Lidia Zhirnova

• Research Fellow at the Center for Spatial Analysis in International Relations at Moscow State Institute of International Relations

Geopolitical turbulence of the year 2022 had an impact on the Russian-speaking electoral field in Latvia as well: once monopolized by the «Harmony», now it is split among four «Russian» and even some «Latvian» parties. The article sets out the main trends in the 2022 Saeima elections and focuses on voting features of the Russian-speaking electorate...

The article tackles the issue of the neighbourhood effect in the Latvian Saeima elections in 2010–2022. Although the ethnolinguistic cleavage remains the main voting factor, currently the Latvian electoral system is transforming due to the fragmentation of the Russian-speaking electoral landscape. As a result, it is increasingly important to take i...

The collapse of the Soviet Union brought about a massive redefining of borders, formal as well as mental. Latvia was among those countries that needed to reshape their identity, and its elite opted for distancing the country from Russia and the Soviet past. The article studies how this approach is reflected in 32 local history museums around Latvia...

The article analyses the neighbourhood effect in the voting behaviour of the Latvians at the four recent parliamentary elections, the ethnic and national leaning of parties considered. The study expands a set of electoral geography tools by adding modern techniques of spatial analysis as well as by increasing the knowledge on the position of the Ru...

After the collapse of the Soviet Union Latvia faced the need to redefine its national identity in a new international environment. Its elite took a clear Euro-Atlantic course, and the image of Latvia in the public space has been largely defined in contrast to the image of Russia ever since. One of the ways to understand how Latvia sees itself and R...

Th e names of streets and food services mostly refl ect the peculiarities of geostrategic location of Vyborg. Government-appointed street names remind the citizens of the military past and its belonging to Russia, and the names of cafes and restaurants refer to Europe, which indicates that European identity is the most preferable for inhabitants.

Th e article focuses on space identity in Astrakhan, Vladivostok, Kaliningrad, Tomsk, Tula and Cheboksary. Th ese cities were chosen due to the approximately equal population as well as principal diff erences in geopolitical location and cultural and historical context of development. Not only toponyms, but symbols were taken into account as an ind...