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When I look at myself in search for a Soviet, which I strongly believe I’m not, I realise what’s remained in us since those times. This is my hidden knowledge that the only one I can rely and count on is myself, because everyone else is my current or potential but quite natural enemy.

This difference between the old Soviet world and the Western world still remains tremendous and I think it has only grown bigger since the fall of the communism.

The notion of competition is ever present in all modern and archaic societies. In a modern society, people don’t need to fight for survival, which we in the post-Soviet still do. Those not fit for fight seem doomed.

I guess if we want to get rid of this humiliating legacy, get rid of the Soviet in ourselves, we could consider starting to care for each other, maybe stopping seeing enemies in each other. In that sense, I’m afraid western Latvians returning home from the trimda did little to introduce the values of caring and tolerance in the post-Soviet Latvia.

Instead, many of them appeared even more xenophobic against a differently speaking part of the society than the local Latvians themselves who personally experienced the totalitarianism.

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