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The Republic of Latvia is a Baltic country in Northern Europe. Latvia shares land borders with Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, and Russia and Belarus to the east. The capital of Latvia is Riga. The country has been a member state of the European Union and a member of NATO since 2004.

The Soviets reoccupied the country in 1944/5, and further mass deportations followed as the country was forcibly collectivised. A major influx of labourers, administrators, military personnel and their dependents from Russia followed and by 1959 the ethnic Latvian population had fallen to 60%. During the Khrushchev period, attempts by Latvian communists were made to gain a degree of autonomy for the republic and protect the rapidly deteriorating position of the Latvian language. Such efforts were suppressed. In 1989 the Supreme Soviet of the USSR declared that the 1940’s occupation was not in accordance with USSR law. A national movement - the Popular Front of Latvia - took advantage of Russian glasnost under Mikhail Gorbachev. The Republic of Latvia was subject to a transition period that came to an end with Latvian independence in August 1991. Latvia's parliament was re-elected in 1993 and Russia completed its military withdrawal in 1994.

The government denationalised private property confiscated by the Soviet rule, returning it or compensating the owners for it, and privatised most state-owned industries, re-introducing the pre-war currency. Latvia experienced a difficult transition to a liberal economy.

The 100-seat unicameral Latvian parliament, the Saeima, is elected by direct popular vote every four years. The President is elected by the Saeima in a separate election, also held every four years. The President appoints a Prime Minister who, together with his cabinet, forms the executive branch of the government.

Latvia has had strained relations initially with the Russian Federation due to Russian discontent with Latvia’s core language and citizenship policies and Latvia's requests for Russia to recognise it as continuous with the first Latvian Republic, thus ignoring the period of Soviet occupation.

Latvia lies on the East European Plain and the land consists of fertile, low-lying plains, largely covered by forest, mostly pine. Common species of wildlife in Latvia include deer, wild boar, fox, beaver and wolves.

The major rivers include the Daugava, the Lielupe, the Gauja, the Venta, and the Salaca. An inlet of the Baltic Sea, the shallow Gulf of Riga is situated in the northwest of the country. Latvia's coastline extends for over 300 miles.

The Latvian climate is humid, continental and temperate owing to the maritime influence of the Baltic Sea. Summers are warm and the weather in spring and autumn fairly mild. Winters can be severe due to the northern location. Precipitation is common throughout the year with the heaviest rainfall falling in August. During severe spells of winter, weather in Latvia is dominated by cold winds from the interior of Russia and severe snowfalls are common.

Since the year 2000 Latvia has had one of the highest (GDP) growth rates in Europe and in 2006, annual GDP growth was 12%; inflation was 6%; unemployment was 8%. Unemployment has dropped by 2% due to labour migration, mostly to Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Some believe that Latvia's flat tax is responsible for its high growth rate. Privatisation is mostly complete, except for some of the large state-owned utilities. Latvia has been a member of the World Trade Organization since 1999. The recent fast growth of the economy is regarded as a possible economic bubble, because it is driven mainly by domestic consumption, financed by a serious increase of private debt, as well as a negative foreign trade balance. The prices of real estate, which were appreciating at approximately 5% a month, are perceived to be too high for the economy, which mainly produces low value goods and raw materials. The government has recently introduced a special program to reduce inflation and retain high growth rates and the main objectives of the plan are:

• To create a country budget surplus for 2008 and beyond;
• To increase control of credit;
• To increase energy efficiency in homes and business to guard against possible rises in energy costs;
• To increase labour productivity and stimulate competition in business.

Latvia's population has been multiethnic for centuries, though the demographics shifted dramatically in the twentieth century due to the World Wars, the emigration and removal of Baltic Germans, the Holocaust, and occupation by the Soviet Union.

Latvians and Livonians, the indigenous peoples of Latvia, now form about 60% of the population and 30% of the inhabitants are Russian.

The official language is Latvian, which belongs to the Baltic language group of the Indo-European language family. Another notable language of Latvia is the nearly extinct Livonian language of the Baltic-Finnic sub-branch of the Uralic language family, which enjoys protection by law; Latgalian language — a dialect of Latvian — is also protected by Latvian law as a historical variation of the Latvian language. The Russian language was official during the Soviet occupation is still by far the most widespread minority language.

The largest religion is Christianity. The largest groups in 2006 are:

• Lutheran — 400 thousand
• Roman Catholic — 450 thousand
• Eastern Orthodox — 350 thousand

Lutheranism was much stronger before the Soviet occupation, when it was the majority denomination, but since then Lutheranism in all the Baltic States has declined to a much greater extent than Roman Catholicism has. The country's Orthodox Christians belong to the Latvian Orthodox Church, a semi-autonomous body within the Russian Orthodox Church.

Between the thirteenth and nineteenth century, Baltic Germans developed a distinct cultural heritage, characterised by both Latvian and German influences. It has survived in German Baltic families to this day, in spite of their dispersal to Germany, the USA, Canada and other countries in the early 20th century. However, most indigenous Latvians did not participate in this particular cultural life. Thus, the mostly peasant local pagan heritage was preserved, partly merging with Christian traditions, for example in one of the most popular celebrations today which is Jāņi, a pagan celebration of the summer solstice, celebrated on the feast day of St. John the Baptist.

In the nineteenth century Latvian nationalist movements emerged promoting Latvian culture and encouraging Latvians to take part in cultural activities. The nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century is often regarded as a classical era of Latvian culture. Posters show the influence of other European cultures, for example, works of artists such as the Baltic-German artist Bernhard Borchert and the French Raoul Dufy.
After incorporation into the USSR, Latvian artists and writers were forced to follow the Socialist realism style of art. During the Soviet era, music became increasingly popular, with the most popular being songs from the 1980s. At this time, songs often made fun of the characteristics of Soviet life and were concerned about preserving Latvian identity. This aroused popular protests against the USSR and also gave rise to an increasing popularity of poetry. Since independence, theatre, cinematography and classical music have become the most notable branches of Latvian culture.

Total Language Solutions translates all types of material in all types of software into or out of Latvian.

Translation projects undertaken include web site content, sales and marketing material, documentation requirements for engineering and manufacturing into and out of Latvian.

Total Language Solutions are translation specialists in DTP, print ready and electronic forms of material, integrating text and diagrams and more besides into and out of Latvian.

Total Language Solutions are translation experts in the relevance of text, drawings, colours and layout presentation and localisation to meet consumer expectations and norms, without causing offence.

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