Discussion

In their battle to succeed Stalin in 1953, Lavrentii Beria and Nikita Khrushchev temporarily cooperated to launch an indigenising nationality policy in the Soviet Republics to compete for support among the non-Russian nationalities. The impact of this little-known collaboration was the ‘New Course’ for the Soviet periphery. This paper examines the ‘New Course’ and its repercussions in Latvia. Moscow struggled to control the programme after it unleashed a wave of anti-Russian sentiment. With encouragement from nationally-minded politicians in the Latvian leadership, Russian cadres began to be ousted from leading Party and government positions, sent back to Russia and replaced by ethnic Latvians.