Summer institute in Wisconsin offers intensive language courses

Latvians Online | 

The Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA), together with the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will host the Baltic Studies Summer Institute (BALSSI) from June 13 to Aug. 5.

Instruction in first- and second-year Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian will be offered. BALSSI 2011 will also include lectures in English on Baltic history and culture and a rich program of cultural events and field trips related to the Baltic countries.

Thanks to a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the program fee for first-year Estonian and second-year Latvian will be waived for graduate students specializing in East European studies in any discipline. These students will, however, still be responsible for paying UW-Madison segregated fees.

The priority deadline for admission and the fee remission grant is April 11. Information and application materials are available on the BALSSI website, www.creeca.wisc.edu/balssi.

BALSSI is sponsored by a consortium of 10 U.S. universities and receives additional support from the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, ACLS and the Lithuanian Foundation. BALSSI at UW-Madison is also grateful to Madison Vilnius Sister Cities for its generosity and assistance, said Jennifer Ryan Tishler, CREECA’s associate director.

For further information about BALSSI 2011, contact Nancy Heingartner, BALSSI program coordinator, at balssi@creeca.wisc.edu or +1 (608) 262-3379.

During U.S. visit, foreign minister to meet government officials, community

Latvians Online | 

Latvia’s foreign minister plans to visit the United States from Feb. 19-23 to meet with government officials—including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton—and the Latvian community in the Washington, D.C., area.

Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis met Feb. 11 with U.S. Ambassador Judith Garber in Rīga to discuss details of the trip, the foreign ministry’s press office announced.

Besides visiting with Clinton, the foreign minister is expected to meet with officials from the Defense Department, the State Department, the National Security Council and the Defense Logistics Agency. Kristovskis also will visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Victims of Communism Memorial, both in Washington.

Kristovskis during the meetings will emphasize the strategic importance of Latvia’s relationship with the U.S. in foreign affairs and security issues, according to the press office. Among questions he will highlight is expanding Latvia’s energy security.

While in the nation’s capital, the defense minister also will meet with Latvian community leaders.

Kristovskis will be joined by Ojārs Kalniņš, a former Latvian ambassador to the U.S. who now is a member of Latvia’s parliament, where he is chair of the Foreign Affairs Commission.

Prime minister: Future of commission on victims of oppression tied to budget

Andris Straumanis | 

Back in August 2005, the Latvian government set up a special commission to examine the legacy of Soviet oppression. The commission was to get a firm count of the victims of Communism, determine where mass graves are located, gather information about political repression and deportations, and figure out the total losses to Latvia and its population.

But then the global economy tanked. Latvia’s government, in an effort to stay solvent, slashed its budget. The commission was among efforts halted when the government in June 2009 cut LVL 500 milllion in spending.

The commission is known formally in Latvian as “Komisija PSRS totalitārā komunistiskā okupācijas režīma upuru skaita un masu kapu vietu noteikšanai, informācijas par represijām un masveida deportācijām apkopošanai un Latvijas valstij un tās iedzīvotājiem nodarīto zaudējumu aprēķināšanai.”

On paper the commission still exists. And some politicians in the Saeima have not forgotten about it. Recently, the right-wing National Association (Nacionālā apvienība “Visu Latvijai!” – “Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK”) poked Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis about plans to revive the commission’s work, possibly even this year.

Dombrovskis, in a Feb. 10 letter (PDF, 424 K), replied that renewing the commission’s work is not planned for 2011. He reminded the nationalists that the government faces another LVL 50 million in spending cuts this year.

“At the same time, I want to emphasize that the commission has not been liquidated, but its work for now has been halted,” the prime minister wrote. “The question will be revisited after the country’s fiscal and economic situation improves, insuring the possibility of renewing the commission’s work and allocating budget resources.”

Andris Straumanis is a special correspondent for and a co-founder of Latvians Online. From 2000–2012 he was editor of the website.