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The research aims to analyse oral history interviews of heterosexual people about their experience with homosexuals during the Soviet times. Eight interviews were selected for the analysis based on two criteria - the research participant belongs to the Soviet generation, and he/she has personally known homosexuals during the Soviet times. The paper presents interviews as a primary source, illuminating several challenges with obtaining the interviews and their interpretation. In addition, common narratives of communicative memories' evidence and their influence on current views of homosexuals in Latvian society, including its historical metanarrative and historical record, which relies on the nation's victimisation during the Soviet times, are analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The centenary of World War I in 2014 drew attention to the significance of this war in the history of Latvia. The aim of this article is to examine how one of the most vivid “sites of memory” of the war - the Latvian Riflemen - evolved and is still being used. The article reveals not only the preconditions and causes for the construction and development of the image of Latvian Riflemen, but also provides a framework which can be applied to analyse the genealogy of the public understanding of historicity and how our and foreign political elites have manipulated this historicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During World War II half of the Romanies' community in Latvia was annihilated. Research of the Romanies' genocide has been fragmentary and its remembrance weakly expressed. The objective of the article is to ascertain the place of this genocide in the collective memory of Latvia and to analyse its representation in the communicative memory of the Romanies' community members through life stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the image of the men on active service in the Latvian Riflemen's battalions organized during World War I, and the reflection on this image in the collective memory of Latvia. It analyses the making of this image in the 1920-30s (during the years of Latvia's independence), during the Soviet occupation and after restoration of independence. In the analysis of the role of Latvian riflemen in the collective memory of Latvia the theory on the formations of memory worked out by the German researcher Aleida Assmann has been used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]