The Abrene district (Latvian: Abrenes apriņķis) was an administrative district in the Republic of Latvia with an area of 4292 square kilometers, formed in 1925 from the northern part of the Ludza district and the western part of the Ostrov region as the Jaunlatgale (New Latgale) district, but this was renamed Abrene in 1938. The district included the towns of Balvi and Abrene and 14 villages, and the civil parishes (Latvian: pagasti) comprising the district were reorganized thrice (there were 12 in 1929, 13 in 1935, and 15 in 1940). 6 eastern civil parishes -- Purvmalas, Linavas, Kacēnu, Upmalas, Gauru and Augšpils, as well as the town of Abrene (a total area of 1293.6 square kilometers with 35,524 inhabitants) -- were joined to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1944. This part of the former Abrene district is now part of the Russian Federation as the Pytalovo District of Pskov Oblast, bordering Latvia. "Abrene region" in current usage very often treats the area joined to Russia as though it had comprised the entire district, which can be misleading; nearly three-quarters of the former district are in Latvia, but many treatments of the transfer of the eastern pagasti cite interbellum demographic statistics for the whole of the region, rather than by civil parish. 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Ludza (German: Ludsen, Estonian: Lutsi, Russian: Люцин or Ä»ucin) is a town in the Latgale region of eastern Latvia. ... Ostrov - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Latgale or Latgalia (Polish: Łatgalia; German: Lettgallen) is one of the four cultural regions of Latvia recognised in the Constitution of the Latvian Republic. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... -1... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... State motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Workers of the world, unite!) Official language None ( Russian in practice) Capital Moscow (last) Chairman of the Supreme Council Boris Yeltsin Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 1st in former Soviet Union 17,075,200 km² 0,5% Population  - Total ( 1989)  - Density Ranked 1st in the... Pytalovo (Russian: , Latvian: Abrene) is a town in Pskov Oblast (province) of Russia, an administrative center of Pytalovo Raion (district). ... Pskov Oblast (Russian: ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). ...

--81.198.143.61 09:49, 5 February 2006 (UTC)==History== The Abrene region was long a point of contact and friction between the Finno-Ugric, Baltic, and Slavic languages, cultures, tribes, and countries. The Russian name for the town and region, Pytalovo, probably derives from Pietālava, "pie" meaning adjacent to Tālava (or in Latvian "a land far away"), the ancient kingdom of the northern Latgalians, which for a period paid tribute to Mstislav the Brave of Smolensk ca. 1200. The Baltic Latgalians east of a slight ridge at Viļaka were gradually Russified from the 15th century, but the philologists August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein and Kārlis Mīlenbahs, conducting linguistic field research in the area in the late 19th and early 20th century, found that many people, called "Russian Latvians" by the local Russians, still spoke the High Latvian dialect. Geographical distribution of Finno-Ugric (Finno-Permic in blue, Ugric in green). ... The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. ... The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia. ... The Latgallians (Latvian: latgaļi) were one of the Baltic tribes that later formed Latvian nation. ... Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ... August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein (Latvian: Augusts BÄ«lenÅ¡teins) (b. ... Kārlis MÄ«lenbahs (his surname was formerly also written as Mühlenbach, Mühlenbachs or MÄ«lenbachs) (b. ...

After the Bolsheviks were driven from what is now Latvia and Soviet Russia recognized Latvia's independence, in August 1920, it proved impossible to draw the border precisely along ethnographic lines because of the multicultural character of the borderlands; once the frontier was negotiated (the border was not finalized until April 7th, 1923), large communities of Latvians were left on the Russian side and large Russian and Belarusian communities were left on the Latvian side. Strategic concerns also played a part, because of an important railway junction within the Abrene region. The historian Edgars Andersons explains (in Latvijas vēsture 1914-1920 [Stockholm: Daugava, 1976]): "Especially in the north, the Russians had agreed to the Latvians' strategic demands, not complaining about the ethnographic principle having been disregarded. Several civil parishes were completely Russian." Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... Soviet Russia is sometimes used as a somewhat sloppy synonym to the Soviet Union — although the term Soviet Russia sometimes refers to Bolshevist Russia from the October Revolution in 1917 to 1922 (Although Russian communists officially formed RSFSR in 1918). ...

