Repatriation remains the last hope for those who want to move to Latvia Russians and Belarusians

After Latvia made amendments to visa legislation, Russians and Belarusians have little chance of justifying in this country. Visas stopped issuing in February. And in August, the Cabinet of Ministers announced that residence permit can be extended only in exceptional cases. Despite this, the repatriation program, which implies a move to the historical homeland of people with Latvian roots, continues to work. We talked with “fresh” repatriates and talk about two cases of moving: from Tomsk and from St. Petersburg.

Everyone helps each other

Lena and Andrei Vasilyeva - a couple of twenty -odd years - walk on the playground next to the city channel of Riga. More recently, the Vasilyevs went for a walk in Russian Tomsk, but in July they began life in Latvia.

“We were lucky: we quickly passed the paperwork,” says Andrey. - In April, they were submitted to the Embassy of Latvia in Moscow, and in June they already received a positive answer. Usually people stumble on the fact that the names of their ancestors are written differently in different documents. Or that the relatives moved to Russia for too long and it is difficult to confirm the connection with them: only a hundred years are stored in the registry offices, you need to make requests to the archives.

One of Andrei’s great -grandfathers and his wife moved to Tomsk before the revolution. What brought Latvians to distant Siberia, his descendants are still wondering. The grandmother of the guy and her sisters were born already in Russia, but always spoke in Latvian when they gathered together.

“Fortunately, in my case, everything was as transparent as possible in my documents: in the birth certificate of her father, the grandmother is designated as Latvian, and in her certificate, her parents are also recorded as Latvians,” says Andrei.

Andrei and Elena thought about moving to Europe for a long time: they wanted to provide children with a happy future. But the Vasilyevs did not have a clear plan, how to do this. Moreover, family business - operational printing in Tomsk - is not easy to transfer. The war was a reason to think about a specific program of action.

After the application for repatriation was approved, the move took the shortest time. Andrei and Lena simply packed a suitcase with summer things and moved to Riga, the transport company delivered the rest of the baggage to them. The young family still perceives the move as an “experiment”. But Andrei and Lena admit that this experience has already changed them: they are no longer embarrassed to seek help from others and help more actively.

“During the move, it was amazing the desire of the Latvians to help you in all matters,” says Andrei. - There is a large repatriate community, which is united by a common cause, problems and several common chats. When we collected documents, it was inconvenient for the sake of every action to fly from Tomsk to Moscow, and one girl from Moscow helped me pick up the certificate and take it to the embassy. She was the same repatriate as we, just advanced at several stages of the process forward. I was ready to compensate for the costs, but she said: "The Latvians then moved together, and now they are moving together, we must help each other."

Now the Vasilyevs continue to live on income from business in Tomsk, but they hope to open their business in Latvia in the future.

-For five years, my biggest task is to somehow motivate parents and grandparents so that they move closer to us. Still, when moving, more labor is not physical, but psychological: it’s hard to part with relatives, ”says Andrei Vasiliev.

Your place

Ilya Myagkov from St. Petersburg collected documents about his roots for a long time, when compared with the Express Council of Andrei Vasiliev.

“Five to ten years ago, we knew that our ancestor Pauls Steinbergs was a latch married at Finn, but it was not possible to learn more about the history of the genus,” says a calm blond in a bright red T-shirt.

A case helped to get a study of family history from a dead end. Uncle Ilya in 2020 made a genetic test. The company that took the analysis provides the name of another client if its DNA coincides with yours to a large extent.

“Surprisingly, such a coincidence happened to the uncle,” says Ilya. - In the base there was a man whose DNA was very similar to the uncle. Out of interest, they found each other in social networks. It turned out that this is a descendant of one of the brothers of my great -grandfather.

Together, relatives began to make requests to the archives of the Lutheran Church and found out the history of the clan. It turned out that the ancestor of soft, together with his brother, received the profession of a red -core and in 1886 moved to St. Petersburg, where he was engaged in the decoration of wagons and the creation of furniture for the imperial court.

- A family formed, the center of which was Petersburg. The culture was such that the husband and father are the head of the family. After the revolution, Pauls Steinbergs did not give the children the history of the clan, forbidden to speak Latvian and Finnish, ”says soft.

Ilya calls his departure “exposition of circumstances”:

- For the past two years, active work with documents has been conducted. The systematic completion of this process coincided with the outbreak of war, - and adds: - I advocate the values ​​that are experienced uncompromisingly. In Russia, I often had to deal with a situation where my values ​​were called into question.

By May, when Ilya collected the entire package of documents, the Latvian consulate in St. Petersburg was already closed due to the diplomatic conflict between Russia and the Baltic countries. Therefore, soft himself went with papers to Latvia and lingered in this country to get acquainted with local culture.

- I visited more than ten cities. I saw the foundation of the house of my ancestors, and there was no feeling that it was not mine. Everything seemed to be familiar, ”says Ilya.

Now the young man works in the field of IT in an international company and rents housing. For the move, I chose Yelgava, because the same relatives live in this city that the Soft-Steinbergov family met thanks to the DNA test.

- The collection of documents is a routine and requires patience, but definitely not a problem. It is important to understand why you are repatriating in principle. If you do this to leave the circumstances, you will not adapt. It is necessary to go consciously, understand, accept and respect Latvian rights to self -identity, their state and social decisions. Only in this way can you adapt yourself, understand the society and become part of it, ”Ilya advises future repatriates.

Officially

The repatriation program continues, despite the visa restrictions that affected Russians and Belarusians, confirmed in the Office for Citizenship and Latvia Migration. To move, a citizen of another country must comply with the conditions prescribed in the Law on Repatriation. Such a person needs to have Latvian or Liv's roots, and he must make a decision to change their place of residence voluntarily. Successful candidates are issued permanent residence.

The war provoked a surge in appeals for the status of repatriate, indicates management statistics. “We associate this with the hostile actions of Russia in Ukraine,” the department explains. For the first half of 2022, it allowed to return to the historical homeland by about the same immigrants as in 2021. If in 2021 Latvia received 161 Russians and 18 Belarusians, then only in January-July 2022 there were already 154 and 22. The total number of applications from Russian citizens reached an unprecedented level of 309 pieces-half of the appeals have not yet been considered, and the decision on them has not been made. But the number of Ukrainians who asked for the possibility of moving to Latvia, on the contrary, sharply decreased: in six months they submitted only 11 applications for repatriation, 7 of them were approved.