Latvia

The Republic of Latvia (Latvijas Republika), commonly known as Latvia (Latvija), is a republic located in the central Baltic countries of Europe .

Generally belongs to Northern Europe . It borders Estonia to the north , Russia to the east, and Lithuania and Belarus to the south . The capital is Riga (Rīga, Riga).

In the past, it was difficult to get there because it was the only Baltic country that required a visa for Koreans, but this was exempted after 2003 . Following Vilnius , Lithuania in 2009 and Tallinn , Estonia in 2011, Riga, Latvia , was also designated as the European Capital of Culture in 2014 .

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The national anthem is “God bless Latvia!” ( Dievs, svētī Latviju! ). Latvian composer Kārlis Baumanis[5] Written and composed by .

Since the song was written during the rule of the Russian Empire , the Russian Empire often designated this song as a banned song , and in some cases, the 'Latvian' part of the lyrics was changed to 'Baltic'. Of course, when it was officially designated as the national anthem in 1920, lyrics with 'Latvia' specified were used.

During the Soviet Union, it was designated as a banned song and singing was prohibited, and in 1990, when Latvia became independent, it was re-designated as a national anthem.

Engraved on the border of the Latvian 2 Euro coin.

61.8% of Latvia's population are Latgales , who have a culture similar to Latvians and Lithuanians , 25.6% are Russians , and other minorities such as Belarusians , Ukrainians , and Poles . In modern times, the proportion of Latvians is increasing, and the proportion of Russians is decreasing.

In Latvia, Latvian is designated as the official language . Latvian, along with Lithuanian , belongs to the Baltic language family, a sub-family of the Baltic-Slavic language family, a subclass of the Indo-European language family . Although it uses the Roman alphabet , it uses the ŪGJRMV keyboard, which is very different from QWERTY .

Russian is also a widely used language in Latvia, and minorities other than Latvians such as Russian Latvians , Belarusians , and Koreans use Russian. The Russian-speaking population is large in the southeast and in Riga . In particular, in Riga, the capital city, there are more Russian speakers than Latvians, and even in Latvia, if you do not know Russian at all, there are restrictions on employment, including in simple industries. The number of people who do not know Russian is increasing among the younger generation and also in the countryside, but it is still widely used and many Latvians who only speak Latvian are studying Russian. Multinational companies operating in the European Union or Latvia are also hiring people who can speak Latvian, Russian, and other languages.

Among the minority languages ​​are Latgalete and Livonian .[6] Livonian, also called Livonian, is currently an endangered language.

It is currently standardized by Latvian law to recognize and protect the diversity of languages ​​in Latvia.

Latvian surnames are divided into masculine and feminine forms. Usually, masculine forms are suffixed with '-s/š' and feminine forms are suffixed with '-e' or '-a'. To express the most representative surnames,

However, if the masculine (original) surname ends in e (eg Dzelde), it is not converted to the feminine form.

In Latvia, Latvians and Russians (or Russians) are divided over the use of Russian and Latvian.[8] There is a conflict between them. And in 2012, Latvia held a vote to add Russian to the official language of Latvia, but most people voted against it. # And in 2018, when the Latvian government pushed for the expansion of the Latvian language, including implementing a policy of teaching only Latvian to 16-18 year olds starting in 2021, Russians in Latvia protested, and the Russian government also protested and moved to impose economic sanctions. there is. # # And not only Russians in Latvia but also Latvia's Russian language allies criticized Latvia's language policy. #(Russian) In addition, voices of opposition are growing as the Latvian parliament attempts to ban the use of Russian in schools. #(Russian) #(Russian) #(Russian)

And on June 2, 2018, in Riga , thousands of citizens protested (Russian) to protect the ability to speak Russian in Russian schools , and marched around the city of Riga. # And protests to defend the right to study in Russian broke out again. #(Russian) #(Russian) And half of Latvians oppose the Latvian government's decision to close Russian schools. # (Russian) And then-Latvian President Raimonds Vējonis also requested that Russia not sign a bill that could have closed schools. #(Russian text) In addition, there are still conflicts in Latvia over the use of Russian. #(Original in Russian) #(Russian) And Nils Ušakovs, Нил Ушаков, then mayor of Riga, also criticized the language policy being promoted in Latvia. # When the Ministry of Education of Latvia abolished Russian language classes, Russians protested and protests broke out in Riga as well. #[9]

However, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Latvian government seized the opportunity to restrict the use of the Russian language and announced the restriction in August. Latvia's Ministry of Justice has announced that it is preparing a draft law restricting the use of the Russian language in the workplace and in public places. #

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Due to its high latitude and relatively little influence from the warm Mexican current, it has a continental climate, especially a cold humid climate ( Dfb ).

