** Latvia Struggles to Include People of Its Soviet Past (August 4, 2002): http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/04/international/europe/04LATV.html

** Thok-chia "hoan-pok":

Immigrants' Language

To the Editor:

Re "Latvia Struggles to Include People of Its Soviet Past" (news article,
Aug. 4):

Proficiency in language seems to be a standard criterion for citizenship
anywhere; at least my Latvian parents had to prove that they spoke English
when they became citizens of the United States. They were refugees of the
Soviet Union's Russification policy, under which learning Russian seemed to
be the least problematic issue; if you were an ethnic Latvian, you were
subject to deportation to Siberian death camps, forced emigration or
outright murder.

That was the only option offered to one in five Latvians. Three-quarters of
my family died that way. The rest learned Russian real fast.

ILZE EARNER
New York, Aug. 4, 2002





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