Russians in Latvia opinion poll in 1989. Only 49% of the non-Latvian population supported the idea of the independence of Latvia (the number of Latvians supporting the idea made up 93%). The International Front of the Working People of Latvia or Interfront, established in 1989, came out openly for remaining in the Soviet Union and preserving a socialist economy. Interfront aimed to win the sympathies of those Russians who were opposed to the idea of Latvia as a national state. Russians in Latvia live mainly in urban areas. In 2006 Russians made up 42.3% of the population in the capital Riga and 53.5%
Religion in Latvia with 17.3%. Latvia was one of the last regions in Europe to be Christianized. The inhabitants of the region that is now Latvia once practiced Finnic paganism and Baltic mythology, but this practice gradually diminished through the course of the centuries. In the 12th to 13th centuries Latvia first fell under the influence of the Catholic Church, as the Christian kings of Denmark, Sweden and the North German Livonian and Teutonic military orders fought for influence in the region in what later became known as the Northern Crusades. Parts of Eastern Latvia (notably the Koknese and Jersika principalities) shortly came