National self-confidence and its relationship to history in Latvia

National self-confidence and its relationship to history in Latvia

Dagmāra Beitnere In western democracies national self-confidence is considered the obvious way to express ones membership in a nation. Research findings and experts both indicate that in Latvia this area deserves special examination. This paper explores the common factors in the relationship between national self-confidence and Latvian history as expressed in interviews by I. Druviete, E. Levits, and P. Viņķelis. The paper is based on Ernst Gellner’s work Nations and Nationalism, a study that has gained increased interest, in part due to the comments by John Breuilly expressed in its foreword. After WW2 up to 1980 the question of nationality was stigmatized. After 1980 a series of research studies provided new approaches and explanations not only for 19^th century nationalism when many nations developed, but also for nationalism and national self-confidence at the end of the 20^th century. After the collapse of the USSR in many East European countries theories of nationalism were applied ignoring the need to examine questions of national self-confidence individually in each country, in relation to their own historical experience and development of national self-confidence. E. Gellner viewed nationalism as a product of industrialization and drew intellectual projections which may show up in the new nation’s self-confidence, since they appear individually in each nation’s development. The relatively short existence of Latvia as an independent state is a hindrance to the development of national self-confidence which is directly related to its security and its belief in the Latvian state and its future. The theories of E. Gellner suggest that nations are formed not only as a result of the process of industrialization, but also as a result of their history and the specific national products that they show proudly to the world.