The population of the entire district in the census of 1935, divided by ethnicity, was as follows: 60,145 Latvians, 45,885 Russians, 1,558 Jews and 648 Belarusians. The demographics differed sharply on either side of the Viļaka ridge, which bisects the district -- the eastern civil parishes had small ethnic Latvian minorities: 17% in Kacēnu pagasts, 5% in Linavas pagasts, 32% in Purvmalas pagasts, 5% in Augšpils pagasts, and 4% in Gauru pagasts. The civil parishes immediately to the west had strong Latvian majorities, ranging from 71% in Šķilbēnu pagasts to 91% in Viļakas pagasts. The town of Abrene itself, which developed around the Pytalovo railroad station, had 1,242 inhabitants, 484 of them ethnic Latvians.

The inhabitants held Latvian citizenship regardless of ethnicity. Parliamentary Latvia pursued a liberal policy of multiculturalism, guaranteeing education in minority languages from 1919. Modern schools providing bilingual instruction in Latvian, Russian, Belarusian, Yiddish and even the Latgalian dialect of Latvian were constructed (by 1936 there were 162 primary schools and 3 secondary schools in the district). The Latvianization policies of the dictator Kārlis Ulmanis resulted in less multiculturalism after 1934. The Abrene district as a whole differed from most of Latvia by religion, too -- it was 48% Orthodox, 38% Catholic, and 12% Lutheran. Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... Kārlis Ulmanis (b. ... ... The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ...

With the Soviet occupation in 1940, the German invasion in 1941, the Holocaust, the return of Soviet forces in 1944, and the illegal mobilization of Latvian citizens by both occupying powers, severe demographic changes took place. The transfer of the eastern part of the district to the RSFSR was decided by a decree from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, based on a request by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR, in violation of even Soviet law (the 1936 constitution then in force required that changes in internal borders be confirmed by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, not the Presidium). Though the official documents transfer 1075.31 square kilometers, 1293.6 square kilometers were actually transferred. // Soviet Occupation and Annexation of Latvia 1939-1940 Historical Background Latvia declared its independence on November 18, 1918. ... Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Josef Stalin Strength ~ 3,200,000 ~ 2,600,000 Casualties unknown unknown {{{notes}}} Operation Barbarossa (Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the German codename for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that commenced on June 22, 1941. ... Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ... State motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Workers of the world, unite!) Official language None (Russian in practice) Capital Moscow Chairman of the Supreme Council Boris Yeltsin Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 1st in former Soviet Union 17,075,200 km² 0,5% Population  - Total (1989)  - Density Ranked 1st in the former... The Supreme Soviet (Russian: , Verhovniy Sovet, literally the Supreme Council) comprised the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union in the interim of the sessions of the Congress of Soviets, and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments. ...

The transfer was not formally finalized until 1946. The territory was subjected to forcible collectivization, accompanied by rampant robbery and destruction, including the demolition of farmsteads and mass mortality among livestock. Kulaks, nationalists, and "bandits" (often those accused of being Forest Brothers) were deported with their families (2728 persons in early 1949 and 1563 persons in May 1950), primarily to Krasnoyarsk. Officials from Russia proper replaced local administrators even at the village level, and even some who had fought for the Soviets were mistreated. In these circumstances, large numbers of people left for the Latvian SSR. Today there are substantial communities of former residents and their descendants in Balvi and Rīga. The former civil parishes joined to Russia are almost totally delatvianized. Collective farming is an organizational unit in agriculture in which peasants are not paid wages, but rather receive a share of the farms net output. ... Kulaks (from the Russian кулак (kulak, fist)) is a pejorative term extensively used in Soviet political language, originally referring to relatively wealthy peasants in the Russian Empire who owned larger farms and used hired labor, as a result of the Stolypin reform introduced since 1906. ... Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ... The Forest Brothers (also: Brothers of the Forest, Forest Brethren; in Estonian: metsavennad, in Latvian meža brāļi) were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian guerillas who fought against the Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic nations during, and after, World War II. At the... Krasnoyarsk Coat of Arms (2004) Krasnoyarsk (Russian: Красноя́рск), administrative center of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, is the third largest city in Siberia. ... Balvi (Latgalian: Bolvi, German: Bolwa) is a small town in the Latgale region of eastern Latvia with a population of 8,109. ...

