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The Other in the Perception of Latvians during World War II and behaviour of the Russian soldiers who crossed the Latvian border in 1940 differed significantly from that of the Latvian army soldiers and the Wehrmacht troops met subsequently. On May 1, 1941 we went [on a march] to the stadium. (...) The Russian army went before us (...) the red flags (...). We walked and talked about how we could have fallen so low that we were going behind this kind of army?! They were ridiculous! Those long gimnasterka (military shirts) over the knees, the belts in the middle, those hats on their heads and the thing on the top. And the whole army—what they look like! (E 74 555). These perceived differences formed the image: untidy, inaccurate, inappropriately clothed, undisciplined, uneducated, violent and thievish. In 1940, as soon the Russians came into Riga...“Beti, aomaii,—ecé nawe!” (Beat, rob—all ours!)—was this the slogan of Lenin? “Tpa6v naepaönennoer’ (Rob what has been robbed!). Such were the slogans of the ‘liberators’! (E 74 251).'° The second direction in which these interviewees spoke about the Russians in the context of the first year of Soviet occupation is irony about the mission embedded in this ideology—to liberate and bring culture. These are the same topics and images one could find on the pages of the official Nazi press. Both the appearance and behaviour of the newcomers and their belief that they were liberators and bringers of culture was not understood by the locals and led to resistance, which in the interviews took the form of ironic statements by the respondents, such as, the Russians ‘liberated’ the Latvian people from their state, their land, their culture and in many cases their lives. And this irony is frequently found in the caricatures in the press of the Nazi occupation period (Fig. 73). The interviews contain quotes from the rhetoric of Nazi propaganda discrediting the enemy—the Red Army soldiers. A few examples: soldiers of the invincible army racing away from the approaching German army (Daugavpils Latvieiu Avize (‘Daugavpils Latvians Newspaper’), no. 25, 1941: 4). soldiers of the invincible army struggle against superior military might in the form of thousands of lice (Fig. 74), and the stupidity of the soldiers leading to tragic consequences (Humorists, no. 11, 1943: 3). In several of these images where Nazi propaganda caricatures the expressions and designations existing in the rhetoric of the Soviet authorities can be noted—“the invincible army”, “liberators” etc. 15 F 1922 Limbazi. 16 M 1920 Daugavpils. 189
