Edition: U.S. / Global

Immigrants' Language

Published: August 7, 2002

To the Editor:

Re ''Latvia Struggles to Include People of Its Soviet Past'' (news article, Aug. 4):

Proficiency in language seems to be a standard criterion for citizenship anywhere; at least my Latvian parents had to prove that they spoke English when they became citizens of the United States. They were refugees of the Soviet Union's Russification policy, under which learning Russian seemed to be the least problematic issue; if you were an ethnic Latvian, you were subject to deportation to Siberian death camps, forced emigration or outright murder.

That was the only option offered to one in five Latvians. Three-quarters of my family died that way. The rest learned Russian real fast.


New York, Aug. 4, 2002