Like the other Baltic countries, Lithuania and Estonia, the entire country has no high mountains and is flat. Still, it is better than Belarus, which has no mountains or even an ocean. The altitude of Gaiziņkalns, the country's highest peak, is only 311.94m. Still, because it has the symbolism of being the highest mountain, Latvians hold various festivals on this mountain.

As of 2022, Latvia's administrative divisions consist of 7 municipalities (valstspilsēta) and 36 municipalities (novads).

Prior to 2009, 26 districts (rajons) were the highest administrative divisions, and cities (pilsēta) and counties (pagasts) under the districts served as municipalities. It was unified into 110 local governments. Afterwards, once again in 2021, the number of local governments was significantly reduced due to the reorganization of administrative districts, but overall, the new local government boundaries became similar to those of the pre-2009 caliber system.

Latvia's traditional regional division divides Latvia into four provinces : Vizeme , Kurzeme , Zemgale , and Latgale .[10] , the six planning districts (plānošanas reģions), currently used for statistical and planning purposes, are also based on traditional regional divisions.

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The general election is being held by open list proportional representation in constituencies with 13 to 32 seats in five regions. It is distributed according to the Saint-Lug method.

As it is a Republican Republic of Cabinet, the president has a council dissolution rights, but unlike other countries, it is only possible only if the unique point is passed in the referendum .[11]

If the referendum to dissolve parliament is rejected, the president loses office.[12] It is also possible for the people to dissolve Parliament through a direct referendum.[13]

Local elections are not elected by the head of the group, but the city council is elected.

There is <Avarijas Brigade> as a clay animation produced in this country . As mentioned above, it was introduced in Korea under the title of <The King of Stupid Rescue> through Open Dream Garden . Locally, it is regarded as a national animation to the extent that a theme park named 'AB Park' was created.

In March 2025, Gintz Jill Lodis' animation Flow won the 97th Academy Awards Awards. It is promoting the characters in the flow locally.

Latvia is also famous for his diversification with a neighboring country. The Latvian Parliament passed the laws that restrict the liquor sales time in the store from August 1, 2025 to 10 to 20 o'clock on weekdays and Saturdays and 18:00 on Sunday.


Latvia's traditional liquor is the liqueur 'Balsam'. In 1752, Riga's pharmacist began to manufacture for medicinal purposes, and 'Rīgas Melnais Balzams', which was made of 24 materials, has been famous since the Russian Empire. If you go to Latvia's supermarket, there is a separate Balsam corner.

It is a country where many contemporary choir composers come out. It is composed mainly in Latvian , Latin and English . Religious music with delicate and warm sensibility is being created. Pūt vējiņi (Let the Wind Blow) by Imants Ramiņš[14] I cry when I hear

Famous electronica / EDM producer Tobu is also from this country.

〈 Dāvāja Māriņa meitenei mūžiņu ), the original song for Shim Soo- bong's A Million Roses, was also written by Latvian writer Leons Briedis and composed by Raimonds Pauls.

Born in Riga in 1943, Mariss Jansons served as chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra until her death in 2019.

Conductor Andris Nelsons, born in Riga in 1978, is as of 2018 Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra .

Born in 1979, Vitaly Vladasovich Grachev (Виталий Владасович Грачёв/Vitalij Vladasovič Gračëv), a singer commonly referred to as Vitas and 'Ajaeng Bachelor' in Korea, was also born in Latvia but raised in Odessa .



Many of the Soviet-era radios/telegraphs were from Radiotehnika in Latvia.[15] It was produced and distributed by a company called The design is sophisticated even by today's standards. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, small radios were pushed back by the Japanese and went bankrupt and changed to a corporate audio equipment company.

Modern Latvia is a Christian culture, with Lutheranism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy being the mainstream religions of society. However, it was not until the 13th century that it was Catholicized, so the influence of traditional beliefs remained stronger than in other European countries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a neo- paganism movement called Dievturība is also active, and it is closely related to Romuva in Lithuania , which is the same Baltic culture. While the traditional religions of neighboring countries express gods with statues of gods that look like jangseung, Latvia's folk beliefs have a relatively weak tendency to create three-dimensional shapes, but instead have a custom of symbolizing and revealing gods with geometric patterns . The pattern representing the thunder god Pērkons is the Hakenkreuz and the swastika .

