Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Latvia/Archive 1

wikibreak
Due to circumstances in my life, I need to reduce my activity in Wikipedia, and will be taking a leave of absence. I wish the Project the best of success while I am away. Chris 22:04, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Geting new members
I see that no new members have joined this project for a while, though there are many more people regulary editing Latvia related articles, I've seen that other projects use invitations, so maybe we should also use this tactic to get new members ? Xil/talk 07:40, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Images of actors and actresses
I have a number of real photo postcards in my possession with images of Latvian actors and actresses from the 1920's to 1930's. Unfortunately, in most cases I have no clue as to who they are, but I know they were quite famous when they lived. This information just in case someone would assist me to determine who they are. I could write the articles about them myself since I have reference literature. Philaweb  T - C  09:53, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Tehnicaly, I see some ways to find out, if you coulld upload them (basicly I know someone who, I think, has good knowledge in Latvan theatre and maybe could tell) Xil/talk 10:29, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your kind offer. I will let you know when I have scanned and uploaded the postcards to my webprovider. Philaweb   T - C  10:55, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Heraldry of Latvian municipalities
Looking for (sources of) images of COA's and flags of current Latvian rural municipalities (pagasti), rural territories (lauku teritorijas) and amalgated municipalities (novadi). Philaweb  T - C  14:26, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't think rural territories have something like that. Rest certanly can be found on webpages of respective divisons and Latvian wikipedia articles of this category (I allredady looked in novadi and lauku teritorijas - there is nothing more then in folowing examples). Here are some:,     Xil/talk 14:49, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Russian-speaking country
The Article Latvia is categorized in the Russian speaking country category. I am disputing the fact that baltic states are russian speaking. Although there are lots of russian speaking people here, officially those countries have their own languages. In wikipedia traditions category "Russian speaking country" would mean that the official language of this country is Russian.

I am asking advice from Latvian editors on this. Thank you. Suva 14:00, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
 * See Talk:Latvia for further discussion of this issue, which now seems to have been resolved. — Zalktis 07:04, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Spam/Vandalism warning
Please watch out for "External links" added by User:Savvynetworks (contribs). They are spam and should be removed. The spammer has been warned. — Zalktis 14:49, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Collaboration effort
I think we should adopt this thing some other projects have (mainly because I have difficulties to find a qualitative article to feature on Portal:Latvia). The basic idea, in case if you don't know, is to select an article, which is then improved by project members for some period of time. Additionaly after the collabration is over the article could be featured on Portal:Latvia. So... would you be interested to participiate in such effort and if you would how long do you think it should be ? Xil/talk 14:24, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
 * This sounds like a good initiative. I would be willing to help out to the best of my ability. Regarding the length of the improvement period: as there are relatively few people active in WikiProject Latvia, it may be wise to take things slow at first. A number of weeks per article at least, I would imagine. - Zalktis 06:20, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

I think a month should be best then - Portal:Latvia featured article is updated monthly, as I don't have anything for october I want to start this as soon as posibile. I prupose that we improve an article for a calendar month and in the last week of this month we pick next month's article by voting for suggestions made for that month (that means that suggestions can be made before that week's monday, after that there is only voting, one can vote before that week), if there is a draw most important and, if there still is a problem, the one with least problems gets selected. And suggested articles that haven't been selected automaticly get an extra support vote next time they are proposed. -- Xil/talk 09:36, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I think both collabration and the period of time - a month - is acceptable for everyone, so as the month of September has already started I think this should be started as soon as posible, so here's a suggestion:
 * The need of this effort and the period of time is disputed until collabration starts. We can disscus other suggestions untill October
 * Collabration starts when there is at least one support vote (that means by someone else than nominator) for the article and no objections
 * The collabration section is put on Project page whenever collabration begins, so suggestions for September are disputed here


 * I think that for this month we should pick one of the articles assessed as top importance and start class, which has no major problems and is long, therefore I think we should pick Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga Xil/talk 14:40, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Because no one has opposed, I'll put this up so that next months efferot can be disscused properly -- Xil/talk 13:05, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Infobox at Latvian War of Independence
Could someone please check accuracy of this ? Some anonymous user insists that Bermont wasn't German ally. I originaly took data for infobox from a history textbook Xil ...  sist!  00:19, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * It all depends on which Germans. Goltz tried to take the Baltics for Germany--however, the driving force were the Baltic German landed gentry who wanted to keep their property and power; Latvia as a German colony was their solution. Goltz's forces remained in Latvia to then join up with and form the vast bulk of Bermont's force. Had Bermont been successful, Latvia would then have undoubtedly allied with Germany as the Baltic Germans would (for obvious reasons) no longer look to Russia, now Soviet.
 * To the question of "ally", Goltz + Bermont were a military action instigated by the Baltic Germans with the official and unofficial support (ergo ally) of primarily German forces (all German under Goltz, three-quarters German under Bermont).
 * Hope this helps! (See longer answer in article talk.)
 * Since we don't have a flag for the Noble Corporation (Ritterschaft), the German flag will do for the Infobox just fine.


 * P.S. Hopefully Cedriņš or someone else better versed in this will provide a less simplistic account! PētersV 05:42, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * The IP dug up some Russian sources and his arguments on talk page acctualy don't go against my own books (except that 1. Bermont and Goltz formed Bermontians primarily on basis of the Iron division, Russian POWs were only small part of the army. 2. Latvian side did received support of French navy). It seems that Bermontians managed to be bouth under German and White command for certaint periods of time, which perhaps means that they were Pro-Baltic German, not German or Russian army, also Baltic duchy probaly had allready cased to exist, which leaves Bermontians to be army of what country ? -- Xil ... sist!  21:35, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * The 40,000 out of 51-52,000 is Bermont's own number, so there's no "spin" on the #'s--definitely a (vast) majority German force. Bit more checking, ound the flag solution: United Baltic Duchy. :-) PētersV 00:53, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Expert review: Kārlis Skalbe
As part of the Notability wikiproject, I am trying to sort out whether Kārlis Skalbe is notable enough for an own article. I would appreciate an expert opinion. For details, see the article's talk page. If you can spare some time, please add your comments there. Thanks! --B. Wolterding (talk) 16:38, 9 December 2007 (UTC)