Между тенью и рассветом; Between Darkness and the Dawn: A Photographic Understanding of Memory and Society in Eastern Latvia and the Baltic States

Authors

Bryce Maloney, College of the Holy CrossFollow
Sean Rego, College of the Holy CrossFollow

Document Type

Book

Publication Date

8-2025

First Advisor

Amy Singleton Adams

Abstract

In the small nation of Latvia, the eastern city of Daugavpils has been left behind. Three hours from the bustling European capitals of Riga, Vilnius and Minsk, it was historically the trade hub between Russia and Western Europe, once giving it a fascinating ethnographic makeup as well as an important regional position. It remains the largest majority Russian-speaking city in the European Union and NATO, but suffers from its geographical and economic isolation on top of a declining and aging population. Daugavpils’s people– now economically and socially neglected– ardently feel abandoned in modern-day Latvia, with each setback feeding their disillusionment in national and supranational European institutions. This project utilizes Daugavpils as a case study which explores how long-term marginalization in post-communist cities can fuel populism and a crisis of belonging. In a city where questions of identity, language, and citizenship remain unresolved, tensions have been intensified by Latvia’s increasingly nativist political climate and ex-migration. Economic exclusion facilitates cultural erasure and a sense of non-belonging and statelessness. Through the creation of a book which utilizes documentary photography, this project traces ways that communities come to terms with loss, persistence, and defiance in the face of sociopolitical abandonment. Utilizing photographs taken by the authors during their time living in the community and amongst its people, this book offers first hand accounts of life in the political anomaly that is Latvia’s second largest city. In doing so, it aims to provide insight to conversations surrounding urban shrinkage, political instability, and the irreconcilable legacy of communist tyranny

Comments

We would like to acknowledge and thank Anthony B. Cashman, III, PhD, and the Weiss Summer Research Program for helping to secure Financial Support.

Recommended Citation

Maloney, Bryce and Rego, Sean, "Между тенью и рассветом; Between Darkness and the Dawn: A Photographic Understanding of Memory and Society in Eastern Latvia and the Baltic States" (2025). Summer Research Program. 25.
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/mellon_summer_research/25