However, historically, the influence of the Lutheran Church through the German and Swedish domination was also formidable, and two-thirds of the total population were Lutherans before World War II. Meanwhile, Eastern Latgale , like Lithuania, had strong Catholic influence.

After passing through the Soviet era of sad state atheism and being exposed to the secularization trend of Western Europe even after democratization, about 25% of the current population is atheist or non-religious. However , it can be seen as relatively religious compared to Estonia , where the rate of non-religion and atheism reaches 60% .[16] In fact, the Latvian Lutheran Church is very conservative unlike the mainstream Protestant churches in Europe, and it was the Lutheran Church that called for the restoration of religiosity as soon as it became independent from the Soviet Union. Perhaps that is why the Lutheran Church showed signs of recovery and growth for a while after democratization. However, as is often the case with these neighborhoods, it bubbled to some extent, and since the 2000s, it has been stagnant and declining again.

Contrary to Estonia, which has anti-Russian tendencies and LGBTQ-friendly policies, indigenous Latvians and Russians speak out against homosexuality. In 1995, all homosexuals were expelled, and since then homosexuals have been banned from joining the Lutheran Church. Perhaps because of this conservative tendency, the Latvian Lutheran Church currently meets and communicates with Catholic Church leaders on several occasions, although it has not entered into specific negotiations on church unity. Perhaps that is why social-democratic political parties are also opposed to the same-sex marriage bill, and according to the Eurobarometer survey, 76% of the public opposes same-sex marriage. The constitution, amended in 2006, recognized only heterosexual marriages. However, the mood has changed since the mid-2010s, with several high-ranking politicians coming out as gay.

The most popular sport is ice hockey , and the country is particularly strong in ice hockey. Of course, the ‘Big Six’, which are world-class teams.[17] Although it is less than that, it is consistently in the top 10 in the world rankings. It is competing with Germany, Norway, Slovakia, and Switzerland. It produced players such as Sandis Ozolinsi and Zemgus Girgensons .

On the other hand, football is the weakest in the unpopular, and one of the few European countries is not popular. Nevertheless, in the career, the three Baltic countries can be said to play the best football, and the national team's national team beat Turkiye after the playoffs and participated in the UEFA Euro 2004, but even though it was in the group league, although it was scooped up in the group stage.[18] Unfortunately, in the 2010 FIFA World Cup South African European qualifiers, they were in third place in Greece and Switzerland and failed to advance to the finals. In the UEFA Euro 2012 UEFA European Championship Qualifiers , they were pushed to fourth place by being pushed by Greece and Croatia . See the Latvian national team for the soccer team in this country .

The football league is the first -part league Virsliga (Virslīga) and the team consists of 10. The European League ranking is the bottom of the 30th to 40th. The professional football team Sconto FC , based on the capital , has won 14 consecutive league titles from 1991 to 2004 . This is the best record in the world's sports leagues. However, Tim Sconto went bankrupt in 2013, and Riga FC was founded in 2014 and used the Sconto Stadium as a home stadium.

In 2021, the League Kang Ho FK Mercedes Benz Ventspils was embarrassed by bribery and fraud. Mercedes -Benz Pils was a strong river who had never been from the League semifinals since the 1997 team. He won the championship six times and the Latvia Cup tournament seven times, and he was forced to be relegated to the second division, and he was deprived of the European Club's participation in the next seven seasons.

It's not far from Liga to Sconto Stadium, so if you're traveling to Riga between April and November, you can also watch the game.

Riga's Ice Hockey Team Dinnamo Riga used Arena Riga as a home stadium, but the team was dismantled after 2023. However, because of its own leagues, the two teams are connected to Riga.[19] If you travel to Riga in the fall and winter, you may want to go to the ice hockey league.