The Border Agreement

The Latvian constitution stipulates that the borders of the Republic are set by international treaties, and the government considers the 1920 Treaty of Rīga to be still in force. The May 4th, 1990 declaration of independence (reinstating the 1920 constitution subject to a transitional period) by the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR affirmed that the restored Republic of Latvia would base its relations with the Russian Federation on the treaty principle. During the difficult days of January 1991 (when OMON troops attacked Latvia's Ministry of the Interior), Latvia and Russia (while still in the USSR) signed a document regulating their bilateral relations. The Latvian delegation attempted to include a reference to the 1920 treaty, but the Russian delegation objected. In essence, Russia views Latvia as a newly independent country, while Latvia insists upon the legal continuity of the Republic occupied in 1940. Most Western countries never recognized the incorporation of the Republic of Latvia into the USSR de iure and are therefore more or less supportive of the Latvian position, but there is pressure on both countries to resolve the issue. The OMON insignia OMON or Otryad Militsii Osobogo Naznacheniya (Russian: Отряд милиции особого назначения, ОМОН; literally: Special Purpose Detachment of Militsiya) is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet, Ministerstvo Vnutrennih Del (MVD; Ministry of Internal Affairs). ... De jure is a Latin expression that means by law, as contrasted with de facto, which means in fact. The terms de jure and de facto are used like in principle and in practice when one is describing political situations. ...

The Latvian Foreign Ministry has reiterated "that Latvia has no territorial claims to the Russian Federation," however, and though there is some opposition (particularly among right wing parties) to formally ceding the Abrene region, surveys show that most Latvians don't believe that the transferred territory will ever again be administered by Latvia. Many in Latvia -- especially the former residents of the areas now in Russia -- are interested in seeking compensation from the Russian Federation, though. Currently, the Republic of Latvia compensates those who lost property, though the process is made difficult by the fact that most records are in Pskov. The former residents also complain of the difficulty of visiting their family graves, asking that the Latvian and Russian governments facilitate border procedures. Despite Latvia's assurances that it makes no territorial claims, Russian president Vladimir Putin maintains that Latvian wishes to get control of the area are against the spirit of Europe and consistently refuses to acknowledge that Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union and illegally incorporated into the USSR. On April 29, 2005, Latvia announced that it would sign an interpretative declaration in conjunction with the proposed border agreement with Russia, noting that the the border agreement would in no way affect "the legal rights of the Latvian state and its citizens" under the 1920 treaty. As a consequence, Russia scrapped the border agreement. In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... The Trinity Cathedral (1682-99) is a symbol of Pskovs former might and independence. ... Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин, (help· info), Pútin; born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician, and the current President of the Russian Federation. ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ...

See also

• Territories detached from the Baltic States by the Soviet Union

The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...

References

• Arnolds Spekke: Balts and Slavs: Their Early Relations. Washington, D.C.: Alpha Printing Co., 1965.
• Arveds Švābe, ed.: Latvju enciklopēdija. Stockholm: Trīs Zvaigznes, 1952-1953.
• Kārlis Stalšāns: Krievu ekspansija un rusifikācija Baltijā laikmetu tecējumā. Chicago: Jāņa Šķirmanta Apgāds, 1966.
• Kārlis Stalšāns: Latviešu un lietuviešu austrumu apgabalu likteņi. Chicago: Jāņa Šķirmanta apgāds, 1958.
• Albert N. Tarulis: Soviet Policy Toward the Baltic States 1918-1940. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1959.
• Dietrich Loeber, “The Russian-Latvian Territorial Dispute Over Abrene” in The Parker School Journal of East European Law (1995, Vol. 2, pp. 537–559). (Available in German in Acta Baltica [1996, Vol. 34, pp. 9–28], and in Latvian as "Krievijas un Latvijas teritoriālais strīds Abrenes jautājumā.") Retrieved 3. XII. 2005.
• Edgars Andersons: Latvijas vēsture 1914-1920. Västerås: Daugava, 1967.
• Edgars Andersons: "Kā Narva, Pečori un Abrene tika iekļauta {sic} Krievijas Sociālistiskajā Federatīvajā Republikā" is a translation from Regional Identity under Soviet Rule: The Case of the Baltic States (edited by D.A. Loeber, V.S. Vardys and L.P.A. Kitehing), originally published by the Institute for the Study of Law, Politics and Society in Socialist States, University of Kiel, 1990.
• Jānis Rutkis, ed.: Latvia: Country and People. Stockholm: Latvian National Foundation, 1967.
• Letters and documents on the annexation from Aldis Bergmanis, Senior Expert at the Centre for Documenting the Consequences of Totalitarianism (SAB TSDC), quoted in "Jauni fakti par Abrenes pievienošanu." Diena, 17 January 1994. Retrieved 3. XII. 2005.)
• On the deportations and population transfer, see Jānis Riekstiņš, "Kā 'tīrīja' un 'iekārtoja' Abrenes pusi." Latvijas Avīze, 7 June 2004. Retrieved 3. XII. 2005.