“Poor Cousins”: National Minorities in Latvia in Cartoons by S. A. Tsivinsky (1920s — 1930s)

Abstract

The article considers the activity of the cartoonist S. A. Tsivinsky (1895—1941), who closely cooperating with a number of Latvian newspapers during the period of the first independence. Не became the author of many political cartoons reflecting the social and political life of the country. Cartoons of S. A. Tsivinsky reflected the problem of the struggle of national minorities for their rights in the political and public spheres. He illustrated such aspects as the formation of ruling cabinets based on certain national minorities, the complex relationship between the title nation and those who until recently held a dominant position in Latvia (primarily the Baltic Germans and Russians), the gradual growth of nationalism and anti-Semitism in Latvia. Cartoons of S. A. Tsivinsky complement the material of the Latvian newspapers of the interwar period and serve as an interesting source illustrating the problems of social and political life in Latvia during the period of the first independence.