One of the few countries in the world that has official tracks for sledding sports such as bobsleigh , skeleton , and luge.[20] As one of the countries, it is also a country that is strong in these sports. In fact, the Thomas and Martins Doucours brothers, who are superstars in the skeleton world and are even nicknamed the Usain Bolts of skeleton, are from this country.[21] They are also quite strong in bobsleigh and luge , and are one of the few countries to have won Olympic medals in all three events.[22] It is also known as a country that is very good at making sleds. Even though leading automobile companies are participating in the production of bobsled sleds, used bobsled sleds made in Latvia are said to be more popular because they have better records than new sleds made with cutting-edge science and technology.[23] So far, he has not been able to win a medal other than sledding at the Winter Olympics, but he won a bronze medal in short track at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

Legendary chess knights Mihails Tāls (Russian: михаил таль, referred to as Mikhail mask in foreign countries ) is from this country. Since the Soviet Union is a federal state, representatives of each Republic competed to create a Soviet representative, and this person has won casually not only the competitors of the Soviet Union but also the US representatives. It is so famous that he was nicknamed Riga's magician , as if the sacrifice of the materials, the maximum activation, and the tombs of the tombs were nicknamed. By the late 1980s , he was one of the people who made the Soviet Union an image of the chess power.

2015-16 Season V-League Gundas Selitans , a Latvian national team player, will play as a foreign player at Woori Card Hansae in Seoul .

Basketball is also similar to ice hockey, although it is not as good as the world's best, it is a team with good power on par with neighboring country Lithuania. NBA leaguers include Kristaps Porzingis and David Bertans . See Latvia national basketball team document. Nicolais Majuls , who was appointed head coach of the Korean national basketball team in December 2025, is from here.

At the 2017 French Open women's singles, Yelena Ostapenko produced a surprise victory by defeating third-place Romania 's Simona Halep in the final with a no seed . This is the first Latvian to win a Grand Slam. In the same year, he visited Korea and Songpa-gu He won the WTA Tour Korea Open held at Olympic Park Tennis Court as a top seed.

From July 2023 to November 2025, Latvian football player Vladislavs Gutkovskis will play in K League 1. Played for Daejeon Hana Citizen .

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Riga, the capital, is responsible for 70% of Latvia's industrial power.

2008 The financial crisis was very serious due to the global financial crisis . When the IMF had to borrow 12 trillion won ($11 billion) of money, even the absurd people came out to petition Russia's wealthy or Sweden for 'state purchase' or 'merger'. # However, it was a joke incident, and the people are very interested in the economy.

However, it was easily overcome, fiscal soundness was improved, and the previous currency unit, Lats, was abandoned in 2014 and the euro was introduced ( in 2011). Action following Estonia ). # Reviewed as an exemplary case of ‘overcoming the financial crisis’. Since the country was already using a fixed exchange rate system based on the euro (0.7 lats per euro), the impact of the introduction of the euro is expected to be less. This is faster than Lithuania , which tried to introduce the euro at the beginning of 2010 but postponed it until the beginning of 2015 .

Of course, there are many risks. The outflow and decline of the population have become serious due to those who cannot endure the financial crisis and leave.[24] In 2013, Liepajas Metalurgs, the only steel company in the three Baltic countries that accounted for 10% of Latvia's exports, went bankrupt and closed its doors. The prime minister resigned and a new cabinet was formed. Latvia's economic growth rate is still in the top ranks in Europe, but there are many variables.

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There is Latvian army. As a member of the NATO member, he is actively working with the US military and NATO forces, including Estonian and Lithuanian troops to check Russia's entry into Eastern Europe.

In Age of Discovery Online, Riga, the capital of this country, is the only city where only the Slavic language can be used. You can also buy pumpkin hairbands in Riga, which are needed for the quest to release the upper hand. Anyway one of the cities that make things happen to go to the Baltic Sea .

Latveria , a country ruled by Marvel Comics villain Doctor Doom, takes its motif from this country. The destination of the ship in the final scene of the Fantastic Four movie, Latvia, can also be seen as a clue suggesting that Doctor Doom will be resurrected in the future. However, the movie itself was lost and was not used.

The movie My Way was filmed in this country. Other films, Berlin , were also filmed here in addition to Berlin.

The two film heroes and Harbin , who dealt with Ahn Jung -geun , were also taken in this country. This is because it is similar to the background of Vladivostok.

In the novel The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, the characters Bucket lied about going to Riga, Latvia. In fact, the car he was carrying was stolen and he went to Latvia, and a fence found the body, and in order to dispose of the body, the car was scrapped and sent to a junkyard. When the news came out and the newspaper article came out, he lied based on it.

It is the motif of the Roop Maije Republic, the spatial background of Ogawa Ito's novel <Marika's Gloves>. In fact, writer Ogawa is said to have visited Latvia several times to do research in advance to write this novel.

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