Klaipėdos universitetas

The foundation of the Republic of Latvia in 1918 changed significantly ethnic relationships in the country. Ethnic Latvians became not only the numerical but also the political and cultural majority, and thereby the concept and status of ethnic minorities were created. This article examines the visibility of ethnic minorities in the newly established state, focusing on the case of the Archives of Latvian Folklore, founded in 1924, as one of the core institutions that strengthened national cultural values. The ‘folklore of other ethnicities’ category was introduced and discussed at the archive during the first years of its existence. Volunteer folklore collectors played an active role in the discussions, revealing the bottom-up aspects of the implementation of the archive’s policy. However, rather than pointing to the ethnic affiliation of the involved people, the archival records reflect more often the blurred linguistic boundaries in Latvian society.

The Ėgliškiai-Anduliai cemetery is the largest Curonian burial site ever researched. However, during the Second World War this cemetery’s artefacts and archival material were scattered throughout museums, archives and various institutions in several countries. In this article, the authors present an intricate reconstruction of this burial monument based only on the surviving archival material of the research by German archaeologists, and only on a small collection of artefacts, as well as the research by Lithuanian archaeologists in recent years.