abyzov’s „Russian Press in Latvia: 1917-1944”, which was compiled in 1970s and 1980s, under such conditions, which left almost no hope to publish it. The work was successfully (secretly) taken out of the USSR, and in 1990-1991 Stanford University (USA) published it. Due to the bibliography by Yury Abyzov, researchers would have spent much more time doing the routine research work. This my opinion is based on my own experience while working on  the monograph „Russians in the Pre-War Latvia”, which covers three aspects: Russians in the political life of Latvia, Russian societies and Russian education. Y. Abyzov not only completed the bibliographical listing of all the periodical editions and books, which had been published in Russian language in Latvia during the period from 1917 till 1944 (and preserved by libraries), but also provided short biographical data about the authors, and has unveiled many pseudonyms. The work turned out to be outstandingly well-timed, because Yuri Abizov even managed to meet a number of former editorial workers of the pre-war editions (A. Formakov, A. Perov, K. Verhovskaya and others) and received invaluable information from them. Most probably, a great deal of the most interesting and valuable information was received by  Y. Abyzov from Ivan Zavoloko, whom he kept in touch with after the latter had returned from exile. The work was well-timed also due to the fact, that its publication coincided with the large-scale political changes: the downfall of the USSR, formation of the new independent states, including reestablishment of the independence of Latvia, and, as a result, a sparkle of interest about the life in the pre-war Latvia.

Tatyana Feigmane. Latvian Russians in Historiography of Latvia from 1990-2010