Witnessing and Preserving Latvian Culture in Exile: Latvian Libraries in the West

Abstract During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there were diverse reasons for Latvians leaving their homeland, political and economic alike. However, the largest number fled in late 1944, when the Soviet army invaded for a second time in the space of five years and established an occupation that would last for half a century. An unbreakable link to Latvia for all refugees or exiles was their native language, and one of the ways to secure links to their language was by reading. Wherever Latvians formed communities, they also established libraries. This paper gives an overview of the development of Latvian libraries in the West (about 93 by 1980) and then concentrates on the five largest collections, located in Munster (Germany, est. 1947), Melbourne (Australia, est. 1950), Kalamazoo (USA, est. 1983), Toronto (Canada, est. 1981), and Catthorpe (England, est. 1987). Each of these libraries was set up with the aim of serving the local Latvian community and also had the function akin to a national library — collecting materials in Latvian and about Latvia in other languages as well. In addition, libraries such as that at the Latvian Studies Centre in Kalamazoo served as a special collection to supply study and research materials for the Latvian academic programmes of Western Michigan University. The library in Munster served as the academic heart of the Munster Latvian Gymnasium. Renewal of Latvian independence in 1991 had an unanticipated effect on all libraries. Interest in, and travel to, Latvia increased and, hence, the interest in Latvian special collections in the West diminished, but research use of libraries in Latvia increased. Individuals and Latvian libraries in the West donated large amounts of material to libraries in Latvia, particularly the National Library of Latvia and the Misiņš Library. These donations filled the gaps left by the Soviet policy of forbidding exile literature to be collected by libraries in Latvia. With an aging exile population of Latvians and increased interest in libraries in Latvia, many of the libraries in the West have been abolished and their collections sent to Latvia. It is ironic that independence, for which the exiles fought and hoped so long and hard, had the effect of causing many of their libraries to close, but benefited Latvia by replacing and enriching collections there.